The Past Tense of Shit…Book One: Contribution of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon [Limbe: Nooremac Press, 1993] was no trifling matter.
Compiled from essays that had appeared in the weekly column of Rotcod Gobata, in the weekly newspaper, Cameroon Post, under the rubric No Trifling Matter, between 1990 and 1993, this collection of 75 essays was seized, hot from the press, and confiscated by governmental authorities, without explanation, let alone justification, to this very day. Well, these essays have now been republished, with a new Preface, under the title NO TRIFLING M ATTER, by Langaa Books (2011).
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Here is a PowePoint version of the inaugural lecture given by Dr. Tangwa at the 4th Congress of SYNES, National Union of Teachers of Higher Education in Cameroon, on November 11, 2004. The minister of Higher Education who opened the congress was there as well as the Rector of University of Yaounde I; quite a development from the past! 
checks and balances, and sometimes even in spite of checks and balances, have ended being drunk with power, to the point of madness. I once visited the history museum of the pre-colonial ancient kingdom of Abomey in Benin Republic and was shown the grave of one of its most powerful autocratic-tyrant monarchs who pretended to be immortal and no one had the courage to contradict him. A young lady used to kneel in front of him permanently holding a little bowl into which he could spit, in case he happened to cough. If, by any chance, the sputum missed the bowl, the penalty was the immediate execution of the young lady! 
creatures of the earth can be segregated into the absolutely good and the absolutely bad, into angels and demons, good guys and bad guys, this could not but be the case. The putative axis of goodness and universal benevolence, purportedly acting altruistically on behalf of the whole world, with the prerogative of deciding the ultimate evils of the world and eradicating them by force, clearly stretches from Washington, through Sydney and Madrid to London. But, as has sometimes been remarked, “in human affairs, when all’s been said and done, when all accounts and books have been balanced, when the whole story has been told, we may realize that ‘the good’ were not so good and ‘the bad’ not so bad”. 
human being is rightly defined as a rational animal, even if at times s/he exhibits more animality than rationality; animality and rationality are constantly in a state unstable equilibrium in humans, the one or the other taking the upper hand at any given moment. Rationality, however, remains the necessary and sufficient condition for being human. But, even though rationality defines being human, human beings are not always rational in their behaviour, and to the extent that they behave irrationally, to that same extent are they less than human. Being rational simply means acting in a reasonable manner, pursuing good and justifiable aims, using the most appropriate means to achieve appropriate ends, having a sense of proportion in adapting means to ends, etc.
Although it is often controversial or misleading to make generalizations about Africa, one of the safest and less controversial of such generalizations is that human procreation is highly valued in African cultures. This should not, of course, be interpreted to mean that there are parts of the world or cultures where procreation is not valued. Procreation is a value for human beings in general and within all human cultures. But the ways and manner in which this value is manifested and expressed differs from place to place, from culture to culture, and these differences can be used as a rough gauge of the extent or magnitude to which the value is affirmed or upheld against competing values. There is no part of Africa where children are not greatly valued and where, as a consequence, large families do not exist or polygamy is not practised.
but small men don’t seem to know it. You may already be complaining that ‘what about women?’ I am not a male chauvinist. I sincerely believe in the equality of all human beings, irrespective of gender and other particularizing characteristics, although my arguments in favour of female empowerment are often misunderstood by both men and women. The problem is this English language I am using. The English language thinks that ‘man’ includes ‘woman’ whereas the contrary is evidently the case. (Wo)man includes man but not the other way round. See what I mean?
In this paper, the author attempts to explore some of the problems connected with the formulation and application of international biomedical ethical guidelines, with particular reference to Africa. Recent attempts at revising and updating some international medical ethical guidelines have been bedevilled by intractable controversies and wrangling regarding both the content and formulation. From the vantage position of relative familiarity with both African and Western contexts, and the privilege of having been involved in the revision and updating of one of the international ethical guidelines, the author reflects broadly on these issues and attempts prescribing an approach from both the theoretical and practical angles liable to mitigate, if not completely eliminate, some of the problems and difficulties.
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