bakwerirama

Letter to the Contestants for the Royal Stool of Victoria (Limbe)

By Mola Njoh Litumbe, Bakweri Notable

There has been lately some discussion in the press pertaining to the succession to the vacant royal stool of Victoria, following the death of HRH Chief Ferguson Billa Manga-Wiiliams.  As potential aspirants gird their loins for the contest, they would do well to have the benefit of history, as it relates to  royal succession in the city of Victoria.

Introducing Max Sako Lyonga: The Man with the Golden Brush

By Dibussi Tande

In October 2004, Cameroonian painter Max Sako Lyonga captured the imagination of the country and made headline news with a breathtaking and grandiose exhibition at the Blaise Cendrars French Cultural Center in Douala. The exhibition, which was titled “Letter to anyboby”, drew thousands of visitors and again confirmed, if need be, that Max Lyonga was without doubt one of the greatest Cameroonian painters of his generation, if not of all times.

According to a World Bank portrait of the artist, “[Max Lyonga’s] native Bakweri culture, the environment, social aspects of life, and intimate scenes and feelings dominate his artistic works which he expresses through abstraction and figurative works.”

Max Sako Lyonga in Images

Click the thumbnails below for a sample of Max Lyonga's paintings

Click here to visit the ARNET website to purchase paintings by Max Lyonga

Art Ambassador

By Simon Mol (Moleke Mo-Njie)

(The Second Renaissance; World Forum of Cyframatics - Villa San Carlo Borromeo, Milan (Italy), Nov’ 29-Dec’ 5, 2005)

On ALITALIA flight nr. 555 from Warsaw to Milan last Tuesday, Dec’ 29th, I picked a copy of the Financial Times and flipped through to the space reserved for Art critics – on page 10. An article written by Samson Spanier tilted The Critics, captured my attention. Somewhere between Spanier states and I quote, ‘Giambologna, the great sculptor after Michelangelo’s death, was said to care nothing for money because he wanted only artistic glory’. True to this line of thinking, here is what Simone Fortuna wrote to the Duke of Urbino in 1581 about Giambologna: "He is the best sort of man one could ever want to meet, not greedy at all, as one can tell from his being so poor: all that he wants is glory and his greatest ambition is to rival Michelangelo.