By Macdonald Ayang Okumb
Mwalimu George Ngwane, writer and civil society actor has been offered an Award by the Commonwealth Student’s Union of the University of Buea. The Award in the form of a plaque that was presented to the Mwalimu on May 24th 2013 during the Commonwealth week activities in the University of Buea has as inscription “COMSU-UB hereby acknowledge the efforts you have been making towards the upliftment of the Commonwealth values and principles in Cameroon”.
Other Recipients of the Commonwealth Award and in diversified thematic areas were His Excellency the Minister of External Relations, H.E Secretary-General of the Ministry of External Relations, H.E the Nigerian Consul-General for the North West and South West Regions and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea.
Quizzed on how he felt after such an award, Ngwane said even though he is not obsessed with Awards because to quote him “people give awards but God gives rewards” he was elated because most Awards in Cameroon go with pre-arrangements especially with financial negotiations. He said he valued this award because it came from young people who genuinely thought he had offered something back to society.
It must be recalled that Mwalimu George Ngwane is the Executive Director of AFRICAphonie and Chairman of the National Book Development Council-Cameroon. Both civil society organisations have benefitted from grants from the Commonwealth Foundation, London in the areas of Art/Culture, Peace and Governance. It is estimated that more than three thousand stakeholders have directly benefitted from these grants through seminars, workshops and consultations organised by both AFRICAphonie and National Book Development Council in Cameroon. Most of the activities can be consulted at www.africaphonie.org and www.cambookcouncil.org.
Ngwane has also through the activities of these organisations been invited to forums out of the country. He is author of eight books and feature writer in national and international newspapers. He is currently member of the Advisory Board of the African Book Publishing Record, Columbia, U.S.A, Cultural Task Force Member of Arterial Network, South Africa, Member of African Colours, Kenya, Alumnus of the Jordan hill College of Environmental Education in Scotland in 1991, Senior Fellow of Chevening in Conflict Prevention/Resolution from the University of York (UK) in 2010 and recipient of the Scholar at Risk Fund Fellowship (U.S.A) in 2004.
He is a contributor to African online culture blogs and has a personal blog on democracy, development, conflict and culture (www.gngwane.com).
He studied in the University of Yaounde, Cameroon (1980-1984) coming out with a Bachelor’s degree and Post-graduate diploma.
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