TIPTOPSTARS

There is no other medium through which black values can be more highlighted than music. Afro Rap artist, Ngum Daniel Brian aka D.A is not adding his voice in the genuine course to project such enviable values, but has set on an adventure to propel his career to greater heights to that effect. His Balafon, a latest single now stands out as a story book that gives meaning to this theme. D.A’s Balafon, a blend of African and Western genres, has been described as an electrifying Afrocentric house tune which also exploits the theme of love. “It’s a track we did in preparation of my EP known as #Africanswag that will be released later this year,” D.A told Tiptopstars.

Born some 23 years ago, the Yaounde-based Afro Rap singer who also excels in Afro Pop, has displayed remarkable skills in music. “He is a gifted artist you’d easily bet for when you get to consume his music,” Gerald, a Yaounde Afro beat lover hinted us. “D.A raps brilliantly and I think he has a bright future in music,” the D.A fan told us further.

Amongst D.A’s numerous strengths in music, is his ability to compose and sing in several languages including English, French, Pidgin, Franc-Anglais (a Cameroonian coinage that blends French, English and Pidgin) and his mother tongue.

“I was inspired into music by arstists such as Manu Dibango, Richard Bona, Charlotte Dipanda, Fela Kuti, Koppo, A.K.A, M.I, K'Naan, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar and many others,” said the singer who started music at the age of 16.

Anxiety has grown ten folds in Africa, four weeks to the maiden edition of the Cameroon International Film Festival (CAMIFF). The Central African nation, usually described as Africa in miniature, for its enviable cultural heritage and physical/geographical landscape, will become the film capital of Africa from 25-30 April, 2016.

Observers hold that CAMIFF will be one of the biggest things that will happen in the now fast-growing Cameroonian film sector, at least within the past couple of years. “We’ve been awake and actively putting things together since we publicly announced this project,” Agbor Gilbert Ebot, fondly known as AGE, the founder of CAMIFF, told TIPTOPSTARS. Also speaking from Buea, Cameroon, AGE gladly announced that the final selection of films submitted was out and his team was ready for the festival.

According to the list sent to our newsroom, 10 Cameroonian films, produced in Cameroon and directed by Cameroonians were retained from the shortlist. The films are W.A.K.A, directed by Francoise Ellong, Smokescreen and Tchanga and Inoma by Musing Derick, Nightfall by Anurin Nwunenbom, Hum! by Nabe Deone, Christa Eka’s Alma, Rostand Wandja’s G&M and Time by Herve Moukoko. Amongst these, there are two films directed by Cameroonians in the diaspora – Rejected by Kang Quintus and Ben & Ara by Constance Ejuma. Both films are shot and produced in the USA.

From final list of CAMIFF selected films, there are 20 productions retained in the Best Feature Film category while 17 films emerged from the scrutiny to occupy the best short film category. In the Best Documentary Film category, 11 productions will be vying for the prize while 10 films contest in the Best Animated Film category.

Also amongst the short films retained is Damaru, an award-winning story that won a converted prize at the 2015 Pan African Film Festival, FESPACO in Burkina Faso.

According to organizers, the Cameroon International Film Festival aims at expanding the scope of the growing film industry in Cameroon by putting it in partnership with corporate brands that could showcase participants in the sector including actors, directors, scriptwriters, editors, equipment manufacturers, the media and film students.

Ahead of the festival proper, a nomination party has already taken place. Hosted by Cameroonian Solange Yijika and her Nollywood counterpart Ramsey Nouah, the CAMIFF inaugural event that took place at the Djeuga palace Hotel in Yaounde in January was a crowd puller. “Once again, I felt proud of my country’s film industry when I attended the CAMIFF nomination party,” Madine, a Yaounde resident told TIPTOPSTARS. To Fidele, another lover of movies and keen observer of the evolution of the Cameroonian film industry, it was a great moment and she couldn’t just wait for April. “My anxiety keeps rising as April draws near. CAMIFF is a welcomed initiative and I must laud the efforts of AGE and team,” she said.

CAMIFF I takes place from 25-30 April at the Mountain Hotel in Buea, Cameroon. Activities to mark the week will include film projects, workshops and trainings.

It should be noted the CAMIFF’s founder, Agbor Gilbert Ebot is a frontline Cameroonian movie producer with a huge travelling experience. He is the producer of the famous Before The Sunrise (2005), The Blues Kingdom (2007), Land of Shadows (2009), Pink Poison (2012) and FAR (2014).

Arguably, the last two to three years have been the most spectacular in the history of Cameroonian music, at least in terms of the volume of production. Quantitatively, there has been an amazing bloom. The frequency of new tracks that pour into the music market has left no one indifferent. This new order has led observers to strongly hold that music is the best thing happening to Cameroon culture, currently. Convincingly, one can easily subscribe to this assertion.

It may however be simplistically argued that the switch from albums to singles, clearly explains this speedy influx of tunes. Also, the sometimes logical explanation that computer technology makes the making of music easier as opposed to the scenario in the past, has come into play. Buttressing this argument, it is held at certain quarters that were it not for the digital beats which would harness all the scintillating sounds provided by the various instruments, only a few musicians would have been able to bring out raw stuff in the studio as was the case in the past.

Furthermore, some school of thought have opined, rightly or wrongly, that it doesn't require much ingenuity and patience to weave urban music as it would for makossa, bikutsi, assiko, bottle dance and other indigenous genres. To this thinking, urban music, which is easily patched up without painstakingly concentrating on every little aspect as would be the case with the aforementioned.

These arguments are plausibly convincing in nature and could be advanced to cut a long story short. But a deeper, yet critical look into the discourse may bring forth balanced arguments. And, spanning the lens, one can easily see three things that have stood out in this new dispensation, computer technology, which is said to have facilitated things aside. Talent, skill and creativity!

The current generation of musicians is an amazing factory of intelligent composers, brilliant song arrangers, fine vocalists and skilful choreographers. Who would be blind to Daphne's singing prowess? Ok listen to the Buea-based singer's Mother's Love or Ndolo.

It is only gifted singing that can result to , Realm Squad's Chop No Dey or Mel B Akwen's Tell Me Your Name or Rythmz's Me & You.

That Magasco and Stevelil are talented is a truer talk than the computer aide assertion. Take computer out of Mr. Leo's music life and the gentle vocalist, author of E Go Better and On Va Gerer, would excel even more.

Missy BK would display her vocal skills, yet whip salient messages across, just like Naomi Achu, in Busy Body would convincingly blend melody, message and dance to deserve an up score.

At their tender ages, Bonaventure and Denzel (11 and 9 respectively) of the USA-based C-Boyz band have struck the positive cords, leaving their fans and music pundits with nothing but applause for their brilliance.

It is clearly not entirely computer that makes Zita Light's Saka a palatable track nor it is modern technology that makes Leonette Ayeah's Jimmy a piece to reckon with.

Perhaps, music video directors are the engines of the locomotive. What the Bonaventure Takoukams (one of the pioneer music clip directors in CRTV) left undone, are what the February 16s, Mr Adrenalines, Dr. Nkeng Stevens, Adah Akenjis, Shamak Allharamadjis, etc, are doing and with a cajoling finess. Cameroonian music videos have opened the gates into a rich world of endowed videographers and editors whose dexterity is one of the most important reasons why the sector now blooms. That these music video technicians rock, is a fact.

The current dispensation has logically stepped into a fruit-reaping phase with rewards that had for long been estranged from Cameroon, now fast becoming common. In the last decade when Cameroonian music suffered in the oblivion of unpopularity, who would have imagined that an MTV prize would be flown into the country. Today, international nominations appears to be a back-to-back. This year's All Africa Music Awards, KORA is Cameroon-rich in nominations. This is news!

How the music sector thrives at a time the art has ceased to be a veritable source of livelihood is still hard to tell. Whether music production today only requires very minimal financial means is also a mystery. But the surest thing is that it is happening and doing so in grand style.

It would be an incomplete thesis to ignore the role of certain outfits whose enormous contributions to this new movement have been pleasantly significant. Emile Ngomba and his Molyko Buea M-One studio quickly come to mind! What is today described as the biggest music success story in Cameroon, is to a greater extent the result of the M-One project. With scores of artists to its credit, this music studio and its founder have transformed aspiring young boys and girls into music icons who now fly Cameroon's flag internationally.

Bamenda's C-Jay Productions, Buea's No Hitz, No Recordz, manned by Prince Mykel Enobi , Steven's , to name these few, have slotted meaningful pages into the great history book of Cameroonian music. As we write, young boys and girls are awake in tedious studio sessions, ready to drop the next new piece in the coming hours. That is the new way in musical Cameroon - the way to go musically speaking! Let the music play on!

To be continued...

Giving is virtuous! Giving back is even more honorable. It is not clear how celebrities began nursing the idea that giving back to their communities was not just a social responsibility, but could be a great empowerment towards development. But that it fast became a phenomenon, is one big thing the world should celebrate. The simple thought that movie actors, musicians , fashion designers, etc, would still have amassed their financial, material and human resource wealth and selfishly clinched to them, pumps out goose pimples. How would the world have looked like if the winner took everything?

Prior to now, giving back was reduced to an act only performed by illustrious sons and daughters whose financial prowess had become very significant. Thus, scores of Nollywood celebrities would been seen in humanitarian projects understandably (as per common observation) because their fame had fetched them wealth.

In Cameroon, such gestures were sporadic and could only be faintly noticed. The sector, known to produce the greatest number of celebrities - entertainment, has grown at a very crawling pace and it is but normal that the Cameroonian society has not expected much giving back from it. But as time has rolled on, so too have perceptions. Curiously, Cameroonian artists, especially movie actors to whom the country has not given anything significant, have not waited until they become 'rich'. Rather, they have opted to direct the little they have to charity. Laudable!

That is the case with actress Elynn Fesse Basil, whose Sundrop Initiative has taken on a humanitarian venture to provide warmth to targeted populations, disadvantaged in one way or the other. According the founder, the organization , amongst other things, seeks to provide feeding programmes and homes to street children, victims of HIV and AIDS and orphans. That explains why in its maiden outing, Sundrop Initiative will be visiting three orphanages in Fako Division in the South West region of Cameroon, amongst them Godfirst Orphanage in Wotutu, Limbe and and Great Faith Orphanage in Boana, Buea. "These visits will be carried out on Saturday February the 13th this year, from 11: 00am to 5:00pm," Fesse told TIPTOPSTARS. "The beneficiaries will be marked as permanent partners to out initiative," the actress who doubles as legal expert added.

The February 13 philanthropic trip to communion with the orphans will precede a Charity Dinner, slated for Buea, the South West regional headquarters on Saturday February 27, 2016. "We shall be hosting some 250 people drawn from all walks of life at Eta Palace and they will be expected to participate in a fund-raising that is geared at fostering our social course," Sundrop Initiative founder wrote. She added: "We also intend to raise awareness and sensitize the public on our activities."

Apart from catering for the needs of orphans and street children, Sundrop Initiative also takes and follows up cases of child abuse, child labour, domestic violence, rape, basic human rights violation, etc. It also promotes gender equality and handles gender-based issues. The NGO is created to cover Cameroon, Africa and the rest of the world.

Meantime, its founder, Elynn Fesse Basil is a reputably engaged Cameroonian actress who believes that films can go beyond entertainment and be a veritable medium for development.

For more information on Sundrop Initiative and for your support, contact its head office at

Miss Bright entrance, Bomaka, Buea, Cameroon.
Tel: 00 (237) 670933409 / 694995911
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