TIPTOPSTARS

Giving is virtuous! Giving back is even more honorable. It is not clear how celebrities began nursing the idea that giving back to their communities was not just a social responsibility, but could be a great empowerment towards development. But that it fast became a phenomenon, is one big thing the world should celebrate. The simple thought that movie actors, musicians , fashion designers, etc, would still have amassed their financial, material and human resource wealth and selfishly clinched to them, pumps out goose pimples. How would the world have looked like if the winner took everything?

Prior to now, giving back was reduced to an act only performed by illustrious sons and daughters whose financial prowess had become very significant. Thus, scores of Nollywood celebrities would been seen in humanitarian projects understandably (as per common observation) because their fame had fetched them wealth.

In Cameroon, such gestures were sporadic and could only be faintly noticed. The sector, known to produce the greatest number of celebrities - entertainment, has grown at a very crawling pace and it is but normal that the Cameroonian society has not expected much giving back from it. But as time has rolled on, so too have perceptions. Curiously, Cameroonian artists, especially movie actors to whom the country has not given anything significant, have not waited until they become 'rich'. Rather, they have opted to direct the little they have to charity. Laudable!

That is the case with actress Elynn Fesse Basil, whose Sundrop Initiative has taken on a humanitarian venture to provide warmth to targeted populations, disadvantaged in one way or the other. According the founder, the organization , amongst other things, seeks to provide feeding programmes and homes to street children, victims of HIV and AIDS and orphans. That explains why in its maiden outing, Sundrop Initiative will be visiting three orphanages in Fako Division in the South West region of Cameroon, amongst them Godfirst Orphanage in Wotutu, Limbe and and Great Faith Orphanage in Boana, Buea. "These visits will be carried out on Saturday February the 13th this year, from 11: 00am to 5:00pm," Fesse told TIPTOPSTARS. "The beneficiaries will be marked as permanent partners to out initiative," the actress who doubles as legal expert added.

The February 13 philanthropic trip to communion with the orphans will precede a Charity Dinner, slated for Buea, the South West regional headquarters on Saturday February 27, 2016. "We shall be hosting some 250 people drawn from all walks of life at Eta Palace and they will be expected to participate in a fund-raising that is geared at fostering our social course," Sundrop Initiative founder wrote. She added: "We also intend to raise awareness and sensitize the public on our activities."

Apart from catering for the needs of orphans and street children, Sundrop Initiative also takes and follows up cases of child abuse, child labour, domestic violence, rape, basic human rights violation, etc. It also promotes gender equality and handles gender-based issues. The NGO is created to cover Cameroon, Africa and the rest of the world.

Meantime, its founder, Elynn Fesse Basil is a reputably engaged Cameroonian actress who believes that films can go beyond entertainment and be a veritable medium for development.

For more information on Sundrop Initiative and for your support, contact its head office at

Miss Bright entrance, Bomaka, Buea, Cameroon.
Tel: 00 (237) 670933409 / 694995911
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Facebook:www.facebook.com/sundropinitiative
Facebook page: Sundrop Initiative Twitter: #SunDinitiative

The story of genuineness in love has never been beautifully told the way it has in You & Me, the February 3-released video of Rythmz. "Well-packaged piece" - "thumps up Rythmz, it's me and you on this one" - "nice job Rythmz, Enobi and Dr. Nkeng", etc. These and more positive reactions have characterized the euphoric moments that have come with the video's release.

In portraying how true love lasts forever, the videographer has effectively made use of symbols such as abject poverty (shanty neighbourhoods) and fierce-looking parents whose rejection of the loving protagonists is non-negotiable. These elements however don't pose any threat, rather the protagonists are fixed on clinching to each other limitlessly. Even the Bamileke-Ewondo (Cameroonian tribes) dichotomy is not a barrier to this most-cherished togetherness.

And so in 14 years, the coveted love between the protagonists in You & Me breaths on, even in their physical separation. Even when the piece of paper that bonded the deal these years losses it whiteness, the wording s on it still legibly tell the true love story, an indication that time may not have the capacity to change minds.

At the soothing reunion, it is a happy lovely duo, performed by actor Nchifor Valery and actress Ade Kelly who confirmed that time and space are non-significant - if you are meant for each other, it shall come to pass.

Produced by XM Music, the video of You & Me is shot on locations in Buea, South West region of Cameroon. It is directed by the indefatigable Dr Nkeng Stephens, Cameroon's frontline music video maker. The track is an interesting blend of Afro Hip-Hop and bikutsi which Rythmz is known to possess a mastery of.

Rythmz is a Buea-based two-singer band that has been prominent in the Cameroonian contemporary music scene for the past three years and signed under the No Hitz, No Recordz label, manned by Prince Mykel Enobi. Other thrilling tracks they have in their repertoire are Dancia, All Night, Honeymoon, A Little Lie, A Little Kill, etc. The new video comes few weeks after Rythmz had a thrilling performance at the closing concert of the Yaounde en fete (YAFE) trade fair.

One of the leading Cameroonian actresses, Adela Elad, has hailed her colleagues for making film lovers convinced about the performance of the country's actors. Speaking to Apex 1 Radio (www.apex1radio.com) recently, the Limbe-based actress conclusively described some actors as great talents of her time.

Specifically assessing Ade Kelly, her co-actress in Bad Angel (TV series currently going on CRTV), Elad described the former as a great actress who would go beyond set performance to display a pleasing humility throughout a production. "Kelly is very accommodating and would won't give you any trouble on set," she told Apex 1 Radio. "She is the type of actress you would love to work with any day, anytime," Elad went on.

On Jeffery Epule, Cameroon's male sensation, Adela Elad was on point with what any other observer of the Cameroonian movie landscape would have opined. "He's everything a producer would need from an actor," said the Limbe actress who is playing Inspector Patience in Bad Angel. She said further: "Jeff is a seasoned and intelligent actor who would use words in their right context. With him, you can never be a bad actor." Elad also mentioned that she admires the talented actor in his role as an MC as well.

Describing Libota McDonald, another frontline Cameroonian actor with whom the 1m77-tall actress features in Bad Angel, Elad said the actor is a piece of talent whose hilarious nature makes working with the latter a great pleasure. " He's a well-oiled machine and an actor you would love to work with again and again," she remarked.

During the two-hour-long radio show that focused on the star in University Girls (a 2012 production) and Wrong Combination, produced and directed by R.N Seehofer, the actress made positive remarks about Moma Pascal aka Bob, Quinta Eyong alias Mama Quin and Ruth Nkenti as well. To Elad, Bob is the 'Le Creme de la Creme' (the cream of the cream) of the Cameroonian acting corps. "He masters his craft and a nice person to work with," she indicated. "Even in his strictness, I enjoy working with him," siad the young and talented award-winning Elad.

Even though she has never worked with Ruth Nkwenti in a project, Elad thinks the Douala-based actress is amazingly eloquent and brilliant. "She is smooth in her speech and I'd love to work with Ruth some day," she said. But for Quinta Eyong Ashu, Elad sees everything motherly in the elderly actress, playing Christine in Bad Angel. According to Elad, Mama Quin has always been her source of inspiration and the Mamfe-based actress would advice her on how to make her performance much more sassy all the time.

It should be noted that Adela Elad has starred in a good number of Cameroonian movies after officially joining her country's film industry in 2012. Apart from Bad Angel, University Girls and Wrong Combination, the completely bilingual (speaks English and French fluently) actress has starred in Invisible Eye, U-Turn, Envious Minds, etc. She doubles as a producer (upcoming Night in the Grasssfield is her maiden production) and a philanthropist.

Before the African movie landscape sprang to prominence through Nollywood, Hollywood actors and to a lesser extent their Chinese counterparts were undoubtedly heroes and heroines Africans and Cameroonians found pleasure in idolizing.

Arnold Schwarzenegger alias Commando, commanded respect just like Sylvester Stallone aka Rambo ramped his way into the hearts of movie lovers like nothing ever did.

Jean Claude Van Damme in damning the consequences in his films stole the heart of movie lovers just like Sean Connery and Roger Moore playing James Bond, sealed the bond with motion pictures addicts.

If Bruce Lee became the leeway into people’s movie consumption lives, Jacky Chan changed their attitudes from liking other things to admiring movies.

In her showdowns, Cythia Khan succeeded to can film lovers in her can full of acting skills, while Julia Roberts robbed their minds of anything else to instill the admiration of her performing art prowess.

These actors and scores of others had won comfortable places in the hearts of Africans – the young and the old, yet, they were only artists hailing from far away countries with little or no cultural backgrounds that rhymed with those of their admirers.

That these actors quickly became idols to Africans cannot be too much of a surprise. With global exposure which Hollywood has always benefitted from on their side, their talents forced them into the hearts and lives of film lovers. In the process, these movie kings and queens inspired many who in seeming hopelessness, still hoped they could be seventh art stars someday.

Perhaps, such hopes would have visibly been expressed more in African countries whose film sectors mustered the courage to overturn the tables. The case of Nigeria is prominent here. It did not take long for young boys and girls who dreamt of being screen masters and mistresses like their Hollywood counterparts to meet their desires and aspirations. Like a twit of light, Nollywood defied all odds and quickly catapulted them to the summit.

The Ramseys, the Genevieves, the Omotolas, the Ini Edos, the Monalisas, you name became the children of luck whose loaves of bread were buttered by a vibrant film sector that decided to rise and face the challenge. And by some struck of luck again, these names sung real deep into the minds of Cameroon to extents that they literally competed and overshadowed Hollywood icons who had hovered around for some time prior to the coming of Nollywood.

That this other dispensation inspired young Cameroonian boys and girls, is a matter of having them confirm. But from every indication, Cameroonian lovers of acting and admirers of actors envied their next door counterparts perhaps for one reasonable reason – they had the acting endowment, yet had no platform. So, how were they going emerge from the oblivion of nothing happening?

Along the years, scores of young Cameroonian actors who made pioneering strides in movie acting jumped out of the train with the backing that with the snail pace with which the locomotive rode on, it was never going to get to its destination as soon as expected. In the process, the industry has suffered a great loss of talented actors it would have been priding itself of today.

It is hard to withstand when it is slow and sluggish, but what about endurance which in every ramification is source of great success?

To say blatantly that Cameroon now has the platform like Hollywood or Nollywood would not be the truth, but a lot of young actors entering the industry have certainly understood the importance of endurance and it seems it has started paying off.

Actress Ade Kelly might not have been on board in the experimental days when being captured by the frame of a camera in a movie that never left the drawer, was just as good as not being paid for the role, but even today, her industry has not attracted attention sufficiently to keep the bulk of movie-star-dreaming youths. Yet, she is one of those who have accepted the current dispensation and are ready to be part of the builders’ club around which history is being written.

Fortunately, there are signals that literally indicate that the movie sector in Cameroon is closing up with a lighted end of a hitherto long tunnel whose distance now seems to have been significantly shortened. Behold, those signals are coming along with the Buea-based actress, revealing Ade Kelly as Cameroon’s next biggest face on the screens.

Her expressive passion for the art in a sector that is only at the debut of being wholly accepted by the people is being translated into the sassy performance which is now cajoling many and gradually propelling the actress to satisfactory recognition.

As if A Little Lie, A Little Kill, Cobweb, My Gallery not enough, Bad Angel has come to testify the truth that young Kelly is a bunch of acting talent Cameroon could conveniently rely on for her movie entertainment needs. Just seven episodes  the TV series that is current being projected on CRTV, Kelly now stands tall as the new sensation.

Before this write-up, we assigned 12-year-old Wendy, a resident of Douala to watch Episodes 4, 5 and 6 of Bad Angel, paying closer attention to actress Kelly. We needed a young mind to give us a layman appreciation of the movie star for reasons we will disclose ahead. “She is awesome, she is natural in her acting, she is cute, I like this actress, she is the best,” Wendy reported back to us.

Little Wendy may neither be a film critic nor reviewer and wouldn’t expected to understand the nitty gritty of films, but none of us were during the Commando, Rambo, James Bond days nor we have been watching Nollywood movies. But we grew up idolizing those actors.

If little Wendy and other Cameroonian children grow up watching, knowing, liking, admiring, adoring and idolizing Kelly and co., what a garden of movie stars from where we can harvest sufficient entertainment would we have.

That Kelly is a movie queen is no disputable fact – she is one – accept her as such, show her the love and support, after all, her counterparts elsewhere were never rejected to become who they later became. They are simply offered a hilarious reception which simply oiled the rail of their talent, making the ride much easier.

Editor’s Note:

This is an editorial used on a special radio show devoted to Cameroonian actress Ade Kelly, aired on Apex 1 Radio in October 2015.