The Spirit of Molyko: A Crucible of Cameroonian Creative Energy
The writer traces how Molyko, a university district in Buea, became the incubator for Cameroon's modern entertainment industry through the friction and collaboration of student creators. Names like Dr Nkeng and Daphne emerged from this ecosystem of musicians, graphic designers, and event organizers working in rudimentary studios and competing in student-led award shows.
In one of my articles from earlier this year, I mentioned that Molyko was not a place, but a spirit. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the entertainment industry as we know it, has been shaped quite a lot by the small locale at the foot of Buea. And at this very moment, more is coming out of that place that is going to shape and define our industry even more down the line.
I tend to think a lot of the creative genius that has poured out of that place is due to the fact that that it is a university area, and so that constant friction between the students has led to the little sparks that we see today in the works of Dr Nkeng or of Daphne. You’d think this would be the same for other student areas like Soa or Ngoa-Ekele but it seems the immensity of the contribution came from Molyko.
Maybe it’s because these two aforementioned areas were drowned out in the immensity of Yaoundé; I don’t know. Nonetheless, they too have their own share of the contributions.
I got into UB around the time when Ambe went by the name Denzyl and his song “E don blow” was on every student's lip. I want to believe that it was at that time that things began to take off for the whole industry. There was already a multiplicity of recording studios around, some of them quite rudimentary. I remember Chillen music was owned by a guy who was renting two rooms in his cite. One was his room, and the other was a studio.
Students in UB back then were already on major showbiz competitions. Late Achalle for example won Star de Demain, then there was Baam which won a Nescafe singing competition. Freddash studios was a small 'carabot' building beside Paramount Hotel, Dr Kapt had his first album out. I even remember hearing about a rap group called SelectKa… or something like that. Nyonga of M1 studios too was popping around that period.
Even graphic designers were beginning to learn their trade, with students using Windows XP and Macromedia Works to design flyers for nights and parties. Students learned how to advertise and market their parties, going from cite to cite and trying to get people to buy tickets. There was no WhatsApp back then and you could not put it up on your status. You had to go knocking on doors. Event organisers today learned how to do so by organising big budget 3 phase parties in Douala or Limbe.
And talk about award shows… before the Ujams and Bonteh Digital Awards of today, in UB we had the Dynasty Awards. It was organised by students and was for students. And as the years went by it became better and better.
Molyko has been the crucible in which the Dr Nkengs and the Daphnes and anyone else making a mark in the entertainment industry that went through there were melted, purified and forged to what they are today. By extension, it isn’t just Molyko now but also those places where young creative minds have met, hungry and eager to make something out of their time and their minds. It’s all those places where all these young men and women have practised their craft over and over, spending countless hours on it all to be able to make something out of it; the results which we see today.
All this to say we need that constant friction, that rubbing together of our different minds, skill, capabilities, experiences and competencies in a creative environment to come out with time-impacting products or thoughts that will change our society and make it better. What happened in Molyko in the first decade of the 2000s in bearing its fruits today and we are eating from it.
We just have to make sure that fire never dies out by telling people who are back there, stories like this one so they see where we came from and how far we have come, so that they feel inspired too to create something of their own in order to keep that wheel of creativity and growth spinning.
- Wandji Wilfred
. Picture: Dr Nkeng Stephens
. *****Dr Nkeng Stephen is not associated with Ballantine's or with the #TrueMusicChallenge.
This piece was written in 2019, at a moment when Cameroon's creative industries were gaining visibility both domestically and internationally. The writer reflects on the early 2000s as a formative period—when internet infrastructure was limited, when creativity required physical proximity and direct hustle, and when university spaces became de facto creative hubs by necessity and circumstance.
The essay captures something essential about how creative ecosystems form: not through top-down infrastructure alone, but through the collision of hungry minds in tight spaces. It remains timely as a reminder that today's celebrated creators carry the fingerprints of those early, unglamorous hours—and as a call to protect the conditions that allow such friction to still occur. It is also a corrective against the notion that Cameroon's creative output emerges from a single city or monolithic movement.