Awards Ceremonies in Cameroon: Talent Recognition or a Money-Making Venture?

From time immemorial, awards have been a major part of human society, which does not only stimulate talent but also acts as a personalised shining reminder of hard work, dedication and perseverance. 

Navigating from ancient Greeks giving laurel wreaths to Olympic champions to modern-day Hollywood celebrities receiving Oscar awards, awards ceremonies have performed a significant role in celebrating achievements in various works of life.

In order to manufacture a detailed understanding of the concept of awards, this writer will drive you to the origin and purpose of awards to society and the Cameroonian reception and implementation of awards.

Origin of Awards

Making a journey through time to explore the rich origin of awards from civilisation, I discovered that awards got their origin from ancient civilisations such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. 

In these societies, those who showed allegiance and service to the state would receive titles and honours from the monarchs. 

This practice eventually spread to other cultures, including the Greeks and Romans, who used awards to recognise military valour and athletic prowess. 

In the mediaeval period, awards acquired a deeper religious meaning, as knightly woods and orders of chivalry were formed to honour valiant acts and devotion to the church.

They receive awards for their valour in the battlefield and for serving the monarch or queen. The title "Knight" was highly revered and represented chivalry and honour. 

Fast-forward to the modern era: awards have become an ubiquitous part of popular culture, with everything from music and film to sports and business having their own dedicated awards ceremonies. 

The most admirable modern-day awards consist of the Nobel Peace Prize, Oscars, Pulitzer, Grammy, MTV, and AFRIMA. 

After cycling through this inexhaustive list, the question that lingers in one's mind is, What purpose do these awards serve ?

Purpose of Awards (1) Recognition of Achievement: Awards serve as tangible symbols of honour and recognition for outstanding achievements.

In various fields, including sports, academics, arts and community service. (2) Motivation and Inspiration. Awards motivate individuals and teams to strive for excellence and inspire to achieve great things. 

(3) Building a Positive Culture Recognizing and celebrating achievements can foster a positive and supportive work environment, boosting moral and employee retention. 

(4) Promoting Excellence: Awards can highlight and promote excellence in products, services, processes or practices leading to improved customer satisfaction and business performance. 

After consuming the origin and purpose of awards, it is germane to meander through the accreditation process of awards in Cameroon.

In this light, it is salient and fair to commence this section by acknowledging and appreciating the few award organisers who are unshakably living up to standard. 

Though there exist these rare few, I must opine with characteristic candour that there are many awards organisers who have taken a paradigm shift from the purpose of awards, and due to this sham idiosyncrasy, many are wallowing in a quandary which pushes them to ask the following questions: 

(1) Is award accreditation in Cameroon a talent recognition or a money-making venture? (2) Are awards becoming purchasable products ?, (3) Is the criteria for awards consistency or a heavy pocket? (4) Accreditation of Awards in Cameroon: Popularity over Hard Work? 

To attempt an answer to these worries, I will say as a keen observer that most awards ceremonies in Cameroon are a money-making scheme for the organisers who have the following modus operandi: They draft a list of those they want to get money from and label them as nominees. 

They proceed by approaching them with their initiative to recognise their works by granting them an award in an open ceremony. Finally, they conclude by tabling a financial bill for the event and request financial support from their prospective award winner. 

After arousing their pride and desires, they leave some of these nominees with no option but to revert in a favourable manner by paying huge sums of money as their contribution for the event, and this gesture constitutes an assurance for the accreditation of an item which will showcase to their friends, relatives and the entire nation an exhibit of their purported hard work. 

It's worthy of note that those who do not meet up with the amounts requested to support the event or do not effectuate any contribution as to cash and kind, their names are often scrapped off the list. 

It is very apposite to imagine that among the names detached from the list, you can find people who have given their all and are the most qualified to receive such awards.

Again, it is sound reasoning to posit that contributions in cash or kind for the success of the event are tantamount to purchasing the award. 

Legally speaking, it is not acceptable to ask a prospect winner or candidate to participate in the organisation of the event through contributions because it will be defeating the judicial principle that "One cannot be a plaintiff and a judge in the same case."

Meaning you can not sue a person to court and then sit to judge him either through a friend or relative who is the judge. 

It is rather unfortunate that this is the recurrent happenings at award ceremonies in Cameroon.

This is true because once a nominee contributes to the event, he or she becomes part of the organising team that will decide who wins what or not. 

Another disturbing issue concerning awards in Cameroon is the issue of recommendation. Most people have gotten awards because they were recommended by an influential person or house. 

This is done at the detriment of the nominees in the same category who may merit the award but may fail to have it because of an absence of a powerful person or godfather to press the button behind the scenes. 

Making an addendum through an extension, many organisers of talent competitions in Cameroon seem to be falling under this same line as they elucidate akin actions in awarding winners. 

What they do, which reduces the mission of identifying real talent, is the implementation of financial voting as a condition sine qua non to qualify for the next level.

It is usually at this juncture that many unpopular talents are eliminated, while the untalented but affluent and popular continue in the competition. 

This disregard for social and financial inequality begs the question of whether these organisers are out to make their money or are actually for talent search or if they prefer riches and popularity over raw talent. 

This action, effectuated by them, defeats the purpose of their events and contradicts popular opinion about talent hunts, whereupon searching, one needs to have at the back of his mind that these young talents are mostly in suburbs and from poor families. 

Therefore, because of the fact that they are just beginning to showcase their talent through your platform, they couldn't have been popular enough to attract votes towards them. 

Some may even be showcasing their talents openly for the first time thanks to your platform. So it's unthinkable to expect them to be already popular. 

As an epilogue, we call on awards and talents hunt competition organisers to sit up and implement actions that fit the purpose of awards.

Because their current action births the following consequences: It Discourages Hard Work

Those who feel cheated for the reason that those who aren't on the field got the awards through money and recommendations are tempted to cease doing what they have been doing to allow those who have been given awards to do so. 

It is very painful for a journalist to risk his life writing articles and report on injustice and corruption, only for him to discover that another journalist who isn't taking such risk has received the award in that category. 

It is also excruciating for people to risk their lives crusading for peace in the war-striking zones of the country, and other people are giving the award as peace ambassadors. 

It is again acrimonious to find organisation personnels risking their health by ensuring hazardous and dirt free environment, only to hear that an organisation that has little or nothing to show forth has been granted an award in the said category. 

Finally Talent Hunt competitions should note that, it is acerbic to see young talents eliminated in competitions just because they lack the popularity to amass comments, likes and views on their social media handles, or lack affluent family members and friends to vote financially. 

While we hope for a change, I will leave you with this quotation: "Awards should be about Talent and dedication, not privilege or connection". BAFTA

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Marks Abaiko, Secretary General Association of New Generation Authors