Arts and Culture: Newsroom and Classroom

Ferdinand Léopold Oyono passed away in June 2010.  A story on his death was broadcast over AITV. What was said of him was Cameroon has lost one of her seasoned writer. I want to stress the word writer. Yet, Ferdinand Léopold Oyono was a friend to Paul Biya, Cameroon’s head of state. He was one of the most prominent personalities in Cameroon for decades.  However, when he died, the world only remembered he was a man of culture. Many were shocked and impressed at the same time, including Charles Ndongo. He is one of the most celebrated journalists in Cameroon. He actually drew my attention to the commentary made by Western television channel. Definitely, people of culture do not die. Their flesh may disappear for ever. But the memory of them lives an eternal life in people’s collective mind.   

The issue of timelessness or eternality is all parts and parcel of arts and culture. This message is still to get to news and classrooms.

Before getting to newsrooms and classrooms, let us make a stop over news contents.

The last time arts and culture made headlines in Cameroon was when Longue Longue was sentenced in France. The sudden death of Michael Jackson made us forget the war on terror.

The situation of arts and culture in newsrooms is the story of desperation. In sport journalism, there is a build up from Monday to Sunday. Cameroon national soccer squad will take on Senegal on Saturday. This has been on newscasts these days over and over. Yet, the 50^th anniversary of Manu Dibango or Anne Marie Nzie did not deserve the same noise.  Stories on arts and culture are broadcast at the end when listeners and tele-viewers are tired.  Even sports feature stories are seen or listened to before arts and culture. Arts bits are covered by interns. Whenever there is breaking news, arts and culture suffer the bitter blow. The stories are dropped and forgotten, at times, for ever. When there is a cabinet reshuffle, never expect to get any titbits on arts.  If there is any advert in the dying minutes, arts and culture will be kicked away. In times of hardship, arts journalists are fired from outset and driven from the newsroom. Stories on politics dominate radio and television newscasts.

The same holds true for print.  The opposition party, SDF, is always in trouble with CPDM, the ruling party. The Biya-Fru shown-down is permanent news. The Southern Cameroon’s National Council, SCNC, sells a lot in English-speaking Cameroon and the diaspora.  Hardly shall we read the latest on Tchaja Stoppeur’s new release, on Lapiro insisting to prolong his stay in jail, on Jean Bikoko Aladin lying helpless in his bed days before he died, on some Bikutsi musicians drinking local alcohol to death to damage their health.   

In classrooms, the situation is even worse. Arts and culture are virtually no were to be found. Any single soul? May be Manu Dibango or Anne Marie Nzie. I went through various texts books.  I rather saw the Indomitable Lions. This seems to portray a country that has nothing in the head and everything is concentrated on her feet. This is surface reading that means a lot, though. Nowhere have I read that Cameroon’s dishes are promoted. Yet, there is food flood in Cameroon. Pupils and students may sing. They do it mostly to allow teachers and themselves to relax after the headache of serious mathematic classes. When singing serves little purpose, they are even asked to jump over and over. As such, the initial intention is not arts and culture education. Pupils and students can dance. But It happens only once per year. When it is the week leading to National Youth Day, 11 February . Again, students in examination classes are prevented from dancing, singing or drawing activities as if involvement in arts and culture is closely connected to failure, school drop-out, early sex, unwanted pregnancies, Aids and other evils. The sole issue that forces arts and culture into classrooms is the need by the powers that be to impose patriotism on pupils and students. They are trained to sing the national anthem daily or weekly. Yet, many are still to master the lyrics and melody.

The problem in newsrooms can be assessed at various levels. The first is lack of consideration by editors-in-chief. No money is made on covering arts and culture. The sector does not attract readership as politics would do. There is no pressure from administrative authorities or business tycoons to blackmail their political opponents, using the arts.  Alleged corruption has diluted the good name of influential artists like Lapiro de Mbango. Writers of substance like Calixte Beyala have been laughed at for plagiarism and because they criticise from elsewhere on Earth and shy away away from taking on the state locally. As such, stories on them are words written on water. Whenever an arts-journalist breaks new ground, he or she is transferred to another desk. Personally, my transfer happened 2 weeks ago. I now belong to the economy desk at the Cameroon Radio Television. 

The second problem now. The professional identity of journalists is a case for concern in Cameroon. The issue of arts-journalists is just a nightmare. Anyone shouting over the radio or television day and night without any formal training is an arts-journalist. There is no barrier between newscasters, news writers and broacasters. All broadcasters are arts-journalists. All Djs are arts-journalists. All MCs are arts-journalists. All outcasts from political or economic news reporting are arts-journalists.

Arts-journalists can be blamed as well, it is the 3^rd problem. They hardly command respect. They merely fill up the gossip column as they are pleased to announce the death of Lady Ponce without cross-checking. They enjoy surface knowledge of arts and culture issues. They are absent from world venues. Only one Cameroonian arts-journalist attended the last world summit on arts and culture. None will cover the film festival in Cannes-France. Only two sent stories from FESPACO. The people talking arts and culture with authority are outside the sector in Cameroon. Elise Mbia Meka who managed the carnival at the successful agric show in Ebolowa is a geography teacher. The handful of well-trained arts-journalists has abandoned the vessel. Dr Augustin Charles Mbia now lectures at ASMAC. Blaise Etoa Tsanga runs the communication department of Orange Cameroon.

In classrooms, teachers training colleges are not arts and culture-oriented. Those going there mostly want to make a living. Joblessness is rampant. The passion for transmission of their counterparts of the yesteryears is missing in action. Competence is hardly the core value during the selection process. In the field, teachers envy other civil servants in money-making departments like finance. Civil administrators, customs and taxation inspectors are well off. Uniform officers have generous pay vouchers. However, the number of years spent in school is hardly comparable. As such, teachers sell foodstuff in class rather than introducing students to arts and culture. At times, marks are given according sales.  Teachers fail to get their message across. You cannot teach what you ignore. Students do      not really consider them role-models. The lessons taught are conflicting with television contents. Popular music is broadcast permanently. Yet, students are called up to enjoy high culture, which is classical music, painting or literature. What is high culture in the Western world happens to be unpopular in the South. Actually, it is not their business to train students on arts and culture. It is the duty of youth and action instructors and officers. But school principals hardly consider them as colleagues. As a result, they organise two march passes per year and earn salaries while they are on holiday. 

The way-forward has to do with various channels. Arts-journalism and education needs a vision. Arts journalism heralds good news after all the killings and bombing happening the world over that occupy centre-stage in newscasts. It is the duty of arts-journalists and educationists to work out projects that can be sponsored and span over time to become development programmes. This can be possible thanks to national, sub regional and international networking and mobility, for only 3 or 4 African arts-journalists are, for instance, members of the International federation of film critics. Arts Move Africa is an NGO that offer travel grants across Africa. Yet, just few arts-journalists take advantage of it to cover festivals and other events. This is also possible if arts-journalists and educationists can lobby governments to devise and implement a cultural policy that raises the working and living standards of artists, provides them a status, sets up arts-schools, fights piracy, takes care of copyrights and sees arts as a cultural weapon. Many international legal instruments assign Governments the sovereign right to promote and develop arts and culture. But states need to be shaken up to meet that challenge.

 All in all, arts-education or training is the key challenge in newsrooms and classrooms. Curricula in journalism and teachers training schools should include arts and culture. Didactic material has already been compiles. UNESCO is keen on this. The Arterial Network will launch 3 tool kits on arts and culture in days to come in Mali. The Commonwealth broadcasting association and Thomson Reuters Foundation are also very relevant. The Advanced School of Mass Communication, ASMAC, in Yaoundé did it once. The 2009 batch of senior arts, culture and communication journalists has made many names. François Bingono Bingono has become unchallengeable. Lazare Etoundi is also celebrated.

Training is essential, for arts-journalists have to go beyond the traditional 5 Ws. Arts-journalism and creative writing are closer. It is soft-news. Going about it can be using scene-setting introduction techniques. A kicker that goes straight to facts fails to take the reader by hand and take him around. An arts-journalist can start describing the dressing, the room, the vehicle or something else. However, this description must be relevant to the rest of the story. It has to add some meaning to the understanding of the paper. Such an attitude gives a bit of sense of identification with both the audience and interviewees. 

The readership tends to abandon any paper once they are offered the 5 Ws, according a study carried out by Gwen Ansell in South Africa. The 5W rule mostly applies nowadays to hard news. This is typical of journalists reporting political, war, crime, natural or man-made disasters. However, arts-journalists are not encouraged to neglect the 5 W rule. But applying this is not always possible when it comes to writing features. Arts work is much more about features, not hard news. News processing here is rather flexible. Features are people-oriented and focused. They portray celebrities and target the community. Consequently, people become addicted to papers that show concern as they can identify with the contents. For instance, a story about oil increase is heavy. It goes lighter when it is a feature that brings John Smith somewhere with a lorry. There is a distinction between a reviewer and a critic. A reviewer writes for a newspaper or a popular magazine. He or she does not primarily cover the arts. His or her content is mostly made up of bits about the industry. The reviewer’s job is more about reporting. Making aesthetic judgments is hardly his or her first concern. The line reviewer provides consumer information as to why people should by it or go for a movie                                                            .
On the contrary, criticism is what should enable an arts-journalist or educationist make a name. It is a serious intellectual act. Critics see themselves as scholars because universities uplift the standards. Criticisms are not scientific. Critics try to appraise serious works of art and place them in the context of what has been done before. The critic draws most social meaning out of their work.
Technical knowledge can work for or against the journalist if he or she understands the genre. Language accessibility, honesty, supported opinions help write a balanced criticism. Judgments should be made and explained. Personal opinions must be set aside. Beginners say I hated it because it was bad. The more they write, the more they grow in writing good reviews. The only way-out for them is to immerse themselves more by inviting people to comment on what has been published. A critic needs to get much exposure to know what is going on. He or she should develop his or her own taste or standards.

Arts criticism is not an easy route to glory. It is where reputations for wits are born. The journalist has to say why he or she thinks a play is good or bad. To do it in the word that sound banal is one of the hardest chores in the business. Destructive reviews or criticisms exists, but arts journalists and educationists should take care. A critic shall readily write: “The show had low and high points. One of the low points is when the singer fell off stage”. An African critic should always ask himself or herself what social purpose does he or she serve by writing destructive reviews. Coming up with a work of art is like constructing a house. It is never easy and artists themselves are learning. Critics should, therefore, help them. They must bear in mind that Africa is made up of developing countries where art is hardly given due consideration. As such, they have to dig up the positive aspects of works of art in my opinion.

Some principles apply to criticism:

- Poor works of art do not need to be criticized; the critic is not supposed to like all the products he or she comes across. However, his or her prejudices and his or passions as well are important. If he or she is more disappointed than pleased is because the piece has failed to live up to expectations. However, this should be far from the critic who prides himself or herself of hating everything, and relishes giving people their daily dose of hanger;

- The second rule consists of not giving away too much of the plot. Failure to respect this principle, the enjoyment of the audience is nipped in the bud. People’s pleasure should not be spoiled by revealing every twist of the narrative, especially the funniest part of it. It is closer like disclosing the name of the murderer at the beginning of a movie;

- The third approach prevents critics from dealing with generalities. They mean nothing. Details must be as specific as possible. If a play is fascinating, the idea remains vague until the piece is compared to another successful production. The critic has to put the reader in his or her theatre seat in order to allow them see what he or she saw;

- The fourth principle stops critics from using ecstatic adjectives. They occupy disproportionate space.