EMMANUEL Tataw, top Camerounian journalist, Monday night landed in Glasgow, Scotland, in his first official assignment as the Chef de Mission of the Camerounian team to the Games that are less than a year away.
In a ceremony in Yaounde in July, Mr. Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, President of Commonwealth Games Association, Cameroun, CGA-CMR, had handed over the national flag and other instruments of office to Mr. Tataw who comes from a family of illustrious sports people.
His cousin, Stephen Tataw was the captain of Cameroon’s “Indomitable Lions” at the 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups, leading them to a historic quarter-final finish in 1990. Stephen passed away in July 2020 at the age of 57 after a protracted illness.
Emmanuel had dedicated himself to sports journalism and administrative roles in Cameroon’s Olympic Committee and athletics at the continental level.
He was in Abeokuta for the African Junior Athletic Championships in the course of which he met top Nigerian Olympians Segun Odegbami and Bruce Ijirigho.
“I will give my best to see Cameroon do better in Scotland,” said Tataw who arrived Glasgow for meetings and inspection of facilities for the Games. “Our athletes have the same mindset.”
Cameroon, colonised by Germany, was snatched from Germany after World War II, became established a British-French colony with the British side being a part of Nigeria until 1963 when it became independent and aligned more with France.
It became part of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1995, with Mozambique (Portuguese), and both first participated in the Games in 1998.
