Fiona Smith works in the area of public health and lived in Cameroon for six months as a Crisis Corps Volunteer. Prior to this she was involved with health communications, developing web sites and doing research for Medicare. During her time in Cameroon she was working on an HIV/AIDS project with a rural hospital in the northwest area of Cameroon and wrote about her experiences in a blog. |
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Q: First start by describing yourself and your connection to Cameroon. What do you do for work and where are you from? What is your experience with Cameroon? How much time have you spent there? What are some of your interests?
A: I was in Njinakom in the Northwest Province of Cameroon for six months in 2007 working at a rural hospital run by Catholic nuns in the English speaking part of Cameroon on an HIV/AIDS project. I have background in public health and this was work on the ground in the thick of it, which I like better then typical office jobs that I have held.
Q: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Cameroon?
A: Green hills and the view from my back porch.
Q: How is it different from the rest of Africa/it’s surrounding countries?
A: Nigeria is much more dangerous but I haven’t actually been. There is more ethnic and religious unrest in Nigeria and it borders Congo and Chad, which have a lot of civil unrest. Cameroon is more peaceful than almost any country it is next to. Most ethnic and religious violence is sporadic and random but there is tension between French and English speaking parts. Conflict within the Baptist church was the only demonstration that I saw when I was there.
Q: What is the culture like? How is music, art, food, dance, writing, etc incorporated in Cameroon life?
A: It is extremely diverse because of the 200 ethnic groups. A lot of the music is modern; it is easy listen music, similar to James Taylor. Lakokanza, Bobby McFarren type of music. The people in the north have their own art and music. There is a lot of gospel music. When I was there they were interested in American white gospel music from mega churches, which was strange. The food is much more limited than in the U.S. You pretty much eat the same thing all the time. Your constantly eating cornmeal with green leaf sauce. It is very monotonous in terms of food. It is not common to have meat because it is more expensive.
Q: How does its colonial history affect the politics and culture within Cameroon?
A: I couldn’t detect a lot of impact. Where I was used to be a German colony. Tensions between English and French areas are dealing with money and power right now. The English speaking part tends to be wealthier. They are in a sense pragmatic because they realize that the English language runs the world. They are very ambitious and they don’t want to be left behind by not speaking language. There are still so many indigenous languages within a small region. The English and French areas want to succeed and be part of the modern world. You live in two different worlds in Cameroon; at home you speak your native language but when you go to school or work you use a common language. There were some books written in the local language but not in the masses. You can’t go to college or high school if you only speak your language. The good thing is they do retain their local languages in their day-to-day interactions.
Q: What do young people typically do for fun in Cameroon?
A: Boys play soccer a lot, which is probably the number one. Girls start working early in the house but they enjoy TV and Pilipino soap operas and other than that just hanging around and talking. Once you reach 10 or 11 as a female you have to do female duties in the house so they have less time to do things for fun. There are some young people into American rap but a lot of people don’t want kids listening to rap music because of the emphasis on religion.
Q: Describe as best you can what your perception of the media environment is in Cameroon?
A: Censored, it’s hard to find out what’s really going on from papers. It’s all propaganda. You can’t find out about what’s going on from reading the news. The only way to find out is to talk to people, which often happens, in political debates on long bus rides. There’s not point in putting something gin print because you can get in so much trouble, a lot of journalists have been killed or imprisoned. They are very smart people and its fun to sit around talk about stuff like that. They are more talkative and extroverted people most of the time. They enjoy debate and discussion. Even the independent papers tend to be biased because they are usually based in England or the U.S. There is so little fact checking and access to information; the oppositional papers are emotionally charged and one-sided in their own way. Verbal speech is free, written speech is not free.
Q: What is the most dominant media technology? What is used the most and considered the most popular? What are the most popular newspapers, TV shows and films?
A: Radio and TV is number one. There are Internet cafes just about everywhere. You have to pay but they are popular. They are not big readers of newspapers online. Almost everyone has a yahoo email account but not a lot of media. They have cell phones everywhere, phone booths are cell phones, which are rented out, and this is a common business. Most people don’t own their own phone, but there are cell phone booths where you can go pay to use a phone, but most people don’t do that every day. Some elites use it as status symbols such as doctors who might walk around with them but not use them.
Q: Do you believe there has been some level of westernization within the dominant media technologies?
A: Some people like Pilipino soap operas and rap music. People like the idea of owning symbol, if they could. They like the idea of laptops and there are colleges teaching IT technology but the average person has low computer skills. They are really into it. They would love to revitalize their TV stations and design their own shows such as who wants to be a millionaire, the would but its complicated. There are limitations to basic technology infrastructure.
I think it’s almost impossible to get any information about Cameroon. Most people don’t know where it is. People know Eto’o as this famous soccer play but you still don’t know much about daily life in Cameroon outside of the country. Our own media is more inclined to focus on countries where there is crisis, bad news which there is not much of in Cameroon comparatively speaking. Most of us don’t know what to think, but it is a really nice place to be. Before I left I was told not to get involved with political conversations because it could be dangerous. You have to know what you can and cannot say without crossing the line. You can talk about government corruption but you can’t put it in print.
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