Bonteh Engelbert, the King of Cameroons Blogosphere: We celebrate our own

Bonteh Engelbert is a young, spirited, handsome, energetic blogger from the Cameroons specifically from Southern Cameroons. He has come to be known as the Cameroons King Blogger as fondly called by his readers/followers, BaretaNews can gladly quantify him as the King of Cameroons Blogosphere. He is a talent manager, content creator, brand Ambassador and budding entrepreneur. Bonteh Engelbert Kofon Jr was born on September 25th 1996. As a teen at just 19 years old in 2015, he founded what is today known as the Bonteh’s Blog which he greatly uses to inform, entertain, educate, promote and most essentially inspire youths like him. His desire to become a change maker was expressed when he was still very young, being a perfect in his secondary school days to course delegate and departmental executive even at the University of Buea level. With great passion for writing and being a member of debate clubs in secondary schools and university, it was evident that he’ll end up in the communication field!

Bonteh is currently a student of political science at the University of Buea. He is one of those thousands University Students who says he will not go to school until the aspirations of the people of Southern Cameroons are met. He therefore has dedicated this time for other curricular activities that build himself and others in the society. He has been very active in blogging and promoting news items and articles that shed light on the current Southern Cameroons struggle. He will not fail to call out leaders of the frontline movement when they fall wanting. In summation, Bonteh is that rare versatile blogger in the Cameroons. He will blog and approach articles from all angles that touch the society with style, taste, intellect. This is why he has been named the King of Cameroons Blogosphere. He is an embodiment of inspiration for young people

But who is Bonteh Engelbert?

He was born in Buea, the Southern Zone of Southern Cameroons. He is the eldest of three children of Efuh Emmaculate Amih (Menchum County, Wum), a dynamic business woman and Kofon Killian Bonteh (Bui County, Noni) a writer, teacher, and entrepreneur. He began his education at Government Primary School (GBPS) Biyem-Assi, had his First School living certificate and proceeded to the prestigious National Education Service College of Arts and Sciences (N.E.S.C.A.S) for three years. Later he moved to Green Hills Academy, COSBIE (where he had his GCE Ordinary Levels in 2012), Lycée Etoug Ebe and then GHS Bokwoango where he had his GCE Advance Level in 2014.

With unquenchable desire to become an excellent orator and writer, Bonteh applied to read Journalism and Mass communication at the University of Buea but was enrolled in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. But, this alone wasn’t enough to kill his dreams as he took it as an opportunity to polish his leadership skills. Held course delegate positions, executive position in clubs and associations, created the University of Buea Writer association all of which made him a better leader.

“The blogger” in him manifested itself when he came in contact with Lukong Leslie, a graduate and Administrative assistant at the University of Buea American corner and Wirsiy Franklin, a PhD student in Public health who served as elder brother to awaken the hidden talent in him. Amazed by his writing skills, these guardian angels encouraged him to create an online platform where he could publish his works and get more people read and follow him. This suggestion eventually gave birth to engelbertbonteh.wordpress.com, which later became cameroonprofiles.blogspot.com, a platform created to profile Cameroonians at home and abroad making a remarkable impact in their respective fields.

Bonteh and his little team gradually began penetrating the entertainment industry to leave a landmark but things weren’t as easy as they imagined. Having response from the big names wasn’t very easy especially as the team was still very young and had nothing to show off. That didn’t still discourage Bonteh and his team from working.

This hardworking, consistency and apt communication and writing skills were rapidly spotted by Motherland Empire, a leading Cameroonian based record label who gave him his first promotion and distribution deal. Bonteh and team were responsible for the distribution of Stanley Enow’s Soldier Like Ma Papa 2015 album in the South West region. That was the start of recognition from others which of course made him a Motherland Empire brand Ambassador.

Bonteh’s amateur blog, Cameroonprofiles.blogspot.com later changed to bonteh.blogspot.com and after much studies and observation, it was rebranded to bontehsblog.com a platform which has as core values to inform, entertain, promote, educate and most especially inspire youths like him. Since then, he has done promotion for renowned Cameroonian labels, established upcoming artists, models, actors, served as a communication strategist for events, organized a couple of others and lots more.

Starting from nothing, Bonteh has over 300,000 monthly visits on Bonteh’s Blog a milestone which places his platform as one of the most visited blogs in the Cameroon blogosphere with the most energetic and active readers/followers. Bonteh is the winner of the 2014 Anglophone Cameroon Writers Association (ACWA) youth read contest. In 2016, Bonteh was nominated under the Catergory of Best Cameroonian Blogger of the Diaspora Entertainment Award, was listed by Beekom Magazine as one of the Top 10 Young Influencers of 2016.

Having acquired knowledge and skills in the digital world, Bonteh is at the verge of launching his Public Relations, Marketing and Advertisement agency; Bonteh Media Network (BMN) a parent company to Bonteh’s Blog.

BMN is a communications and advertisement agency geared towards discovering and promoting talents, offering Digital Marketing Solutions & Strategies to startups & businesses, Web designing, media training, career consultation, corporate business image enhancement, project management and development, event planning and organizations and lots more.

BMN has lots of projects in its bank ready revolutionize the tech ecosystem. With this, Bonteh hopes to be the future of the digital world in Africa and Cameroon in particular.

As Southern Cameroonians we must then encourage and support our own. BaretaNews celebrates a future media guru in the Cameroons.

Mark Bareta