Vivianhills Njibonko; The Dragon Queen Illuminating Cameroon’s Music Industry

By Etienne Mainimo Mengnjo

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Mbuti Njibonko is a budding artist, who has been illuminating Cameroon’s Music Industry for some time now.

The Unstoppable Dragon Queen, like she is fondly referred to, hails from Nwanti village in Ndu, Donga Mantum Division of the Northwest Region.

From childhood, she already started exhibiting her passion for music, because her parents too were singers. Her burning desire and passion became so strong that she decided to fully pursue a career in music. She started as a song writer in the earlier stages of her career and like she puts it, “the beginning is always very tough, but as a child growing up, I have always loved to sing because my parents use to sing a lot in the house. This burning passion became so strong that I decided to fully engage myself into music after writing a lot of songs in my early years.” 

According to her, “I did my first recording “Put your hands together” in 2014. In 2015, I released a single title “Violence made by women… “After these releases, I decided to join the Crazzy Family Music Group. In 2018, after reflecting, I decided to continue with my personal music project, even though I am still a member of the Crazzy Family. I love rap,  that is why I rap in my music.”

With a single in the market and an album with Crazzy Family, Vivianhills says the journey of six years hasn’t been smooth. “Lack of finance and sponsorship among other things are some of the biggest challenges I am facing.”

In a bid to make the society a better place, Vivianhills has decided to use entertainment to fight against social ills and restore hope to the less privileged in the society. The Dragon Queen described the Cameroon Music Industry as a “Laissez-faire Industry” where anybody comes in and goes out at any time.

“Every day, we preach unity but none is putting this into practice. This is very clear because entertainers work in a clique, man-know-man. Another clique that is being created unknowingly is the upcoming artistes. The fact that they are often neglected, with little or no finances automatically places them in a group of their own, struggling to build a career for themselves,” she added.

According to her, for Cameroon music to gain its place in the global podium, “we must act as one. We must promote real talents and forget about the man-know-man business syndrome.”

To her, budding artists must take music as a passion not as a profession so that their profession can take care of them and their families.  She also beseeched the Government to invest in the sector “and artists’ rights should be protected and respected.” Apart from being a musician, Vivianhills Mbuti Njibonko is a human rights defender, Psycho-social Counsellor and dance hall singer.