Interview: “Cameroon Art And Culture Are Poised For Greater Heights”

What is your assessment of Cameroonian art and culture in 2025?
Since the creation of the Ministry of Arts and culture that was saddled with the onerous responsibility of overseeing the implementation of government policy regarding the safeguard of the national cultural heritage, the ministry has consistently developed strategies and sustainable measures for the preservation and development of the arts and culture subsector. As you should already, know arts and culture constitute major frameworks of national unity as well as dependable platform for the measurement of our enviable multicultural potentials. Therefore, the Ministry of Arts and Culture inevitably serves as the coordinating and connecting centre of the diverse artistico-cultural resources begging to be harnessed in the interest of national development. 
In this regard, 2025 promises to be a time of further materialization of concrete principles and measures designed to fast-track the measurable contribution of the subsector to national development. Going by international conventions as well as related policies drawn up to capitalize the value and opportunities offered by the ever-expanding frontiers of arts and culture at the service of the nation.      

The year 2024 is closing with news that the Nguon cultural festival has been added to UNESCO’s world heritage list. How significant is this development to Cameroonian culture in general?
Objectively speaking, the inscription of Nguon on the UNESCO’s Representative List of World Heritage is not just significant in indicating the consistent efforts by the government to explore and harness the multiple cultural opportunities available in Cameroon, but it also serves as veritable indicator of how much the subsector stands to contribute to cultural tourism. This inscription effectively opens an inexhaustible window to showcase Cameroon’s indigenous cultural practices worthy of intercontinental attention. The fallout of this cannot be overemphasized.

Efforts were made to restructure the organization and functioning of artistes. But we also noted that several Cameroonian artistes continue to die in abject poverty. Where do we go from here? 
As you very well put, the government through the Ministry of Arts and Culture put in place a strategy for the management of rights of artists. In fact, there exists about five structures, SONACAM for managements of the rights of musicians, LASCAAP, for the management of the audio visual and cinematographic arts, SOCILADRA for the management of literary and dramatic arts, SCDV for neighbouring rights, and SOCADAP for the management of photographic and plastic artists. 
While these structures are all manned and managed by artists themselves, inhouse fighting and egocentrism have marred effective operations, hence artists consistently fail to agree on an equitable distribution of the dues that are collected. Even the creation of a coordinating unit, CCOCG has not been able to restore serenity among artists. Therefore, the phenomenon of protracted legal and counter-legal actions has continued to impede smooth operations. 
However, the Ministry of Arts and Culture is currently fine-tuning other strategies to put an end to the cacophony that has so far characterized the narrative of the rights of Cameroonian artists. With the planned structuring of the artistic and cultural movements that was started in 2017, there is indisputable evidence that once, the exercise goes operational, sanity will be introduced in the managements of the rights and dues of Cameroonian artists.      

The local cinema/movie industry has been making some progress by creating its own content. How do we build on this for the enhanced growth of the industry?
In fact, the years 2023 and 2024 have been described as the golden era of the Cameroonian cinema. This period has witnessed remarkable strides in cinema with Cameroonian films featured in major film festivals around the world during which Cameroonian film makers won prestigious awards. Another strong indication of appreciable efforts by Cameroonian film makers has been the appearances of Cameroonian movies on reputable world class platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Paramount Pictures. 
As a matter of fact, these connections additionally offered Cameroonian film makers opportunities to cut coproduction deals with multinational organizations as well as with reputable film makers in America, France, Germany and Italy.   There is therefore great hope that 2025 will witness further boom in Cameroonian film production as well a...