WITH NTUMAZAH AND MONGO BETI (CORRECTED VERSION)

The faces behind the names

Strictly speaking, the history of Cameroon cannot effectively be written if the politician Ndeh Ntumazah and the political activist and social critic Mongo Beti – whose real names were Alexandre Biyidi Awala – are left out.

Both men, although of blessed memory, contributed a lot to the advancement of our country, even if in terms of goal attainment, they still left much to be desired at the time of their departure.

Out of conviction, Ndeh Ntumazah who was born in Mankon of the North West Region became an ardent member of the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC) which sought immediate unification of the two Cameroons that had been divided by colonial powers. In this regard, the UPC was opposed by the French colonialists who made Ahmadou Ahidjo Cameroon`s first president. A bitter and bloody civil war then pitted members of the UPC against the Pro-French government of Ahidjo for a considerable time.

One of Ntumazah`s tasks in the UPC was to drum up support abroad and purchase weapons for the armed struggle. As a result, Ntumazah spent a long time in exile, living mainly in Ghana, Algeria and Britain. This dispersed living must have exacted a toll on the lives of his children because once in London, when I raised the issue with his son – Anye Ntumazah – he explained to me that they were children of the world. He showed me his United Nations passport which had his nationality inscribed in it as “uncertain”. What? Uncertain even by the United Nations? I asked myself.

 After a lifetime abroad, Ndeh Ntumazah returned to Cameroon when multi-party politics was re-introduced under current Cameroon President Paul Biya. He remained an active leader of the UPC until his death in London in 2010.

Mongo Beti was born in Akometan village, located near Mbalmayo,  headquarters of Nyong and So Division which is some 45 kilometers from Yaounde. He studied in Cameroon and France and taught in France. He became famous through his prolific writings and the fact that his works were critical of the way his country was run in particular, and Africa in general. Because of his relentless attacks, he was a thorn in the flesh of Cameroon`s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo.

 When Paul Biya became president, all hopes that he would adopt a more conciliatory tone towards the new president  because he was from the Beti tribe like him, failed woefully, as Mongo Beti continued the attacks. In fact, when Biya introduced multiparty politics in Cameroon in 1990, Mongo Beti instead lent his support to Ni John Fru Ndi who was not only the leader of the main opposition party, the SDF, but also an Anglophone from Bamenda in the North West Region. Mongo Beti died in 2001.

How I chatted with both men

    I had the opportunity to meet both Ndeh Ntumazah and Mongo Beti together during a press conference they jointly gave in London in the mid 1980. The purpose was to decry the continuous poor governance in Cameroon. This was during Paul Biya`s reign. At the time I was a journalist working for the London-based WEST AFRICA Magazine and was attending the press conference on behalf of the magazine.

The first thing that struck me about Ndeh Ntumazah was that when I put a question to Mongo Beti in English and the latter said he would answer me in French, before I said anything, Ndeh Ntumazah stepped in and told the audience that it was alright for Mongo Beti to pose his question in French. The reason he gave was that not only did I speak French, I was actually a French teacher. I was surprised because I had no idea Ndeh Ntumazah knew who I was. Yet it was the truth  that I was a French teacher. In fact,  I had gone to Britain after being recruited from France by the French government and posted to a High in London as a French teacher on secondment. I wondered how the politician knew this.

The question I put to Mongo Beti was whether it was true that President Ahmadou Ahidjo had “seized” his wife and got married to her. In order to lend credence to my question, I told him that this was what it appeared was widely believed in Cameroon. To my surprise, he said he was aware but went on to deny categorically that the president ever seized his wife. According to him, therefore, there was no such problem between him and President Ahidjo.

I now turned to Ndeh Ntumazah himself and asked him to tell me whether it was true that he had mystical powers that made him “appear and disappear” in Cameroon as he wanted during his years in exile, without being caught by the Cameroonian security officials. It is to be recalled that at that point in the history of Cameroon, Ndeh Ntumazah was very much a wanted man in the country, and everyone knew that.

He laughed, and asked me that if those claims were true, why should he reveal his secrets to me? On a more serious note, he explained that while in exile, he traveled to Cameroon whenever he wanted, and did so like any other Cameroonian. However, he said, wherever he passed, his presence caused disbelief to those who saw him, including security officials, and that was why he was never apprehended. Even so, I did not believe him. 

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FOOTNOTE

Background to this story

This article is part of current research I am carrying out on a relatively new and exciting discipline known as Literary Journalism. Nordquist (2014) describes it as “a form of nonfiction that combines factual reporting with some of the narrative techniques and stylistic strategies traditionally associated with fiction.” Nordquist quoting Sims (2008) states : “"Among the shared characteristics of literary journalism are immersion reporting,  a complicated structures, character development, symbolism, voice, a focus on ordinary people . . ., and accuracy. Literary journalists recognize the need for a consciousness on the page through which the objects in view are filtered.”

Myers (2012) posits: “Most of what gets referred to as “literary journalism” is some combination of history and travel writing — history because it undertakes to determine what happened in a past, travel writing because it depends upon first-hand observation in addition to documented evidence. Those who object that journalism (of any kind) is not history are doing little beyond disclosing their own prejudices and assumptions. `The question in history,` Michael Oakeshott wrote, `is never what must, or what might have taken place, but solely what the evidence obliges us to conclude did take place.` Thus the historian and the journalist share the same obligation — an obligation to the evidence. What did take place might have taken place five minutes or five centuries ago, but as long as it belongs to the past, historian and journalist share the same interest in it.”

`Literary Journalism` is a form of `creative nonfiction`, the latter also being called `literary nonfiction` and `narrative nonfiction`. Other creative nonfiction types include biography, autobiography, memoir, diary, travel writing, food writing, literary journalism, chronicle, and personal essays. However, the term, `Literary Journalism` is also used interchangeably with `creative nonfiction`.

You are invited to consult my published works on Literary Journalism:

-        Azonga, T.M. `Literary Journalism: Challenges and Perspectives for Cameroon`. African Journal of Social Sciences, University of Buea, March 2012.

-        Azonga, T.M. `Literary Journalism and Travel Writing: Symmetry and Asymmetry`. African Journal of Social Sciences, University of Buea, November 2012.