Press Releases

U.S. Embasses Sponsors 2nd Annual Theater Competition Celebrating African-American Literature

The U.S. Embassy, in partnership with the Regional Delegation for Secondary Education and People's Theater for Social Change, will hold its second annual Black History Month Theater Competition on March 21, 2014 at the Goethe Institute in the Bastos neighborhood of Yaounde. The competition is open to the public and will begin at 5:00 p.m.

Nearly seventy students, representing seven Yaounde secondary schools, will take part in this year's competition. Their teams will perform excerpts from critically-acclaimed plays written by African American playwrights such as August Wilson's Fences. The competition provides an opportunity for local youth to learn about African-American history, which is given special consideration in the United States during the month of February, and its significance in Cameroon. The competition also creates an occasion to enhance the use of the English language in secondary schools and boost the activities of English language clubs in schools.

The schools participating in this year's competition are Centre Educatif Bastos, College les Coccinelles, College Bilingue Saint Benoit, Pi and Ju College, the Government Bilingual High School Essos, the Government Bilingual High School Etoug-Ebe, and College Bilingue Kiatabala. This will be each school's first time participating in the competition.

Last year, the Quality International School team won the competition for its rendition of A Raisin in the Sun. The team's first-place performance won a fresh coat of paint for one of the school's classrooms, while the second and third place schools received computers and books.

For more information, please contact the United States Embassy in Yaounde, Press section Tel 22 20 15 00, ext 4162 or 4273.