Creative writing in Cameroon has a bright
future and we can expect to see more professional and high quality writing in
the domains of technology, literature, journalism and similar domains in the
near future, thanks to the Sama Randy Youth Write Contest- a youth-led
initiative which challenges
undergraduate students of all higher institutions in Cameroon to ponder and
constructively contribute to discourse on socio-economic and political issues
concerning the country, in a bid to encourage critical consciousness and active
citizenship in young people.
For this
year’s edition, Better Breed Cameroon partnered with Makonjo Media, a Buea-
based web development & digital advertising agency.
The creative competition which started in
2014 has been revealing youths with strong pens and has rewarded writing
excellence, all the while encouraging young people to read more and explore
other subjects different from what the study in school, to broaden their scope
of knowledge. The peculiarity of the 2018 edition is that all the winners are
female.
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| Otto Akama |
The winner of the first prize, Njie Martha
Eyole, a final year student in the University of Buea’s Department of English
and French, who received a cash prize of 100,000 FCFA.
The other winners were Ambomatei Miranda,
student at the Higher Teachers’ Training College Bambili and Brenda Ndome
Haddison, from the Institute of Management and information Technology who took
home cash prize of 50.000 and 25.000FCFA
respectively.
A honorary prize of 15.000FCAF was equally
awarded to Anita Ngwe Chofor, a student at Institut Superieure de L’enterprise
et du Management in Douala
According to Otto Akama, founder and
Managing Director at Makonjo Media, the promotion of creativity among young
people is one of their top priorities and they saw the Sama Randy Youth Write
Contest as an excellent way to foster the writing culture across Cameroon.
The representative for Better Breed
Cameroon, Howard Maximus, told this reporter that his organisation aims to put
more Cameroonian writers on the international Scene so that “we can have more
prolific writers like Imbolo Mbue in the future.”
A special invitee at the award Ceremony
was Professor Divine Bisong Epey, Senior lecturer at the Department of
Journalism and Communication of The University of Buea, who lauded the
initiative.
As one who knew Sama Randy during his time as a student of the
department before his untimely demise, Dr Bisong said it was the perfect way to
honour the memory of a young man passionate about the arts and who wished to
change the attitude of young Cameroonians towards writing.
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