Cameroon Tribune : Fifty Years Packaged In A Book

The world in one book may sound like a title of a movie. Far from that, the phrase at least describes a must-read publication by Dr Shey Peter Mabu, SOPECAM’s Deputy General Manager and one of the pioneers of the national bilingual daily. In effect, “Echoes From The Spheres” an anthology of selected Editorial write-ups from 1974-2024, revisits some of the telling moments of Cameroon and the world as seen through the lenses of Cameroon’s national bilingual daily in its 50 years of existence.  
The over 230-page publication with a golden cover having thought-provoking symbols:  Peace plant and an eagle, summarises what the author has lived and worked for and much more, the ideals of Cameroon Tribune: Educating, informing and sensitising the public on local and global issues without giving in to sensationalism. This justifies why the author qualifies the publication in the introduction as an attempt to relive the contributive role of Cameroon Tribune in the onerous task of nation building. A veritable replay of sermons that were once preached by the same Pastor on the same pulpit and which still find relevance in today and tomorrow’s Cameroon and the world at large. The preface of the book written by Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo, Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education and the pioneer Coordinator of the French Edition of Cameroon Tribune underlines that the publication puts the spotlight on an enlightened vision and provides information on the degree of intellectual freedom that has always existed in Cameroon, since the advent of the New Deal. 
The 14-chapter book groups the different selected editorial write-ups into sections to ease understanding. Coincidently, the publication opens with the first exclusive interview President Paul Biya granted Cameroon Tribune during his maiden State visit as Head of State to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the interview conducted by the author of “Echoes From The Spheres” who then was Editor-in-Chief of the English Bi-weekly Edition of Cameroon Tribune, President Paul Biya stated that the aim of the visit, “Was to establish a first contact with the leaders of this great neighbourly and brotherly country in order to reassert, on one hand, continuity in the relations of friendship, coope...