CHEF!/CHIEF!

CHIEF! is a documentary chronicle of the trials and tribulations of daily life under a dictatorship.

During the month of December 1997, I witnessed several troubling events in Cameroon: In my village, a young boy was nearly lynched by a mob seeking “justice” in a lawless state. I attended a wedding and learned that, by law, the husband is the head of the family. A highly respected journalist was imprisoned without trial for writing an article about the president’s health.
While seemingly unrelated, these incidents bear witness to disturbing tendencies in Cameroon today: they all point to the ways in which the abuse of power permeates everyday life in an authoritarian society.
CHIEF! brings these events together to allow us to reflect upon the current state of Cameroonian society with its hierarchies, inequalities, and lack of respect for human rights—all the by-products of a dictatorship.