L'Effort Camerounais (English Version)

Why is this government so afraid of Cardinal Tumi?

By Emmanuel F. Sanosi

As a race the French are known to regard culinary indifference as the sign of the clod, while the English sometimes consider the welfare of their garden even more than that of their children. The Italian revere bicycle racing as a national sport, just as much as Americans are attached to scientific gadgets. Such national stereotypes as Japanese ingenuity, German efficiency and Israeli loyalty go a long way to enhance the image of the individual country, but what can be said of the Government of Cameroon, which has shown a marked ability to always run away from the truth?

Is Cardinal TUMI a "devil in cassock"?

+ Paul Verdzekov

Archbishop Emeritus of Bamenda

From 20-30 September 1993, there was held at the University of Leeds, England, a conference whose theme was "The Christian Churches and Africa's Democratisation". Professor Pierre Titi Nwel, the present Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon and Christian Cardinal Tumi, Archbishop of Douala, took an active part in that conference. There Professor Titi Nwel delivered an excellent paper on the theme: "The Churches and the Democratic Upheaval in Cameroon 1982-1993".

Picture: His Eminence Christian Cardinal Tumi

Patriotism and Courage: Cardinal Tumi's legacy to Cameroonians

By Prof. Tazoacha Asonganyi

When the Interview-biography of General Semengue by Charles Ateba Eyene was published in 2002, the author compared the origins of General Semengue to that of Jesus, with poor parents who tilled the soil to feed their children, like Joseph and Mary, parents of Jesus! We recall this because he is at the centre of the "attempts to involve (the Cardinal) in a Coup d'Etat", as described in the Cardinal's recent book.

Sickle-cell patients question discriminatory Public Health policy

By Ireneaus Chia Chongwain

A free screening campaign for sickle cell anaemia organised by the Neurological Service of the Yaounde Central Hospital in collaboration with the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, has just ended in Yaounde.

"Bone marrow transplantation has the potential to cure sickle cell disease", says medical expert

Interviewed by Aloysius Agendia

Doctor Asa'ah Tazanu Nkohkwo, Chartered Clinical Scientist  and CEO of World Siclke Cell Society, says bone marrow transplants have the potential of curing the sickle cell disease.

Sickle Cells Prevention Campaign ends in Yaounde

By James Achanyi-Fontem

A Sickle Cell screening campaign scheduled between May 2 and May 11, 2007 at the Yaounde Central Hospital ended, but prevention measures of the disease continues. The campaign was organized in partnership with the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland.

Sickle Cell Anaemia: Living at the edge of life

By Emmanuel F. Sanosi

Sickle cell anaemia is caused by an abnormal type of haemoglobin called haemoglobin S, a protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen that sometimes distorts the shape of the red blood cells, rendering them sickle-shaped and consequently unable to carry deliver the normal quantity of oxygen to the body's tissues. They cells, because of their fragile nature, often break up into pieces and disrupt blood flow.

“Where the Church is complicit with the State in a certain way, personally speaking, it is not always a good sign.” says Mgr Patrick Lafon

Interviewed by Ireneaus Chia Chongwain

The outgoing Secretary General of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Mgr. Patrick Lafon has been close to the Church hierarchy for 15 long years. In all these years he has gone through a broad spectrum of experiences, but each experience, positive or negative, only added to an already burgeoning repertoire of pastoral and managerial experiences cumulated in close to 30 years of priesthood. Now the time has come for him to hand over the command baton to a new secretary general and to pursue new dreams elsewhere. But before he finally leaves in July, we had the distinct privilege of sharing some of the experiences that marked his term of office and which could someday, who knows, help in establishing the uniqueness of his stay at the National Episcopal Conference. Excerpts:

Catholic Church calls deviant public officials to order

Ireneaus Chia Chongwain

The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon has drawn the attention of the Prime Minister and Head of government to the unabashed violation of certain provisions of the law governing legislative and municipal elections in Cameroon. In a communiqué signed by the outgoing Secretary General of the National Episcopal Conference, made public on May 15, 2007, the church considers the unilateral prorogation of the deadline for the declaration of candidacies for the upcoming twin elections by the PM, with the supposed approval of certain political parties, as an unfortunate precedent in Cameroon's democratic process, a decision that puts to question the much vaunted but blurred consideration of Cameroon as a state of law.

The Bishops reproach certain public officials

The National Bilingual daily, Cameroon Tribune, published in its Monday, May 7, 2007 edition, on Page 3, a communiqué from the Prime Minister and Head of Government, extending by ten (10) days the legal period for the declaration of candidacies for the July 22 legislative and municipal elections.