Francis Nyamnjoh

A Review of Two Books by Francis Nyamnjoh

BARBARA HARLOW (Race & Class, Vol. 51, No. 3, 99-101, 2010)

The Travail of Dieudonné By FRANCIS B. NYAMNJOH (Nairobi, East African Educational Publishers,2008), 164 pp.

Mobile Phones: the new talking drums of everyday Africa By MIRJAM DE BRUIJN, FRANCIS NYAMNJOH and INGE BRINKMAN, eds (Leiden, African Studies Centre/Bamenda, Cameroon, Langaa Research and Publishing, 2009), 173 pp.

Chopngomna is the only one of the habitués gathered in the Grand Canari bar who has a mobile phone; in fact, he ‘owned two mobile phones – the latest cutest and most expensive Nokia and Samsung in town; phones endowed with the fanciest ring tones that made him a popular spectacle around Nyamandem’. The group assembled that day, a day that extended well into evening, however, was more intent on another kind of communication, Dieudonné’s rambling account of his ‘travail’ – travail in the sense of ordeal, but also in the French sense of work or job, since The Travail of Dieudonné, written in English, is set in Mimboland/Cameroon, ruled by President Longstay, where French is but one of the colonial languages, and Dieudonné’s storytelling is also inflected dramatically with local pidgin and indigenous aphorisms and proverbs, along with frequent Insha ‘Allah’s. Nor is Dieudonné interested in a mobile phone of his own, no matter how cute or sexy or even fancy the ringtone, although one of the local beer companies, his favourite, is sponsoring ‘winning caps’ that could, if he were lucky, land him such an otherwise prized possession.

The ethics of research on human subjects in Africa

Apollo Rwomire and Francis B. Nyamnjoh (2007) Challenges and Responsibilities of Social Research in Africa: Ethical Issues.Addis Ababa, The Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), 212 pages, and paperback, P120, ISBN 99912-572-9-2 (has an index of key names, but not a subject index). Available at BooksBotswana and Exclusive Books.

Reviewed by SHERIDAN GRISWOLD (Originally published in Mmegi Online)

Challenges and Responsibilities of Social Research in Africa: Ethical Issues is a collection of 21 essays that should be of interest to a variety of people, including researchers and consumers of research.

Its editors are well known in Botswana. Apollo Rwomire, a Ugandan, has taught in the Department of Social Work at the University of Botswana (UB) since 1993. His recent books include Social Problems in Africa (2001) and Human Impact on Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (2003).

Francis B Nyamnjoh, a Cameroonian, is an anthropologist and sociologist who has written five works of fiction including The Disillusioned African (1995) and The Travails of Dieudonne (2008). His academic books span topics as diverse as sexuality, xenophobia, democracy, the media and Magical Interpretations, Material Realities (2001).