A
17-year-old Cameroonian has won Google's annual coding award, despite the
partial shutdown of internet in his country. Nji Collins Gbah is the first
African to win the competition.
Deutsche Welle, 15 February 2017
 |
| Young Africans sitting in front of computers (AFP/Getty Images) |
The
population of the English-speaking North West and South West regions of
Cameroon are elated after teenager Nji Collins Gbah became the first African
winner in Google's annual coding competition.
The
17-year-old beat all odds, including the internet blackout imposed by the
government, to emerge the winner. The Cameroonian government cut off the
internet in the English-speaking regions four weeks ago, saying this was
necessary to quell unrest and to stop people from using social media to spread
what the government calls "anti-state messages."
Protests
began in October last year, targeting the alleged marginalization of English
speakers by Cameroon's francophone majority. Since then, at least six
protestors have been shot dead and hundreds have been arrested.
Undeterred
by all this, Gbah traveled to a neighboring town to apply for the global award.
Locals have
been thronging the family's home in Bamenda to celebrate the young hero whose
win came at a difficult time for
Cameroonians in the South and Northwest regions.
This is an
English-speaking part of the country where there are complaints about alleged
discrimination and what people see as the francophone establishment's failure
to respect the status of English as an official language of Cameroon.
Computer or
chores?
Apart from
getting round the internet blackout, Gbah also had to borrow his father's
computer.
" He
used to take my computer and I was not very happy with it because I was feeling
that he was only spending time without doing house chores.” Nji Patrick said.
" So
at times I used to seize my computer and lock it in the house and I told him
not to use it any more because I was believing that he was just spending time
on that computer for nothing," Gbah's father told DW.
Gbah went
ahead to register for the competition. He had to travel to a French-speaking
zone in Mbouda where he could get an internet connection to complete the Google
competition tasks.
"They
told us to know some basic things in computer science and some basics in
computer science programming and how to use certain software. So you basically
just need to create an account or use your Google account if you have one,”
Gbah explained.
 |
| Google's coding competition is now in its 14th year |
After his
initial skepticism. his father admitted that his son is now a role model for
many youths after beating all odds to win
the Google coding competition.
"I was
very very surprised. I blamed myself for being so hard on him but now I am very
very happy," Nji Patrick said.
Victory is
an inspiration
For many young people in Cameroon, like Atteh
Francis, the victory shows how much they are losing due to the internet ban in
their region.
"This
young man had that inspiration to go to Bafoussam, but you don't know how many
of them are there who could have been on the podium but who do not have the
chance because of the absence of the internet, and it is a big shame because I
don't know how I can live for a day without the internet," Francis said.
For the
young winner, his victory is an inspiration to find solutions to problems like
the current internet ban in his area.
"I
would like to study computer science at university. The main thing is to focus
exactly on what you want to do. Once you have a goal and you see that you are
going to get benefits at the end, or you are going to learn something new from
it, then you should totally go with it," Gbah said.
Meanwhile,
the gvernment says the ban will continue.
"Social
networks provide lots of opportunities. You can get early warning signals in
cases of disasters, but we have noticed that many people use it for unhealthy
purposes," Cameroon's Minister of Post and Telecommunication Libom Li
Likeng said.
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