Bole Butake ‘robbed’ of CFA 9m play production

Written by Eugene N. Nforngwa

Wednesday, 12 May 2010 15:22

YAOUDNDE—After several weeks rehearsing, an Anglophone theatrical troupe led by playwright Professor Bole Butake has been robbed of a chance to perform at a grand event to mark 50 years of Cameroun for about CFA 9 million.

Mr Butake’s Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon was suddenly dropped from the performance line-up last week and replaced with La Marche en Avent, a last-minute idea by former youth and sport minister Bidoung Mpkatt.

Mr Bidoung Mpkatt stands to snap up some CFA 36 million for the performance, four times more than Mr Butake was asking for the same 45 minutes on stage, according to the budgets of both directors, which we have seen.

Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon, an entirely English language production, was planned to go on stage at the Yaounde Sports Complex on May 14 along with a second play done entirely in French by the Ensemble Nationale or National Theatre Troupe.

Mr Butake and his troupe began rehearsing Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon in early April after being contacted by the ministry of culture. “The play was picked because of its historical relevance,” said an aide to Mr Butake.

Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon is the stage reproduction of one of the several resistances faced by early European immigrants, who later colonised Cameroon and largely defined the history of the country.

The play, co-written by Mr Butake and Gilbert Doho, was first performed in 1993. It was so popular that scenes from the production were used in a government promotional spot to potray the culture of Cameroon during the 1994 football World Cup.

On 28 April 2010 a team led by Unity Palace’s deputy director of civil cabinet Joseph Le and including Mr Bidoung Mpkatt, former CRTV general manager Gervais Mendo Ze and Ms Muna previewed the production ahead of its planned return to stage; and were apparently satisfied.

“There seemed to be no problem with the play,” said the aide, who is not allowed to discuss the issuewith the press. “All they wanted was that scenes praising the government be added, which we did.”

On 30 April, Mr Butake was called for another meeting at the presidency at which nothing about the production was discussed. The meeting was called by the director of civil cabinet Martin Eboutou Belinga, who is the chairman of the national committee organising the goldern jubilees of Cameroun (2010) and Reunification (2011). Most of the participants at the preview attended the meeting.

Mr Bidoung Mpkatt, who is in charge of cultural affairs in the governing party, CPDM, opted to have a working session with Mr Butake after that meeting supposedly to iron out final details about the production. They never met.

Instead, On May 3 Mr Bidoung Mpkatt asked for a list of actors and was served with 13 names, which he included in the cast of La Marche en Avent, which he had been “secretly” putting together.

On 04 May, the Anglophone troupe met and was told that their play had been replaced. Instead of doing Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon, they were being asked to take up roles in a new play La Marche en Avent. The play contains ideas from the critique of Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon and has only a few lines in English.
Anglophone actors have turned down the offer and called off rehearsals.
According to documents seen by one of our sources, Mr Bidoung Mpkatt is offering actors CFA 250,000 and CFA 300,000 each for their performance. Mostly Francophone actors are getter the fatter envelopes. Part of the money is going into hiring a choir and a dance group.
The story could strengthen allegations of an apparent plot to sideline Anglophones from the coming events, which are in themselves very controversial.

Last week, The Post newspaper reported that an Anglophone, John Akenji, had been nakedly cheated in the competition to produce a logo for the 50th annivesaries.

Mr Akenji was declared third winner even though it is his logo that was retained for the events. The best winner, a Francophone, walked home with a cash prize of CFA 5 million and a rejected work.

We also understand that the decision to drop Mr Butake’s play and replace it with Mr Bidoung Mpkatt’s was done without consulting Ms Muna, the anglophone culture minister who is chairperson of the culture sub-committee for the 5oth annivesaries. She wouldn’t return phone calls.