Joe LaConscience fights for freedom

DOUALA Cameroon Nov. 19 - Reggae artist and self-proclaimed freedom fighter, Joe Kameni, a.k.a Joe La Conscience, discusses with Mitch Land his ordeal in 2008.

Kameni and his friend, Leon Tengue, were arrested in front of the United States Embassy in Yaounde.

According to the 2008 annual report on human rights published by U. S. Department of State, the two men were holding a hunger strike to protest the government’s closing of Radio Equinoxe and Equinoxe TV in Douala.

Kameni and Tengue also opposed a provision being adopted in Cameroon’s constitution that would allow President Paul Biya to remain in power indefinitely. The State Department report said that on March 19, the Younde Court of First Instance sentenced Kameni and Tengue to six months in jail for illegal assembly and demonstration.

The president granted both men amnesty May 20 as part of a general amnesty of others arrested during the February unrest.

Click on the image to view an interview with Mr. LaConscience: