It was on the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day, 2024 edition. The courtyard of one of the wards of Mbalmayo prison hosted the gnouf jazz reading event organized by Open Show Management ( OSM) under the leadership of its promoter Ondoa Kalara, on Wednesday April 24, 2024. The jazz reading meetings - CM, are moments where participants engage in reading aloud accompanied by music with jazz flavors. The 4th edition of this cultural event in a prison environment in the city of Mbalmayo, under the theme: “musical education and reading culture”, radiated great emulation between the invited artists and the prisoners who got people talking their talents and their love for books and reading.
Nga Ndongo, one of the detainees, made his voice vibrate with an extract from the book AKEVA and MAMI WATA by Ange DJOKY with back-up artist POLICEMAN, who beyond his performance as a guest artist, also accompanied the all the performances with his piano. Other inmates took part in the game of slam and singing, recounting their stays in prison with all the melancholy that carried away the public. The warm atmosphere featured MGD the Psy-slameuse who rocked the audience with her title the book. The artist BAKA BAKA, pygmy from eastern Cameroon, soldier of ancestral culture, proud of his roots, has established a jazz resonance on the premises. Equally unique instruments: his voice, his body, the flute, and many others, to show the dimension and place of jazz in Africa in general and in Cameroon in particular. A musical genre that is celebrated every end of April around the world.
At the end of numerous events and interventions on World Book and Copyright Day and World Jazz Day, donations were handed over to the detainees. Quiz games also allowed them to win prizes. Ondoa Kalara and the entire Open Show Management team, in collaboration with the Mbalmayo prison administration, thus contributed to the smiles of the prisoners and detected in them several useful values for society. With such activity, we end up understanding that being a prisoner is not inevitable but one stage of life among many others, despite everything, no one would want to find themselves behind bars. The editorial staff of www.afriqueenveveil.org takes this opportunity to wish a Happy Jazz Festival to the entire artistic community.
Bertin BIDJA
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