September 15, 2023, marks five years since one of the largest online news platforms in Cameroon, Mimi Mefo Info (MMI), was created. Today, MMI has nearly one million followers across all its social media platforms.
In an insightful chat with the media organ’s UK-based CEO, Mimi Mefo Takambou, she says MMI was born out of her desire to tell Cameroonian stories, hold power to account, and provide a space for journalists to practice objective and independent journalism.
Five years on, Mrs. Takambou says this vision is being fulfilled, as MMI has now positioned itself as the voice of the Cameroonian people. She says the overall goal of Mimi Mefo Info has been to accompany Cameroon in its strive towards democracy and good governance by providing an open platform that helps the masses air their grievances and contribute to local and national issues.
She also maintained that MMI’s steady growth for the past five years, from zero to over 500 thousand followers on Facebook and thousands of followers across different social media, has been thanks to hard work, commitment, and consistency.
The media platform employs 20 journalists practicing across Cameroon, alongside other employees. She says she envisages employing more journalists in order to properly capture Cameroonian stories, which she regrets are largely told by the international media. She also plans on acquiring a physical structure in Cameroon that will serve as MMI’s editorial office in the near future.
Mrs. Takambou also discussed MMI’s source of finance for the past five years, the challenges the media platform has faced, and how they have been surmounted.
EXCERPTS:
INTERVIEWER: One of Cameroon’s largest online news platforms, Mimi Mefo Info, which you founded in 2018, is celebrating its 5th anniversary today. What has kept the platform going for these years?
MIMI MEFO: In 2018, I discovered that there was a need for an independent media that could not be bullied into silence unless Cameroon gets to a point where there are many free independent journalists, media houses, radio stations, TV stations, and different newspapers— MMI’s job can never be done. So the passion behind MMI is immense, and we want to continue to inspire would-be journalists—young journalists who are still being trained now— because we want to see a future where someone or a young girl or a young boy who is studying to become a journalist is not aspiring to probably go corporate after they’ve worked for three, two, four, five years; we want a situation where real trained journalists continue to do the job with a lot of passion. So that is what has kept the platform going for years. So the vision is bigger than an individual, which is myself, the vision is about Cameroon journalism.
Within just five years, MMI has grown from zero to over 500 thousand followers on Facebook, with a vibrant website, and an active presence on other social media. What has accounted for this steady growth?
What you should know is that Cameroon and the rest of Africa are in dire need of the media, not just a media that would tell the story of the people in another way, because my experience as a journalist is that our stories in Cameroon, in Africa are being told by the international media, or should I say the West, and so many things are not being put into context. The media back home is not allowed to thrive because we have a lot of dictators in power; we have a lot of media houses being oppressed by the leaders who have been in power, and they don’t want the media to talk. That is not the kind of journalism I envisage for Cameroon and Africa. I am looking forward to a media that will tell the story differently, tell the story from the perspective of the people, and continue to hold power to account. Many of our followers, I would say, particularly genuine followers, have been able to understand this vision, and from day one, they’ve stood by us, they’ve supported us and I want to say that because of this consistency, we’ve been moving from one step to another.
So those following us, those who have always been with us because of this consistency, they’ve been able to understand this vision.
How has MMI been able to impact ordinary Cameroonians, press freedom and democracy in the country for these five years?
We have continued to fight for the few engaged journalists in Cameroon so that they can report and tell the stories of the people without fear or favour. Already, MMI has a team of at least three journalists who routinely informed Cameroonians about the happenings around them. So that is already creating an impact in the lives of many Cameroonians. We’ve been able to give many people their voice to talk; we’ve been able to give the people that platform to air their… if they have problems that security forces cannot solve; that the people’s representatives— those who are representing them in the lower and upper houses of Parliament; that the Mayors that they actually voted for, that the DOs that are being appointed— cannot solve. They bring some of these problems to MMI because MMI, in one way or another, has a solution — not like we are the solution providers, but we give them that platform where they can express themselves and air some of these grievances so that those who are holding power can be able to see them and see their own loopholes in front of them. So MMI is that voice that the people have.
MMI was born at a very difficult time— in the heat of the crisis in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. What prompted you to start a media platform, online to be specific, at such a difficult time?
Yeah of course I understood the risk at the time even more because MMI came into existence just at the time when mainstream media were given an ultimatum by the Minister of Communication at the time, ISSA Tchiroma Bakary, who was saying that the traditional media, radio stations and newspapers shouldn’t mention the word federalism. It was even worse to talk about secession. If you tried or dared, you’d be in serious trouble. To me that was in direct attack on the media. Of course it has always been— it is still the case in Cameroon now and it will continue to be so long as we have the current dispensation, we have the same people in power, we don’t have change. And it’s of course not just in Cameroon this is happening. MMI came into existence in the midst of all of these to tell this story a little bit differently. It was of course a very bold move, one of the, I can say, one of the boldest moves that I’ve ever made, despite the challenges and the price that I as an individual had to pay. But I don’t regret doing that at all. I don’t.
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Living abroad and also working with a renowned international broadcaster, DW; how have you been able to run and manage the platform for these years?
Yeah it’s been possible because of the amazing MMI team that has been in place, continued to be in place since it was founded until today. There is something common about almost every MMI staff coming in when we are recruiting of course, that passion that I see in them, how motivated they are by our work. They are always saying something like okay with MMI they see something different, they see a level of commitment because they have been following us keenly; they don’t do that superficially. Anyone who is coming to work for MMI is not just coming because they were recommended by someone. They are coming because they have been following and seeing the work that we are doing and it inspired them. So there’s always that inspiration behind their coming to join the team, you know. That’s why we’ve been able to keep the thing going so far, because always complacency, I think, creeps into any company, any organization, when there’s no vision and when the vision carrier or the CEO is not focused and unfortunately for us MMI is actually the opposite of that.

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One of the toughest challenges facing the private media sector in Cameroon has been lack of finance. Is that the same problem with MMI and, if yes, how have you been able to surmount this challenge and stay afloat?
Wow, this is a very, very important question because it’s been one of our toughest challenges, tough because we have a team of about 20 journalists, and it’s not easy to run a team of 20 journalists and make sure that they are paid on a monthly basis. Of course, there are a few friends who have not ceased supporting MMI and thanks to their unconditional support, I want to underline the word unconditional, because they don’t have any motives. They only support the team because they find the work we are doing to be fascinating. So we are actually where we are because of the support of some of these few friends who have believed in our vision, who have always been there for us, and we’ve been able to do more than what we are doing and do even better if we continue to receive support from more and more Cameroonians, Africans, and, of course, other people of goodwill in the world. It will go a long way towards helping us as a media house to continue to report, and even recruit more journalists to be able to tell the story of Cameroon. In fact, a lot is going on in Cameroon that is not being told, and there’s no better way to tell the story if we don’t have enough journalists; if we are unable to pay all the journalists that we have. So that has been a major and huge challenge.
How has Mimi Mefo Info been able to navigate the tough terrain of telling stories about the Anglophone Crisis, considering how complicated it has been for journalists working in the two English-speaking Regions?
What you should know is that MMI is not only reporting on or covering the Anglophone Regions of the country. We have journalists in the Far North covering the Boko Haram crisis, and other parts of Cameroon, of course covering what is happening elsewhere. There’s MMI Française, which is the French arm of the media house that we created, as well as Mimi Mefo Info, which is in English. So we have reporters across Cameroon covering issues that are happening— whether political, economic, or social. The challenges that journalists have in the Anglophone Regions are the same challenges that journalists have in the Far North Region, they are the same challenges that journalists have in the center region, the Littoral Region, the West region, and every part of Cameroon. A journalist was murdered in Yaounde, so it was not just in the Anglophone Regions like we saw with Anye, who was murdered as well just recently. We saw Martinez Zogo. Journalists are being arrested in the Far North. Journalists are arrested across the country. So it’s actually a national problem—the situation of press freedom in the country.
Has the platform at some point suffered any backlash from any party for the work MMI has been doing?
Of course, it suffers a lot of backlash from faceless trolls, that’s how I call them, and even people come openly to criticize MMI. People that we know come to criticize but I can say that they are just a tiny, insignificant minority because we have huge support and a good number of people mobilized to support us. They have been there from day one. They’ve understood the vision; they always read our reports between the lines and they have understood what we stand for that’s why you see the numbers growing and growing and growing. Yeah talking about those attacking us, we have a lot of conflicts in Cameroon: the Anglophone conflict; we have Boko Haram; we have politicians fighting to replace the current system, the current regime. When you talk about what they are doing or even what the regime is currently doing, there are attacks coming from across the board, from everywhere. So yeah there is backlash. There are some individuals who will be so happy to see MMI disappear, and if you ask them how many articles they have read on MMI, they won’t be able to name even one.
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So just to tell you those with the backlash are very, very few and I can say very, very insignificant because if we had to listen to their comments, maybe their criticisms, their insults probably MMI would not exist today. But we exist today because we have been able to stand the test of time; we’ve been able to continue working courageously and we’ve not given up.
How satisfied are you when you look at MMI now vis a vis the goal you set forth for the media organ five years ago?
Yeah we’ve made a lot of positive strides—of course I wanted us to be above what we are now, but we are being tied down by finances, like I said earlier; restrictions from some of our social media platforms, you know, like on Facebook there are some human rights issues that Facebook wouldn’t want us to put out. We are there to tell the story of the people and when the people bring their stories we have to tell them but then if Facebook decides otherwise and says, ‘oh yeah you cannot talk about this because of this; you cannot publish this image because of this,’ we have to respect that. But then it has come with a lot of price. We’ve been restricted at some point; sometimes we’ve had a lot of restrictions but things are getting more and more better and I’m positive that it can only get better. So in the months ahead, we’ll love to have an office in Cameroon where we can all sit as a media house and also operate as a normal newsroom and not just do it virtually.
How would you intend to see MMI in the next five years, what should readers expect?
The dream that everyone who loves Cameroon is to see it as a thriving democracy, a country where the rule of law, most importantly, where there is a truly independent media, which is helping to check those in power and hold them to account that is the Cameroon that I want to see; that is the MMI that I want to see in the next five years that will continue in this vision. And I believe that we’ll continue to inspire; we’ll continue to inform and we’ll continue to thrive even in the dangerous media environment that Cameroon has got at the moment. I wouldn’t conclude this without a special thank you to the entire MMI team; the MMI management team. They’ve been doing a very, very fantastic job. And I wouldn’t end this without thanking God Almighty because God has been faithful; God is the reason why we are here today. Thank you.
How to support!
Via Mobile Money: 679135573 (Mimi Mefo Takambou)
Paypal: Contact@mimimefoinfos
Sort Code: 04-03-70
Thank very much ma’am
Interviewed by Tata Mbunwe