The compilation album “Music for Saharan Cellphones” is an incredible collection of tracks scraped (and later remixed) from the memory cards of mobile phones in Ivory Coast, Mali, Algeria and Niger. In much of West Africa, cellphones are used as all-purpose multimedia devices. In lieu of PCs and high speed internet, knockoff mobile handsets store portable music collections, playback songs on tiny built-in speakers and swap files in a very literal peer-to-peer Bluetooth wireless transfer.

The impetus for the project began in 2010 when Chris Kirkley returned from his travels in Mali and Mauritania and presented the rough cut album. The music on the compilation was collected from mobiles in the remote northern Malian town of Kidal. The songs from Kidal range from DIY Tuareg guitar, auto-tuned Moroccan chaabi, Malian coupé décalé and fruityloop hip hop.
 Originally released as a limited run cassette tape, the cassette was ripped onto the internet and has circulated around the world, featured in the The Guardian, BBC World Service, Pitchfork as well as a number of other blogs. The tracks quickly became a viral source of new and inspiring sounds, but have never had an official release until now.

The songs chosen for the compilation are some of the highlights—music that is immensely popular on the unofficial MP3/cellphone network from Abidjan to Bamako to Algiers, but have limited or no commercial release. They’re also songs that tend towards this new world of self production—home studios, DIY, synthesizers and autotune.

Following a hugely successful Kickstarter fundraising, a 17 track remix of the album is now available for free download (with optional donation) and via cassette, vinyl…and microSD memory card, of course. The vinyl release is a chance for the artists in the compilation to get paid and be properly credited. If you enjoy this album half as much as I do, consider chipping in a few bucks to support the artists and encourage future releases.

Edit: These are two separate and unique releases. The Boomarm Nation album is a remix of the original material sourced by Chris Kirkley.

May 14th marked the first official Google Android Developer Challenge Sub-Saharan Africa event in Cameroon. The week prior, a Google delegation arrived in Douala to plan next month’s inaugural G-Cameroon event, discuss the latest happenings at ActivSpaces and rub elbows with local entrepreneurs at the first VC4Africa Cameroon meetup in Douala.

With a short timeframe to organize the event, Rebecca Enonchong and Eric Niat of AppsTech offered to host the launch at their Douala office in central Akwa. Just three days before the event, the local tech community generated some buzz online and hoped for the best. It was thought that up to 15 developers might show up for the launch. More than 50 techies from around Douala, Buea and Yaoundé arrived with laptops and handsets at the ready.

View all photos in set.

With the AppsTech conference room filled beyond capacity, groups were split out into adjoining offices and work areas. Presentations were led by local dev Alex Drahon and assorted Android schwag was distributed to the top participants. By the day’s end, attendees had an overview of the Android platform and SDK, as well as the judging criteria and prizes for the challenge:

Judges will consider each entry under the following equally-weighted judging criteria: Originality of Concept, Effective Use of the Android Platform, Polish and Appeal, and Indispensability. All teams that make it to the final round in each category in each region (West/Central, East and Southern Africa) will be awarded Android phones. The 1st prize in each category across all regions will receive $25,000 USD and the chance to attend a Google developer event. Teams can be no more than 3 people. All applications in each region and category will be evaluated and ranked by a team of Google-selected judges. At the end of the judging period, on September 12th, finalists will be announced.

With this kind of cash on the table, competition within regions and categories is bound to heat up (Cameroon’s finest are up against heavyweight techies in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal). Regardless of which teams take home Android phones and cash, it’s great to see the local developer community in Cameroon galvanize around events such as these.

Miniature versions of vehicles are as popular with kids in Cameroon as anywhere else. Adult craftsmen across the continent use materials such as wire, beads and recycled cans to create toy bicycles, trucks and airplanes—many of which transcend the level of children’s toys and are nothing short of art objects. Indeed, some of these creations are produced for corporate clients and international buyers.

No less ingenious and fascinating are toys created by and for kids themselves, usually from the simplest of materials and tools. This includes items like toy tractors (Kenya) and SUVs (Uganda) made from recycled plastic bottles.

In Cameroon, one such popular toy crafted by kids is a ‘remote controlled’ car or ATV. These are often built from discarded flip-flops (slippers), sardine tins, bamboo or raffia palm, electrical conduit (pipe), rubber and bits of string. Steve blogged a design in Bamenda that incorporates a split bamboo steering column and a full-sized wire steering wheel.

It’s not difficult to spot toy cars like this being piloted by kids in Cameroon—the trick is usually being able to catch up with them to photograph one :). A big advantage of this design is its ability to handle rough terrain when being driven at speed. The bamboo frame, chunky tires and rubber fasteners suck up bumps in the road like a 4WD Toyota. The proud builder of this R/C all-terrain vehicle paused long enough to demonstrate his creation for me.

On the outskirts of Maroua, the capital of the Extreme North of Cameroon, is a place quite unlike any other in the country. Here a community of les forgerons—blacksmiths, or metalworkers—practice their craft in the relative cool of a tree grove. Several dozen men with specialized skills are gathered here for a single purpose: to transform piles of scrap iron into finely finished tools, stoves, replacement parts and other useful implements for sale to the local population. Young apprentices learn the craft while operating bellows or shaping wood for tool handles. The production here is performed entirely by hand and on a scale which must be seen to be fully appreciated.

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The finished goods here include agricultural tools; hoes, rakes, pick axes, shovels, wheelbarrows, John Deere-green painted plows, pry bars and machetes; household items such as cook stoves, sieves, pans, watering cans, buckets and cutlery; down to the smallest personal items, like precision tweezers. Motorbike taxis are a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Far North, so many spares are copied (and often improved) from the originals. These include motorcycle seats, cargo carriers and fenders. Many of the pieces of forging equipment—hand-cranked bellows, anvils, hammers and sledges—are themselves fabricated from scrap iron and reused materials.

The imported versions of many of these items are available a kilometer or so away at Fokou, a national chain of hardware stores. The items produced by the forgerons are of very high quality and sold at a fraction of the cost of their imported counterparts. This generates an understandably strong market demand for their wares. Thus, scores of hammers may be heard pounding away on anvils at this place from morning until late afternoon. It’s nothing short of an appropriate-tech, human-powered manufacturing industry.

I spent the better part of an hour slack-jawed at the sight, sound and frenetic pace of activity around the forges. When I inquired how long this community of metalworkers had been working at this spot, a man told me, “depuis l’indépendance” (since independence in 1960). Digging a bit deeper into Maroua’s early history, I uncovered an interesting fact. According to the official story, the name Maroua is derived from the town’s founder, Chef Bi-Marva which means “the Chief of the Forge”. The chief was later deposed by Fulani horsemen in the early 19th century. Had the former chief been a practicing metalsmith? If so, the metalworking heritage of Maroua dates back not 50 years, but closer to 200 years.

Whichever figure is more accurate, the metalworkers of Maroua are extraordinary craftsmen and very Afrigadget!

I had an opportunity to stop by the 2009 South West Regional Agro-Pastoral Show, an annual exhibition for local farmers and craftsmen, here in Limbe this afternoon. The event was held on a community field ringed by exhibition booths overflowing with every imaginable vegetable, fruit and live animal cultivated and raised in the southwest region of Cameroon. In addition, there were a number of innovators with homemade products and gadgets crafted from local materials.

Amid all the displays, one guy stood apart with some creations that can only be described as a near perfect marriage of form, function, green design and a borderline obsession with bamboo. Lekuama Ketuafor is the proprietor of Bamboo Magic, a one-man cottage industry he’s started to supplement his work as a teacher.

Using a set of simple hand tools, glue, varnish, skill and loads of patience, Lekuama finds ways of using bamboo—a ubiquitous, low-cost, renewable material—in ways many people have never imagined. Judging from the size of the crowd gathered around his booth, I suspect few Cameroonians had seen anything quite like Lekuama’s creations before.

Among the intricately decorated bamboo shoes [2], vest, palm wine calabash, cowboy hat, clocks and so on, I was immediately attracted to two incredibly cool electronics-related pieces: a bamboo covered Nokia phone and an attractive and functional laptop case. Here’s a video of Lekuama, dressed appropriately in head-to-toe bamboo wear, demonstrating these items:

The attention to detail on the laptop case is impressive, right down to the external USB port access, shoulder strap attachments, carry handle, magnetic clasps, internal elastic keeper strap and red felt lining. And how about that chic mobile phone?

Due to the time intensive nature of his craft, Lekuama makes these items for sale in very small quantities. However, his dream is to establish a training center where he can transfer his skills to young Cameroonians and build a community of artisan microentrepreneurs. Heck, I think these items would make a splash in any eco-trendy shop in the West. Any takers?