My Father’s Diary
By J ackson Nanje
I have always thought
about writing My Father’s Diary but I was worried how many who knew him could
contradict my characterization of him if I tried to portray him as a flawless
man out of love for him. I was equally worried about striking a balance between
his personal and professional life, being equally aware of some of his shortcomings
that we (his children), could not boast of or keep away from the
ever-inquisitive public. More importantly, despite his riches, how we, his
children, never benefited from it in a meaningful way because we were young.
These are some of the issues I am grappling with as I embark on this arduous
task of writing the diary of my father. The children and his wives however have
concluded that despite his known frailties, he was a good husband and a great
father.
This essay shall be
divided in three parts: (A) Family Life History (B) Public Life and Professional
Life (C) Testimonies from friends and foes
In writing a diary of a
loved one it is usually a difficult task because you have to strike a balance
between what the family members prefer not to divulged to the public and the
public’s objective assessment of possible omissions which could render such a
prophetic work worthless. Or, as an African, our works, if not written as
fictional, is reticent of revealing private information frowned upon by the
family as betrayal.
A. FAMILY LIFE HISTORY
My father, Denis Ekumedi
Aki Nanje, was born in 1939 in Dikome Balue. His father was called Pa DINYAKA
Nanje (Nanjo nha Dinyaka) who migrated from Madie Ngolo to settle in Dikome
Balue, where he met his wife, Bua Ngonde (WA Nesoa) Nanje, a Dikome woman.
Together they had seven (7) children of which, two died young. The surviving
children were: (1) Bie Nanje (with a surviving child called Maria Mande Ngoe), (2)
Paul Mokube Nanje (14 children) (3) Juliet Mojoko Nanje (6 children), (4) Peter
Ngariba Nanje (12 children) and (5) Denis Nanje (12 children).
Pa Denis, as my father
was fondly called, was born in 1939 in Dikome Balue and died on January 17,
2010 at the Kumba District (now Regional) Hospital in the hands of his loving wives and children. We are all confident that his deeds on earth have gained him entry into
the Lord’s Kingdom.
My father was the second
to the last of seven children. He completed his primary education at Basel
Mission Dikome Balue and proceeded to the then pristine college, Ombe Technical
School, located about 100kilometers away from Dikome Balue. He was a very
intelligent student and a formidable athlete who led the Basel Mission Primary
School and Ombe Technical College soccer teams as captain. He once told me that,
during his playing days, he won the hearts of many young girls including my
mother’s with his heroics on the soccer field. He was popularly known as
Durango-ki on the soccer pitch. And during soccer matches you could hear chants
of Durango, Durango, Durango whenever he was with the ball. There’s a saying in
our Oroko dialect that, “makia ma comaka
mosisa” interpreted simply as, “blood follows the vein.” You can now tell where
I derived my soccer prowess.
My father had a very busy
and active sexual life part so because money came to him while in his twenties
and even though he was married to four wives: Marie Tchakounte (2children),
Lucy Mende (9children), Winifred Mende (2children) and Esther Bel (she had a
child from a previous marriage but none with him), he still had a desire for
more beautiful women outside his matrimonial home. Rumor has it that he
fathered six other children out of marriage of which, two have since been
confirmed by the family. He was a mild womanizer; whose early access to wealth
gave him tremendous access to women outside his marital life and so too did his
problems multiplied at home with his legal wives. My father has since passed on
to eternity with three of his wives, Marie Tchakounte, Esther Bel and Lucy
Mende leaving behind Winifred Mende.
It was rather unfortunate that when he had
money his children were in their adolescent age and the younger ones were yet
to be born. So, his responsibility was geared towards his older siblings’ children
who were of age. At any given time in my father’s house, you would find a
minimum of thirty (30) family members under his care. We, the children, were so
unfortunate that when we attained higher education age, our father’s wealth had
dried out and we really struggled to live up with the reputation of being
children of a rich man. All that was left of the rich man was symbolism of a
rich man. It was also a disappointing moment for him when my senior brother,
his first child was preparing to travel my father was expecting some of his
government-held money in 1985 but he never received the money before my brother
traveled. Two years later, I suffered the same faith when it was time to meet
my senior brother in the United States. I traveled with a meager, borrowed sum
of money. He was devastated in these two instances because he had the desire to
help his children but could not do so of government delayed payment.
One of my father’s pitfalls was his desire to
maintain other fruitless sexual relationships outside the legally sanctioned
ones. It cannot be denied that some of his children struggle so hard not to compliment
this insatiable lifestyle that ultimately contributed to their father’s demise.
In addition to his bad habit of unquenchable sexual desire, what the children
and neighbors found displeasing and embarrassing about an individual they considered
as the Man-of-the-People, was the fact that he occasionally disruptive at home when
under the influence of alcohol. Though he was not a heavy drinker, he amused
many in that, he often found himself being controlled by alcohol whenever he
visited the bar. He won’t put a spectacle at the bar but will do so at home. He
became the cynosure of everyone in the house when he came back drunk from his
bar visits. In such instance, nobody will sleep until his drunken slumber state
creeps into bed for an unplanned sleep.
Before we discuss his
professional life, it is important to know how he derived his wealth. After he
completed Ombe Technical School where he studied carpentering, his desire was
to join the Cameroon army. Chief Victor Ngomo Obie was the sole building
contractor in the newly created Ndian division carved out of the VIKUMA
division. And it was the law in Southern Cameroon that one could not hold two
portfolios for fear of conflict of interest. Meaning, he could not be a Member
of Parliament and a contractor at the same time. My father was the only son
from Ndian division who had completed a higher Technical education from one of
the elite colleges in Southern Cameroon. Chief Obie tried on several occasions
to tap my father’s talent to run his Building Contracting business called
CABOURUKO while he was serving in the newly created division as parliamentarian
but his mind was set firm on becoming a member of the Cameroon army since
fighting was his passion. The Chief had come to my father’s house to convince
him again on that day (October 1, 1966) when the Cameroon Army had its
recruitment in Kumba Town Green. Vast opportunities awaited my father, he told
him, as a young contractor in a newly created Ndian division. As luck would
have its way, as the Chief was ready to take my father to the recruitment center,
my mother, who was heavily pregnant, delivered my brother at home and so did
Chief have the good fortune of naming the child after him-Victor Ngomo Nanje.
That joy of having another child got him so excited that he had to forego his
military ambitions and it marked the beginning of a new career in a newly
created division with vast contracting opportunities. He later on moved some of
his family to Mundemba with his new wife, Winifred Mende Nanje, after he built
a house there. My mother later returned to the family home in Kumba and
continued on her teaching career.
B. Public Life and Professional Life
My father’s public life
is quite interwoven with his professional life. So, here, we are going to make
the narratives interchangeably simple for the readers. In the afore-mentioned
pages, we did explain that our dear father studied at the pristine Ombe
Technical College where he majored in carpentering. It is with this informative
background and the experience he fomented at the helm of Chief Victor Obie’s
company that contribution to his huge success as the best building contractor
ever in the history of Ndian division. All
the buildings he constructed as a contractor were in Ndian division. He ran
Chief Obie’s company efficiently for the period that the Chief was a
representative of the people after which, like any bright under-study, he
branched out and opened his own contracting company in 1975 which he named
Rumpi Hills Contractor. At the later years, he transformed the company by
renaming it as Rumpi Hills General Contractor.
The potential of Ndian
division was unbelievably plenty for a contractor who could handle projects
with large economy of scale which my father possessed. The government had to
build governmental infrastructures in the newly-created divisional headquarters
of Mundemba and the four Sub-divisional headquarters of Ekondo-Titi, Isangele,
Bamusso and Kombo Itindi. So, over the years spanning from 1975 up until 1990
my father built the Mundemba Council Chambers (which is still the best building
in Mundemba to date), Police department, Treasury office, Health Centers in
Mundemba and Lipenja Batanga and several other buildings throughout the
division. We are grateful to be children of this great man who did not only
take care of his children but children of other people.
In 1974, the government
opened the first Government Secondary School in Mundemba, Ndian division.
However, classes and school did not begin until 1975 because of lack of
infrastructures. This is an unusual and bizarre practice of the government of
Cameroon, to announce the creation of schools without a single infrastructure
in place. The school was eventually opened in 1975 with some makeshift classrooms
(sadly, my father did not get the contract). The first batches of students that
came to Mundemba were stranded because of lack of accommodations. My father
came to the rescue of these students and the government by constructing
affordable housing units used by students for more than twenty (20) years. It
is because of these dormitories that were built by my father that led to an
increase in student enrolment in subsequent years of the school’s existence and,
life in Mundemba became fun at long last for students. One of the reasons why
my daddy was truly loved by the starving students of Government Secondary
School Mundemba was because, as a contractor, he provided the students with
cyclical employment which helped them pay for food and buy their academic
materials. It is also true that, students who were sometimes unable to pay
their boarding fee due to financial hardship, my daddy ensured that their
boarding fees were waved for that period. A good man and father he was to his
children and strangers.
It is equally important
to underscore the difficulties my father encountered when he arrived in Ndian
division’s capital city of Mundemba, the heart of Bima tribe. The area was
vastly uninhabited and remote. He faced problems transporting building
materials to building sites because there were hardly any roads in the
newly-created Ndian division. My daddy did not only build government buildings
but many private homes. I am not sure whether to capture some of his
not-so-pleasant experiences in Bima land since he was from the Balue tribe as
nature’s wanders or temptations by nocturnal forces. My daddy’s house was
constantly flooded while we were asleep in our early days in Mundemba with
everything swept away including his Renault 4. It was a nightmare living in
Mundemba in the late 1960s and my father constantly confronted the Chief of
Bima whenever the house flooded that he was not prepared to lose any of his
children as a result of their nocturnal activities. In the most part, the Chief
assured him that it won’t happen. The other difficulty my father encountered
was the delay of payment from the government and as a result, business people
from whom my father sometimes borrowed building materials pending payment by
the government were constantly at his neck. Sometimes we the children felt pity
for our daddy but we were usually in awe to see these same people come asking
for my father when they saw a new building going up in town without my father
visiting their stores.
(C)
Testimonies from friends and foes
Always, the sweetest part
of a dairy writing is when people speak or write anonymously about the
individual who is the subject of the report. And it is so, because, it is
assume that if the author of the dairy is a member of the family the
possibility to avoid portraying the ugly side of the subject is possible. I
have avoided that by allowing people to write about my daddy in the way of
their choosing.
I am the first child (son) of Papa Denis Nanje
who passed away on January 17, 2010.
I will like to take this opportunity to express a few things I knew about my
father. My father lived a life full of joy and happiness. Whenever I
think about him, I remember how humorous, witty, and clever he was.
Most of my childhood memories of him are tinged with traces of humor and
laughter. I remember when he used to tell me stories about his childhood and
schooldays.
The problem I had with Papa was that, despite the wealth that he had, there was
no term in my secondary school days that I was not sent away for non-payment of
school fees. I can remember vividly one time when I almost lost my life footing
from Ekondo-Titi to Mundemba to go ask for my fees and we encountered some wild
animals on our way to Mundemba.
Looking back now, I realize that it was not the events in his life that were
extraordinary, but the way he faced life with intelligence, courage and wit.
We all remember how lighthearted he was and how much he liked to enjoy himself.
Papa, you have been gone for more than ten (10) years and I continue to miss
you. I have so many wonderful memories of you.
I will always think of you with a smile. [Louis
Mokube Nanje, son]
|
A. When someone invites you out for a drink never
accept a drink if you do not have money in your pocket to buy
at least two bottles of the same drink
B. If you have a friend who always gets you
involved into problems, dissolve the friendship because if you do not you
will die a death which is not yours.
C. And, no matter how you love your friend (boy
or girl) never do a blood pact with them. Blood oaths / pacts are very
dangerous. The first and third advice was very easy for me to apply but
considering my long standing friendship with both friends it was not very easy
to apply the second advice. After a few days I eventually applied Pa
Nanje's second advice by severing my relationship with both friends.
Five years later, one of the friends who made me a victim in the off-license
died. I then realized the importance of listening to an aged man. It is often
said that what an old man sees while sitting down a young man cannot see while
standing. In the Bible Jesus said 'man does not live by bread alone but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Pa Denis Nanje was a
man ahead of his time whose love for humanity surpassed every understanding. He
was a humanist and a lover of justice. He discriminated no one nor did he
ever look down on anyone. His house was a shelter for all. He would prefer to
go hungry just to see that everyone had something to eat. He sheltered hundreds
of students when GSS Mundemba was created for a very low fee. He was a great
Oroko man and a great human soul. May his memory always remain alive in our
hearts. As Oroko people let us emulate the love he shared for humanity and for
all Oroko People. May his memory live forever.” [Innocent Mokube]
Pa Denis Nanje was a magnanimous man. Most of
us benefited from his largesse as students of GSS Mundemba in Ndian overseas as
we fondly called that part of Cameroon. [Mosongo
Iyasse Nanje]
Pa Denis Nanje initiated the Dormitory life
for the GSS Mundemba boys and that remains an indelible mark in our memories.[Rev Samson Namaya]
This is a very edifying message, indeed. If we
could emulate such a rare character the people of Balue in particular, and Oroko
in general, will in no distant future come out of this dilemma and the ugly
situation mostly, if each and every one of us could just help two of the Balue
children. It will be very helpful! How I wish the good spirit of Pa Denis Nanje
could transfer into our subconscious minds so that we could distance ourselves
from this growing spirit of backwardness and Sheer greed that is overwhelming
and delaying our development. The Bible in the book of proverbs 17:17 reads,
“What are brothers for if not to share trouble”. That is, your brother's
problem is your problem as Pa Denis Nanje did. May this good spirit of Pa Denis
Nanje join with that of Chief Etinge of Dikome Balue. [Chief Francis K Mukwelle]
