Toilsome task of taming obscene music

Several efforts have been made in the past to stop the promotion of lewd music in Cameroon, but the trend continues unabated.

Joseph Tangwa Fover, the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO for Mifi Division in the West Region, on November 2, 2015, banned the song, “Coller la petite,” by the young Cameroonian artiste, Franko. The title of the song, literally translates to “Cling to your girlfriend.”

The SDO’s decision is only one in a series of efforts in Cameroon to stop the promotion and glorification of lewd or obscene music. Proponents of such a ban argue that such music corrupts morals as it tends to portray sex in a crude and offensive manner.

Way back in the early 1980s, the authorities reportedly banned “Mademoiselle sans caleçon” by Isidore Tamwo. The song, which recounts the adventures of a young lady who goes around without underpants, was considered offensive to morality. Later in 1996, Emmanuel Nyamnsi, the then Provincial Delegate for Culture for the East, banned Adolphe Claude Moundi, alias Petit Pays’ “Classe F/Classe M” album for similar reasons.

Petit Pays had posed naked in the picture on the album’s jacket. The album reportedly sold 50,000 copies within a week of coming out – a record in Cameroon. A Divisional Officer in Yaounde is also said to have banned “Classe F/Classe M” for endangering public morals. There was another public outcry against Petit Pays’ 1994 album entitled “Nioxxer,” for seemingly glorifying sex in a crude manner, but no action was taken against the Makossa artiste.

Between 2003 and 2004, former Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV General Manager, Prof. Gervais Mendo Ze, launched a campaign against deviant behaviour. This involved sensitising the public on the consequences of untoward conduct and banning the airing of music considered obscene on CRTV television and network of radio stations. Also in a bid to counter the growing wave of obscene music, artiste Louis de Koum released the song, “Interpellation” in the mid 1990s, to draw the attention of those involved to the damage they cause to society.

On June 21, 2011, Douala-based artiste and moral crusader, Joe De Vinci Kameni, also known as Joe La Conscience, dragged Petit Pays and Adele Ruffine Ngono or Lady Ponce to court for obscene language and pornographic gestures in some of their musical videos. In the action against Petit Pays, Joe La Conscience argued that his first grievous act of public indecency was when he posed nude in the cover picture of the 1996 “Classe F/Classe M” album. He alleged that Petit Pays had since continued to promote indecency by using lewd language in some of his lyrics. He cited songs like ‘Nioxxer,’ which he translated to mean “Make love.”

Against Lady Ponce, the moral crusader-artiste listed her use of vulgar language in instances such as: "Je dis ça, et ça la aussi, ça la prend cadeau,” "Soulevez les kabas,” as well as making erotic sounds as if engaged in sexual intercourse. He accused Lady Ponce of transforming her musical videos into virtual pornographic material.

Joe La Conscience blamed the Cameroonian public for tacitly promoting obscene music by patronising it. However, in spite of all these efforts, lewd music continues to be promoted in the country - both by artistes and those who buy it. Like the saying goes, “The more lewd, the more attractive is vulgar music.”