Foly Dirane Is Dead Cameroon Mourns CRTV Broadcasting Icon
Cameroonian broadcaster and television icon Foly Dirane, born Veyreton Adrien Tafen, has died. He passed away on March 26, 2026, at the Hopital General de Yaounde following a prolonged illness. He was 68 years old. The announcement sent shockwaves through Cameroon’s media and entertainment community, with tributes pouring in almost immediately across Facebook, X, and broadcast networks throughout the country.
Foly Dirane was not simply a television presenter. He was, by any reasonable measure, the architect of a format that defined Cameroonian entertainment television for more than two decades. Born in 1958 in Bafoussam in the West Region, he spent part of his childhood in France before returning home at age 12. He earned his baccalaureate at the Lycee General Leclerc in Yaounde and briefly studied criminal law at the University of Yaounde before abandoning the legal path, shaken by the weight of the cases he witnessed in court. Those around him, by his own account, questioned his judgment. His stage name, Foly Dirane, was his direct response to that ridicule.
He moved through teaching, briefly ran a college in Bangangte, and eventually migrated to Douala, where his voice began turning heads during street promotional work. It was there that journalist Eric Chinje, a former schoolmate, heard him and pushed for his recruitment at the CRTV, which was then barely two years into its existence.
At the CRTV, Dirane hosted a succession of programs including Dance Cameroon Dance, Cocktail aux Decibels, V comme Vedette, and Tam-Tam Week-End, each one building his reputation as a broadcaster with an uncommon ability to hold an audience. But the program that would define his career began as a prank. In March 1991, Dirane proposed to CRTV Director General Professor Gervais Mendo Ze an April Fools’ Day broadcast designed to catch the national audience off guard. The response was immediate and overwhelming, and the network converted the one-off event into a weekly program. That was how Délire was born. The fish decorations that became the show’s signature backdrop were a deliberate reference to that founding April 1st broadcast.
For 26 years, Délire stood as one of the longest-running programs in Cameroonian television history. Through it, Dirane introduced more than 80 young artists to national audiences and consistently used the platform to engage youth on pressing social issues. The names that passed through that stage went on to become defining figures in Cameroonian music and entertainment. Among them were Jacky Biho, who later became his wife, Kris Badd, Guy Manu, Junior Sengard, Ange Bagnia, Claisse Valery, Soul, and Eric Marlou. For many of them, Foly Dirane was the first person to take their talent seriously in front of a camera.
His departure from Délire in 2016 was painful and disputed. An incoming corporate sponsor requested a younger face for the show, and Dirane was pushed out of the program he had created and carried for a quarter century. Without him, the program lost its audience and eventually disappeared from the schedule entirely. He publicly rejected suggestions that poor health had prompted his exit, presenting medical documentation to prove he was fit to continue. The episode remained a sore chapter in an otherwise towering career.
Beyond hosting, Dirane also directed the television film Amours Ameres in 2010, recorded music across genres ranging from rock to chanson to rap, worked as a screenwriter, and trained a generation of younger broadcasters. He also worked in radio, hosting programs including FM Vacances on Yaounde FM 94. His cross-platform footprint gave him a reach and intimacy with Cameroonian audiences that few of his contemporaries achieved.
In his final months, Dirane’s health had drawn public concern and official attention. Cameroon’s public health minister, Dr. Malachie Manaouda, visited him at the Hopital General de Yaounde and personally arranged for his full medical care, urging his family to remain hopeful and assuring them they were not alone. Despite that intervention, he did not recover.
His death arrives during what observers are describing as an acutely painful moment for Cameroonian media. In the space of just a few weeks, the country has lost several prominent media figures, with Dirane’s passing coming on the same day as that of Canal 2 journalist Arnaud Nguefack, adding yet another layer of grief to a profession already in mourning.
Foly Dirane is survived by his family and by the careers of dozens of artists and broadcasters who owe their start, in whole or in part, to his belief in their potential. His microphone is silent. His influence is not.
