Ndeh Ntumazah

Nyamnjoh

Description

This rich conversational auto-biography tells the story of the political life of Ndeh Ntumazah who was born in Mankon in 1926, spent the best part of his life suffering and sacrificing for the freedom of Cameroon, and died in London on January 21, 2010, at the age of 83, as President of the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC). Ntumazah was a political activist for nearly 60 years. He joined the UPC around 1950 and remained a militant of the party until his demise. When the UPC was banned in French Cameroon in 1955, he was advised by his comrades to create another party in the Southern Cameroons, which would be the UPC in disguise. The party was called �One Kamerun Movement - OK�, with Ndeh Ntumazah as its President. Following its banning, the UPC started a war of liberation in French Cameoon, so Ntumazah from the safety of Southern Cameroons, liaised with his comrades in French Cameroon to carry out their underground operations. Ndeh Ntumazah left Cameroon to seek political asylum abroad in 1962. He stayed in Ghana, Guinea, Algeria and finally in Britain where he spent most of his time sensitising the world about the plight of Cameroon using various avenues like writing, conferences and deputations. Ntumazah is dead, but he lives on because his life stands out as a point of focus.

Sujets

• Autobiography
• Biography

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 14 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• EAN13: 9789956716135
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

ASONG SIMON NDEH CHI

NDEH NTUMAZAH A Conversational Auto Biography

Edited by LINUS T. ASONG AND SIMON NDEH CHI

Ndeh Ntumazah

The Concept of the great man

All men make history, but some men make milestones in history. It is these makers of milestones in history that we call great men. The circumstance of the society into which great men are born determines how these men will grow to react to situations. Conversely, the way these men react to situations moulds the society in which they live. As such, it is right to say that society makes man, and man makes society. Consequently, the study of the biography of a great man is the study of history of his society with the man as the pivot of that history… The biographer is inhibited by the demands of accuracy and attention to detail. He is attracted by an insight into not only the high points, but also the details of lived human lives. This is what Plutarch, in North’s translation, referred to as ‘‘men’s natural disposition and manners’’. (Victor Bong Amazee: ‘‘The Concept of a Great Man,’’ in MAKERS OF CAMEROON HISTORY)

In all autobiography there is, nay, ought to be, an incompleteness which may have an effect of falsity. We are each of us bound by the piety we owe to those who have been nearest to us… and, most of all, by the reverence for the higher efforts of our common nature, which commands us to bury its lowest faculties, its invincible remnants of the brute, its most agonizing struggle with temptation, in unbroken silence.  (George Eliot inTHEOPHRASTUS SUCH)

It seems undeniable that the majority of capital autobiographies have been written in the interest of truth, and are the outcome of serious intention, the result of a deep-seated psychological impulse, which, as a whole, makes for the truth. The figures which are drawn under these conditions, therefore, we believe to be, in the main, the figures of the persons as they lived. (Anna Robson Burr inTHE AUTOBIOGRAPHY: A CRITICAL AND COMPARATIVE STUDY)

Ndeh Ntumazah

A Conversational Auto Biography

Edited with an Introduction Linus T. Asong & Simon Ndeh Chi

Langaa Research & Publishing CIG Mankon,Bamenda

Publisher: LangaaRPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net

Distributed outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookscollective.com

Distributed in N. America by Michigan State University Press [e-mail] www.msupress.msu.edu

ISBN: 9956-579-32-7

© Linus T. Asong & Simon Ndeh Chi First Published in 2001, by Patron Publishing House, Bamenda

DISCLAIMER All views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Langaa RPCIG.

Content

Dedication .............................................................................................vii Acknowledgement ....................................................................................ix Preface .....................................................................................................xi Introduction ..........................................................................................xiii

Chapter One:................................................... 1Chance Encounter

Chapter Two:Rendez-vous with History: The Myth .................. 7

Chapter Three:13Rendez-vous with History: The Reality .........

Chapter Four:Breaking the Veil ................................................... 23

Chapter Five:Stranger in his Homeland ..................................... 31

Chapter Six:Men of Destiny ......................................................... 41

Chapter Seven:.......................................... 55In the Heat of Battle

Chapter Eight:.................................................. 57Spy in the Palace

Chapter Nine:On the Mobile Book .......................................... 103

Chapter Ten:Diplomatic Offensive .......................................... 119

Chapter Eleven:..................................... 131Africa Re-Awakening

Chapter Twelve:Democracy and Censorship .......................... 141

Chapter Thirteen:On the Foncha Book .................................. 159

Chapter Fourteen:............................. 167The Pen and the Sword

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Chapter Fifteen:CDF/SDF ........................................................ 175

Chapter Sixteen:Nonsense Here and There ............................ 191

Chapter Seventeen:209Ntumazah talks to Young Journal .........

Chapter Eighteen:Politicians ......................... 215Assessment of

Chapter Nineteen:Satrapy ......................................................... 251

Chapter Twenty:Dinka/Sendze Vs Ahmadou Ahidjo .......... 259

Chapter Twenty-one:A Legend of the Dead .......................... 287

Chapter Twenty-two:The Return of 307the Native ....................

Chapter Twenty-three:Exile and the Kingdom ..................... 357

Chapter Twenty-four:The Wretched of the Earth ................. 371

Chapter Twenty-five:Close Shave ............................................. 395

Chapter Twenty-six:Epitaph ..................................................... 405

Chapter Ttwenty-seven:End of the Beginning ...................... 409

Chapter Twenty-eight:Axioms .................................................. 411

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Dedication

1. To all my slain comrades, whose only crime was that they sought a little bit of freedom for their people.

2. To all the Patriotic Law Officers of our beloved land, who understood the UPC cause and refused to cooperate with our oppressors.

3. To all the governments that gave me refuge to live long enough to tell this story. For instance, the service rendered to me by King Muhammad V who issued me a diplomatic passport without which I would literally have been handed over to Ahidjo for supper from Ghana when Nkrumah fell from grace.

4. To all the tortured, murdered and persecuted relatives of mine whose only crime was their kinship with me.

5. To all generations to come whose only contact with me will be through the pages of this book or, God willing, subsequent books.

6. To the French government, who betrayed Ahmadou Ahidjo. Poor Ahidjo, despite the villas and stolen wealth, a few years in exile became cruel and unusual punishment. Sure the ghosts of my slain comrades finally caught up with him!

7. And finally, for brother Ibrahim of blessed memory, whose presence in Ambam triggered off the political instinct in me, leading me to where I am today.

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Acknowledgement

This book is the collective achievement of a dedicated team to all the members of which we owe an immense debt of gratitude. There is Pa’s special attendant Azoh (Franklin) and the driver Ndingwan (Sunday) who always stood by ready to run any errands. There is our little Siri (Harriet), the housemaid without whom we would have collapsed more than once from sheer fatigue, hunger and thirst during the long and numerous interviews. She resurfaced as a computer secretary to make the burden lighter. The sisters, Mary and Monika Fombi, hold hands at the job who scanned the writings and remained a lot more reticent than we had thought. And then…. And then…. And then, the indefatigable Maimo Rosemary, a veritableJack of all trades,Pa’s Eyes, and a bottomless reservoir of miscellaneous information on the UPC, whose singular efforts dug out vital documents which ultimately gave this work its muscle, its intellectual gravity, breadth and depth. Justice Nchang Augustine’s bilingual proficiency made its appearance at a moment of greatest need. We thank him for the translation of key sections from French into English. Barrister Peter Anye Asongwe, whose traditional and legal mind kept us sailing. We thank him very much for answering present whenever he was needed. There was Ntangnyui Tata Patrick who took time off his extremely busy schedule to acquaint Ndeh Ntumazah with the final version by reading it to him. Finally, the man whose chance contribution to this exercise remains immeasurable-Barrister Luke Sendze. We are profusely thankful to him for making them not only available, but granting us permission to reprint secret documents on the infamousNdongmo Trialadded so much seriousness to the work. And what is which more, he capped his contributions with a live, taped interview which Ndeh Ntumazah cherished so much. Portions of this book have been delivered as lectures at various moments and in various institutions, as interviews and articles in the London-basedCameroon MonitorandAFRICA EVENTS.For many courtesies on the part of these institutions we are enormously

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