SOBA UK renewed the mandate of its executive bureau today amid preparations for their 2021 Annual Residential Convention.

A member of the newly elected SOBA UK executive team said following the election:

“We are excited to continue with our roles. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all SOBANS including the Cameroonian community in the UK particularly those who put extraordinary passion and effort into defending our academic and social heritage. We believe that by working together we can continue to transform SOBA UK into a more organised, powerful  force. It is an honour to lead SOBA UK.”

SOBA UK 2021 Executive Elections – Official Confirmation of the Results

Dear Sobans,

On behalf of the patrons, I am pleased to confirm the final results of the members who have been

successfully elected to the executive of SOBA UK for the period from 1st September 2021 to 31st

August 2023;

1) PRESIDENT – FRANKLIN EGBE

2) VICE PRESIDENT – ATEM AKOH-ARREY

3) SECRETARY GENERAL – ASMARA EBAN

4) DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL – RALPH MBUA

5) EXECUTIVE TREASURER – BENEDICT TCHANTCHEU

6) FINANCIAL SECRETARY – KOBI AKONG

7) PUBLICITY OFFICER – FRITZ ESAMBI

The detailed results and statistics have been sent to all members who voted by Big Pulse for

Verification and the above results have been confirmed by patrons and elections observers on 26th

August, 2021.

Please join me in wishing these elected members every success in their roles as they seek to move

our association forward.

My gratitude goes to all voters who participated in the elections, 103 members registered to vote out

of 123 registered members (including 8 patrons who do not register to vote). I also want to thank the

Patrons for successfully managing the elections process and collaborating effectively with the

elections system provider, BigPulse.

We are pleased to have used elections observers and greatly appreciate their time and contribution

to the process. We look forward to any feedback that they may have on the process, fairness and

accessibility of voting to members.

Yours faithfully,

Soban Joseph Foncha

Lead Patron (On behalf of all Patrons)

Cameroonian Universities under the Biya Francophone regime are rife with corruption and several instances of moral turpitude. The University of Buea (UB) is not immune from this vice; a recent press release linked to the revaluation of answer sheets attests.

Under the ruling CPDM crime syndicate, lecturers who took bribes and corrected the marks of dozens of students including those who had sex with under-aged female students have often escaped with a lenient punishment or go scot-free making the mark tampering scheme to flourish in the University of Buea.

Prof Ngomo Horrace Manga, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea is leading the investigation this time around pertaining to the final-semester examination involving money being transferred via MTN services to UB lecturers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the first step in the process is for the lecturers to humiliate the students who do not clear the exam. After that the lecturers comforts them and says he would be able to help. He eventually takes a bribe and changes the marks.

The Vice Chancellor’s communiqué made public evidence collected from several students when the irregularity was brought to light.

It is estimated that some one hundred students benefitted from the cash-for-marks scam scheme.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Mukake Stephen in Buea

Today, SOBA UK announced the 2021 Annual Residential Convention, officially known as the SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH.

Currently in development, the 2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH opens in a new tab and is being directed to “Appreciating Community Spirit”.

Poised to be the first major African event in the UK after the Covid-19 pandemic, SOBANS have developed the Annual Residential Convention Launch to address systemic diversity and equity issues deep within the Sasse Old Boys.

Below is the official statement from the SOBA UK leadership

We trust that you and your family are keeping well.

We are delighted to announce the 2021 SOBA UK Annual Residential Convention to be held at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent, from 15th to 17th October 2021. St George’s Park is the Home of the England National football teams and is a magnificent venue for Sobans, their families, and guests to have a great get away and the ultimate event experience over two days.

In 2018, SOBA UK selected St George’s Park and delivered one of its most successful conventions. The feedback from our guests were excellent and we hope to surpass that experience again this year. Some facts about The Hilton at St George’s Park are in the attached 3-paged flyer accompanying this launch

Covid-19 measures

In July, the UK Government lifted all lockdown restrictions relating to social gatherings. This has allowed SOBA UK and the Hilton to proceed with this convention. However, SOBA UK will seek to provide reasonable safety measures and encourages all guests to take the necessary Covid-19 measures, in line with government advice.

We encourage our guests to take their double vaccine jabs and/or take a Covid test prior to the event. The capacity at the event will be limited to 250 places to allow for sufficient distancing and guests will have access to hand sanitisers and temperature checks at entry. In addition, the gala event will start at 4.30pm and finish at 2.30am, to adjust to the new normal.

Convention theme

The theme of this year’s Convention is “Appreciating Community Spirit”, reflecting on the difficult year we have had as a community due to the Covid-19 pandemic, those who have suffered illness or lost loved ones, and on how we have missed the company of each other. This theme also extends to our communities in Cameroon who have benefitted from our collective kindness here in the UK from past fundraising initiatives. Our fundraising focus this year is equipping the Sasse College library. We will be looking to assist where possible and we look forward to your generous support. We will supplement our usual fundraising event at the gala with a GoFundMe campaign, which will be launched in the coming week.

We have allowed free time on the Saturday 16th October up to 4pm for Soban parents to spend quality time with their families at the venue. This has been made possible by moving our Annual General Assembly Meeting to take place virtually and a week prior to the convention.

We will make available the services of a children entertainer on the day on the Saturday 16th.

We will also be making available a nanny service (for a fee and subject to demand) on the Saturday night whilst parents attend the convention ball at the Sir Bobby Robson Ballroom. Please confirm upon booking your ticket the number of children in your party.

Given the early gala start time, we recognise the need to provide dinner for our children and we will be providing each family with snacks. Please confirm upon booking your ticket if you will require the snack and the number of children in your party.

We have allowed free time on the Saturday 16th October up to 4pm for Soban parents to spend quality time with their families at the venue. This has been made possible by moving our Annual General Assembly Meeting to take place virtually and a week prior to the convention.

We will make available the services of a children entertainer on the day on the Saturday 16th.

We will also be making available a nanny service (for a fee and subject to demand) on the Saturday night

whilst parents attend the convention ball at the Sir Bobby Robson Ballroom. Please confirm upon booking your ticket the number of children in your party.

Given the early gala start time, we recognise the need to provide dinner for our children and we will be providing each family with snacks. Please confirm upon booking your ticket if you will require the snack and the number of children in your party.

Ticket price

SOBA UK always seeks to deliver great value events at competitive prices to our guests. However, following the year and half long pandemic shutdowns hotel venues have significantly increased their prices but we have modestly reflected these increased costs in our ticket prices. Our price will be £100 for a standard ticket with an early bird discount of £50 to a table of 10 guests which ends on 25th September. Please contact our sales agents for more details – contact and payment details are on the attached flyer.

Hotel rooms

There are limited rooms available, and rooms can only be purchase via the link provided below. The hotel is already sold out for Saturday 16th October, except for the rooms allocated to our guests. Please book your room as soon as possible. We expect the demand for hotel rooms to be very high for those seeking to stay at the venue. CLICK HERE TO OPEN HOTEL BOOKING LINK

On behalf of all Sobans in the UK, we say a big thank you in advance for your continued support of SOBA UK.

We encourage you to buy your tickets as soon as possible and begin your planning for the convention.

We look forward to welcoming you and your families at The Hilton at St George’s Park.

Kind regards

Franklin Egbe

President, SOBA UK On behalf of the SOBA UK Event Management team

A Senegalese student was detained Monday after he disguised himself as a woman in a bid to sit for national examinations on behalf of his girlfriend.

The student, enrolled in a university in the north of the country, and his girlfriend “were placed under arrest on Monday evening.

They will be tried on Thursday with his girlfriend for “exam fraud”, their lawyer said Tuesday.

“The couple is to be “tried on (Thursday) August 5 for exam fraud and complicity in fraud”, by the court of Diourbel,” the prosecutor said.

The student, whose age was not disclosed, had moved to Diourbel to take the exams for his girlfriend, a student in a high school in this city, according to the prosecution.

Photos posted on social networks depicted him wearing a red dress with black patterns, wearing a veil with the same colors and a black shawl, to deceive the invigilators.

He was surprised on Saturday, the third day of the exam, during the English test, by the supervisors, who according to the press, noticed that something was wrong with his attire.

They then reported him to the police who arrested him and his girlfriend who was waiting for him in a hostel in the city, according to the same source.

Source: Africa News

Schoolchildren are deliberately attacked, abducted and killed in Cameroon’s increasingly violent Anglophone crisis. An independent investigation has verified 13 recent attacks using satellite images, finding both government soldiers and armed separatist groups responsible. Catholic and Presbyterian-run institutions are among the schools targeted by all sides in the conflict. It is thought that two hundred schools have been attacked or set on fire since 2018.

In 2016, the Francophone-dominated government of President Paul Biya tried to impose a French curriculum on English-speaking schools, while demanding that the French legal system replaced English Common Law in courts in the Anglophone regions of North West and South West.

In response, armed groups demanding an independent Anglophone nation called Ambazonia called for a boycott of schools and a weekly “ghost towns” that shuttered the economy. A warning from the Ambazonian Restoration Forces appeared on Facebook in August 2019, telling parents not to send their children to school, saying, “You will have only yourselves to blame.”

After the attacks began, parents withdrew their children, forcing education in the Anglophone regions to cease. The UN estimates that one million youngsters (out of a total Anglophone population of six million adults and children) have been out of school for almost four years. The Cameroon ministry of basic and secondary education recently announced that 70,000 children have now returned and 400 schools have reopened. However, it is understood that those schools are in towns and cities, whereas institutions in more remote areas are reluctant to reopen for fear of attack.

The Bellingcat report draws on years of research by the Cameroon Anglophone Database of Atrocities, working with the Berkeley Human Rights Center. Many of the attacks have taken place in the diocese of Bamenda which is twinned with the UK diocese of Portsmouth. St Augustine’s Secondary College in Kumbo was attacked in May 2020; in October 2020, men on motorcycles armed with machetes and guns killed seven children and wounded a dozen at Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba; and in January 2021, the Presbyterian secondary school in Mankon, Bamenda was torched.

A Presbyteran school in Nkwen near Bamenda was subject to two attacks in 2018 during which almost 100 teachers and children were abducted, interrogated and held for ransom. They were eventually released unharmed. In November 2020, the students and teachers at Kulu memorial College were forced to strip and then run into the bush before the building was burned. In the North West region, the wing of a Catholic school in Kambe was burned in February 2021.

Bellingcat is an independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists. It’s report, “How Schoolchildren became Pawns in Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis,” is based on painstaking work by volunteers at the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities and the Berkeley Human Rights Center, videos posted on social media by civilians, soldiers and armed groups, and opensource material and satellite imagery.

The Bellingcat report quotes teachers who “walk a thin line” between the armed separatists enforcing the boycott and the government security services which are trying to end the ban. In addition, teachers say they are targeted by criminal gangs extorting money. The Voice of America quotes Nji Samuel Kale of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, saying, “The community and the Christians help us run the schools. The teachers, we must attest, they have been enduring a lot. They have shown a lot of resilience.”

Most of the separatist leaders live overseas, meaning that their children are not missing school. They refuse to back down unless they are seen to win concessions from the government. Meanwhile the Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue continues to offer to host inclusive peace talks. Both the government and armed separatist groups have declined to participate.

Before he died earlier this year, Cardinal Christian Tumi warned that violently enforcing the schools boycott was turning the Anglophone population against the separatists. He mentioned a girl whose hand was amputated by separatists as she went to sit her exams. Cardinal Tumi was kidnapped and interrogated by an armed Anglophone group in November 2020. He was later released unharmed but died in April 2021, age 90.

Historically, the Catholic Church, as well as Anglican and Presbyterian missions, have run schools and clinics across Africa in the absence of comprehensive, good quality education and health provision by governments. In addition, faith-based entities are estimated to provide between 30% and 70% of health services. There are no reliable figures for how many schools are provided by faith groups on the continent.

Source: Independent Catholic News

Prior to October 2016, not many Southern Cameroonians thought they would ever be internally displaced in a country they felt was theirs nor did they ever think they would become helpless refugees in neighboring Nigeria.

But in October 2016, their lives suddenly changed, unfortunately for the worse. The country’s English-speaking minority had had enough of government instituted marginalization and discrimination, with lawyers and teachers downing their tools and taking to the streets to make their grievances known to a government that had decided to be deaf and blind to the sorry plight of Southern Cameroonians.

The Yaoundé government has never been reputed for dialoguing and it views dialogue as a sign of weakness and it was in no mood in 2016 to change its old bad ways.

This is a government that has a huge tool box but in that massive box, there is only one old rusty tool – violence – which has not been effective in recent times.

Times have changed but the mindset of those ruling the country seems to be frozen in time. Of course, if you have a hammer, everything you see will surely be misconstrued as a nail that needs to be hit hard and that was where the government made its mistake that has triggered a bloody insurgency that has caught the attention of the international community, with many Western governments calling out on the corrupt Yaoundé government.

The government’s reaction to the demands of the country’s English-speaking minority has created a pretty mess that has left thousands of Southern Cameroonians both at home and out of the country in a really unfortunate situation.

While those who are internally displaced are living rough in towns and cities in East Cameroon, those who skipped the border into Nigeria to escape the government’s Kafkaesque brutality are gradually losing hope and many are calling on kind-hearted individuals to stretch their hand of charity to them.

Among those who escaped to Nigeria are desperate women whose children are not having access to Nigeria’s educational system.

Though education at the primary school level is free, there is no guarantee that children from poor backgrounds can have the education they need to cut out a place for themselves under the sun.

If many Nigerian children cannot access education due to poverty, how will refugee children whose parents escaped their native Southern Cameroons, living everything behind, have access to such education?

Education is simply not the availability of brick and mortar. Buildings alone will never guarantee a child unfettered access to quality education. Food, transportation and books will surely guarantee a child a bright future, especially in an environment wherein the government makes the education of everybody living within that geopolitical entity a huge and significant necessity.

But this is not the case of Southern Cameroonian children who are seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria. The schools are there but Southern Cameroonian children are unfortunately at home because their parents cannot afford textbooks and other school materials that they need to be effective in school.

At the secondary school level, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) subsidies are helping, but they do not go far enough. They do not cover many needs expressed by these refugee children and this is really retarding their progress. Their main concern is only to acquire education that will make them useful citizens of the world but education does not seem to be within their reach.

 But the agony is more painful when you consider that there are young graduates among the refugees who are unfortunately and unhappily watching unemployment robbing them of their happiness and youthfulness.

In search of a reliable anchor, they have been bouncing in and out of the settlements where they have been caged in Nigeria in search of hope and happiness.

They are without jobs and it is almost impossible for them to learn a trade. A hungry man is an angry man and these young men bear their anger on their faces. They are frustrated and disappointed by leaders who have placed their ego above their citizens’ interest.

Their country of origin – Cameroon – has rejected them and despite calls by the international community for the Yaoundé government to embrace dialogue and negotiations which will enable refugees to return to their homeland, the Biya government insists that only violence can bring this conflict to an end.

These young men are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their country does not think of their future and their host country clearly lacks the means and resources that can enable them to change their ugly and unfortunate fate.

Many of them want to further their education, but they lack the resources that can make their dreams come true.

This unfortunate situation has been compounded by the lack of scholarships and good Samaritans who can help them go back to school are few and far between.

 To many of these desperate young men, their future is bleak and this uncertainty might push many into crime or push them over the border to Cameroon where their last option will be to bear arms in order to eke out a living.

 While Nigeria and the international community are doing their best, the Yaoundé government must step in to help these youths who may become a millstone around everybody’s neck if they are not made to see hope in the future and the beauty in life.

By Ngalle Lyonga in Nigeria reporting for the Cameroon Concord News Group

Pr Maurice Aurélien Sosso’s suspected mistress was violently attacked and stripped in his office by his wife.

The “mistress” Damaris Enyegue who is reportedly the wife of the younger brother of Minister Henri Eyebe Ayissi, the current Minister of Agriculture in the Biya Francophone regime was given severe beatings by the rector’s angry wife recently in the nation’s capital.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from sources deep inside the rector’s office that the crying mistress got her stockings and underwear ripped off and torn from her legs by Mrs. Patricia Sosso.

She grabbed hold of her victim’s hair and kicked her in the back during the snake beating.

Pr Maurice Aurélien Sosso approached his wife in an attempt to dissuade her, but he quickly gave up after being pushed to one side by his mike Tyson wife, Patricia Sosso also a lecturer in the University of Yaoundé 1.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Christian Elongué, the executive Director of Muna Kalati, a nonprofit promoting reading and children literature in Africa, is one of 30 literacy leaders named to the International Literacy Association’s (ILA) 2021 30 Under 30 list. The global list celebrates rising innovators, disruptors and visionaries in the literacy field. The International Literacy Association (ILA) is a global advocacy and membership organization dedicated to advancing literacy for all through its network of more than 300,000 literacy educators, researchers and experts across 128 countries.

Christian Elongué is an author and researcher on children and young adult literature. Dismayed by a lack of black characters in books available to African children, Christian founded munakalati.org in 2017 with the goal of building international recognition for African children’s book authors and increasing access to African children books.

He was also recognized for publishing Muna Kalati magazine, which is becoming a reference for writers, publishers and illustrators of children’s and Young Adult books, as well as librarians, teachers, editors and parents. Christian has supported several researchers, or mentored Master & PhD students to undertake research on African Children literature in Cameroon, Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso. In 2019, he authored the book: An Introduction to Children Literature in Cameroon, the first scientific work with a holistic approach on the children book industry in Cameroon. Prior to that, he collaborated on children literature with the French National Centre for Children’s Literature. As a founding member of International Board of Book for Young People (IBBY-Cameroon), he spent several years developing literacy and educational initiatives as a means to empower children in West Africa.

Chrstian Elongué indicated that the goal of Muna Kalati’s work is to increase awareness and access to diverse and affordable books for children and young adult in Africa. They shape the future of literacy by increasing the culture of reading and it empowers kids and young adults to be lifelong learners and leaders.

According to him, “you can’t consistently be a great leader without being a great learner, you stop growing and maturing when you stop learning. As reading is one of the common and best ways of learning, all great leaders are also great readers. So empowering kids to cultivate a passion and genuine interest in reading, not for utilitarian or academic purpose, will definitely help them become the leaders and changemakers that our societies critically need.”

Reading shapes our thinking. Children’s books shape the way we see the world as we grow up. The stories we discover through books influence our mindset. And since childhood is a period of life where our identity is mostly defined, it’s very important for children to see themselves in characters and heroes they read. Therefore, when unable to see characters and settings that are similar to theirs, children may tend to believe that what they see in those books is the “norm”, the standards.

This might negatively affect their identity construction as they would sometimes try, to conform their attitude and behavior to what they see in their book’s characters and hero. Henceforth, a lack of diversity in children books could be a threat to international understanding and an obstacle to a fruitful dialogue of cultures and civilizations. However, I don’t want children to imagine a world with no differences, but I want them to value difference. Preparing them for a more just world does not mean teaching them to reject others. It means helping them learn to celebrate their identity and be proud of it.

Moreover, a lack of diversity in children is also influencing children’s love of reading and literacy, mostly at the level of motivation. Kids usually aren’t much excited to continue reading a story in which they do not recognize themselves nor their local environment. And through my experience working with kids and young adults, I noticed that they were more enthusiastic to continue reading books where characters, settings and dialogue were the reflection of their daily realities.

Representing 12 countries, this year’s list of honorees includes educators, nonprofit leaders, authors, volunteers, researchers and social entrepreneurs. “The start of 2021 is filled with much promise thanks to the work of this year’s class of honorees,” said ILA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post. “Their work—whether it’s research on multicultural literacy, helping young students find the power of their voice or dismantling systems of oppression in education—is impacting the lives of countless individuals and communities. Not only do these emerging leaders share in our mission of literacy for all, but also they are helping to ensure that the post-COVID era, when we get there, will be grounded in equity for all.”

Christian Elongué hence joins a growing cohort of leaders. Past honorees include Gerald Dessus, social justice teacher and curriculum developer in Pennsylvania; Shiza Shahid, cofounder of the Malala Fund; Allister Chang, founder of Civic Suds; and Freshta Karim, founder of mobile library Charmaghz in Afghanistan.

If you are interested in writing, blogging, vlogging about reading, child rights and literacy, children and young adult literature, diversity in books for kids, kindly email us at info@munakalati.org. There is an urgent need to increase the visibility and access to diverse and original children books and you can significantly contribute to that agenda, kindly follow us on social media to stay tuned and never forget to offer books with original stories to your kids or teen.

The British government has decided to close all primary schools in London for the next two weeks to counter the rapid spread of a more infectious variant of the COVID-19 virus, the capital’s mayor said on Friday.

On Wednesday, the education minister, Gavin Williamson, outlined a plan to delay the reopening of secondary schools, but open most primary schools for children under 11 years old on time next week at the end of Christmas break.

Only in the hardest hit parts of the country, which included some parts of the capital but not others, were primary schools slated to shut. But local authorities in several areas where schools were due to reopen complained.

“The Government have finally seen sense and u-turned,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter. “All primary schools across London will be treated the same.

“This is the right decision – and I want to thank education minister Nick Gibb for our constructive conversations over the past two days.”

(REUTERS)