Cameroon’s national literatures: An introduction

In the Afterword of my book The Sacred Door and Other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba (2008), I wrote the following: “My earliest impressions of Cameroon were gleaned from the stories told by older people. Their comments revolved around two things: first, that Mount Cameroon—also known as Mount Fako, the Throne of Thunder, and the Chariot of the Gods—the highest peak in West and Central Africa, is the site of the earliest recorded volcanic eruption in the region; and second, that the country they call home was named after prawns by some white people. It is said that in the fifth century BCE, while sailing along the Atlantic coast of West Africa, Hanno, the Carthaginian explorer and ship’s captain, observed Mount Cameroon erupting and inscribed in his travel writings the name Theon Ochema, Chariot of the Gods. He is said to have noted that the fires from the mountain were so hot and so bright that the flames reached up and touched the stars. Firm believers in this historical version point out that Mount Cameroon (also called Mount Fako because it is situated in Fako Division of the South West Province) is the only active volcano on the coast of West Africa, erupting seven times in the twentieth century alone. They also point to the fact that the mountain is known locally as monga-ma loba—Seat of the Gods. I was born in the South West Province but was raised through my teenage years in the grasslands of the North West, where Beba, my village of origin, is situated. Mount Cameroon has therefore held a kind of mystery for me. As a young girl, I was fascinated with these stories of the so-called discovery by Hanno, of flaming arrows reaching for the stars, and with the fact that Debundscha, the wettest place on the African continent and the place with the second-highest rainfall in the world, lies at the foot of the Seat/Chariot of the Gods. I found it amusing that my country was named after big juicy shrimp, and by a bunch of white men we did not know. I could not grasp what that act of naming really entailed, but the teachers who taught me in primary school and the adults who told us stories by the evening fire were not amused. They insisted that branding us with the name of shrimp was an invitation to a feast. The metaphor was lost on my young sensibilities. As I got older and attended primary and secondary school, our curriculum was tailored to the British education system of O Levels and A Levels. In our history lessons, little was afforded the various peoples who migrated to and now inhabit the sahel and plateau regions of the mostly Muslin north, or the grasslands, littoral, and forest regions of the mostly Christian south. History lessons were dominated by European and Cameroon’s colonial history. Only later, at the University of Yaoundé, did I, on my own, read all the books I could that addressed the various kingdoms, chiefdoms, and indigenous civilizations of the people who today call Cameroon home

Francophone Cameroon literature: A conversation with Ambroise Kom

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Anglophone Cameroon literature: A conversation with Bole Butake

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Field analysis of solar PV-based collective systems for rural electrification.

This article analyses the long-term performance of collective off-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems in rural areas. The use of collective PV systems for the electrification of small medium-size villages in developing countries has increased in the recent years. They are basically set up as stand-alone installations (diesel hybrid or pure PV) with no connection with other electrical grids. Their particular conditions (isolated) and usual installation places (far from commercial/industrial centers) require an autonomous and reliable technology. Different but related factors affect their performance and the energy supply; some of them are strictly technical but others depend on external issues like the solar energy resource and users’ energy and power consumption. The work presented is based on field operation of twelve collective PV installations supplying the electricity to off-grid villages located in the province of Jujuy, Argentina. Five of them have PV generators as unique power source while other seven include the support of diesel groups. Load demand evolution, energy productivity and fuel consumption are analyzed. Besides, energy generation strategies (PV/diesel) are also discussed

Modelling an off-grid integrated renewable energy system for rural electrification in India using photovoltaics and anaerobic digestion

This work describes the design optimisation and techno-economic analysis of an offgrid Integrated Renewable Energy System (IRES) designed to meet the electrical demand of a rural village location in West Bengal – India with an overall electrical requirement equivalent to 22 MWh year-1. The investigation involved the modelling of seven scenarios, each containing a different combination of electricity generation (anaerobic digestion with biogas combined heat and power (CHP) and photovoltaics) and storage elements (Vanadium redox batteries, water electrolyser and hydrogen storage with fuel cell). Microgrid modelling software HOMER was combined with additional modelling of anaerobic digestion, to scale each component in each scenario considering the systems' ability to give a good quality electricity supply to a rural community. The integrated system which contained all of the possible elements including except hydrogen production and storage presented the lowest capital ($US 71k) and energy cost ($US 0.289 kWh-1) compared to the scenarios with a single energy source. The biogas CHP was able to meet the electrical load peaks and variations and produced 61% of the total electricity in the optimised system, while the photovoltaics met the daytime load and allowed the charging of the battery which was subsequently used to meet base load at night

Health and Energy at MADEV 2017 Photovoltaic Hybrid Systems for remote villages: Systemes Hybrides Photovoltaiques pour les villages isolés

International audienceElectricity access in remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa is limited due to high costs of grid extension to areas characterised by low population and low energy densities. Photovoltaic hybrid systems can be computed using an energy balance equation involving one unknown. For hypothetical village with an average daily energy demand of 153.6 kWh/d, the monthly energy output of photovoltaic modules at Garoua, Cameroon, enabled the evaluation of feasible photovoltaic hybrid (PVHS) options. An option with a renewable energy fraction of 0.557 having lower initial investments is suggested for electrification of more remote villages in Sub-Saharan African countries which have high solar radiation levels. This option comprises a 23.56 kWp PV array, a 15 kWp PV inverter, a 25 kW bi-directional inverter, a battery bank of capacity 324.48 kWh and a 25 kW diesel generator with an operating time of 1309 h/yr or 3.59h/d. The size of the PV array determined is smaller compared to the sizes of PV arrays which have been evaluated in the range 30-45 kWp using HOMER software for medium villages in Senegal.L’access à l’éléctricité en Afrique Sub-saharienne est limité par le cout élevé d’extension des resaux electriques vers les zones isolées caracterisés par une faible densité de la population et une faible densité de consummation de l’energie electrique. Les systemes hyrides photovoltaiques peuvent étre evalués avec une equation energétique à un inconue. Pour un village hypothetique avec une demande énergétique quotidienne de 153.6 kWh/jr, les productions énergetique mensuelles des modules photovotaiques à Garoua, au Cameroun, ont permis l’evaluation des options photovoltatiques hybrides realisables. Une option avec une fraction d’énergie renouvelable de 0,557 ayant un investment initial inféreur est suggerée pour l’électrification de villages plus éloignés dans l’Afrique subsaharienne qui ont des niveaux élevés de rayonnement solaires. Cette option comprend un générateur photovotaique de 23,56 kWc, un onduleur photovoltaique de 15 kWc, un inverseur bidirectionnel de 25 kW, un groupe de batterie d’une capacité de 324.48 kWh, et un groupe electrogene diesel de 25 kW avec un temps de fonctionnement de 1309 h/an ou 3.59h/j. La taille du générateur photovoltaique determiné est inférieur à celle des générateurs photovoltaiques dans la plage allant de 30 à 45 kWc à l’aide du logiciel HOMER pour les villages moyenne du Senegal comptant 750 habitants

Techno-economic analysis of stand-alone hybrid photovoltaic–diesel–battery systems for rural electrification in eastern part of Iran—A step toward sustainable rural development

Almost all the villages consisting of more than 20 households in Iran have been grid-connected by 2010 according to the Forth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010) of the Iranian government; however, there are many isolated communities with less than 20 households that are still in need of electrification. Currently, the sole technology that provides electric power to such communities is diesel generator, which does only cause environmental problems and human health concerns, but also rank high in maintenance and operational costs. Due to the recent increasing attention of Renewable Energy Organization in Iran (acronymed as SUNA based on its Persian name) to the application of renewable energies, this paper aims to analyze the techno-economic feasibility of stand-alone hybrid PV-diesel energy systems for electrification of remote rural areas in eastern part of Iran where 5 kW h/m2 solar radiation per day is a common feature. Through simulations based on HOMER software, this study presents a comprehensive comparative analysis among potential configurations of a system best suited to meet the needs of isolated Iranian communities. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved