Anglophone Musicians Drilled on Professionalism

Cameroonians are tired of songs in which artistes sing the names of people or use obscene language. Even the artistes themselves are fed up with the situation for they record little or no sales. Enough is a enough! Says Anglophone musicians. It is within this backdrop that the Secretary General of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, Mouhtar Ousmane Mey has urged over 100 Anglophone artisets to write and sing songs that will build moral standards in the society rather than following the bandwagon to sing just anything in the name of music.

Mouhtar Ousmane Mey was speaking yesterday, August 12, 2013 in Yaounde as he opened a three-day training workshop on professional music production organised by the Association of Cameroon English speaking Musicians (ACEM) with support from the Ministry of Arts and Culture and the United States Embassy in Cameroon. The representative of the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mouhtar Ousmane Mey, called on all the musicians to effectively and efficiently be available during the workshop so as to improve their production abilities which will help them to be more competitive and profitable in the music world.

Besides lauding the efforts of ACEM on educating its members to be professionals, speaking on behalf of the US Ambassador to Cameroon, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Yaounde, Gregory Thome said one of the most important jobs of the American Embassy is to build people-to-people relationships amongst countries. One of the best ways to do this he said is through promotion of the English language and music. According to Gregory Thome, a lot of Americans are interested in Cameroonian music particularly those in the English language which is very accessible to Americans. As such, the US Embassy is not only supporting the artistes on how to explore networking and training possibilities with the USA but also on how to curb piracy through a reinforced protection of Intellectual Property Rights for their works.

The President of ACEM, Francis Ateh said most artistes get into music like blind people, finding their way using just their raw talent. In addition to that talent, the association through experts from different domains will be imparting the musicians with knowledge on the importance of messages in music, the key actors in the music projection project, how to raise funds for music production and marketing strategies, how to compose music using different techniques as well as how to produce music video clips. The workshop ends on Wednesday, August 14.