TRIBUTE TO A FALLEN NEPHEW: BOFUA GEH

                                             

BACKGROUND TO THIS POEM

Yesterday, while I was in a stationery shop here in Cameroon , a young man walked up and greeted me. He said he was in Form One at Sacred Heart College (Bamenda) when I visited the school and addressed them as a guest speaker, introduced by the then Principal, the Rev. Fr. John Ambe. When I asked where he is now, he said he was a Law Student at the University of Buea. His is called Momekam Amos. 

When he mentioned the school, my mind immediately flashed back to a nephew of mine who died there while a student. He was FRANCIS LEO BOFUA MUMA GEH, popularly known as `Bo Geh`. He died on the 28th of September 2008. I was present at the college when his corpse was brought there for academic honours. When I visited the family, especially in Yaounde, Bo would be the one to open the door for me and play a part in seeing me off.

There are several reasons why I have thought about Bo:

1. He was at my alma mater
2. His father, Dr. George Geh, renowned physician, is my brother
3. His mother Dr. Yang Geh née Kume, a distinguished pharmacist who  was my classmate in CCAST Bambili where we were also both not just Catholics but members of the Legion of Mary.

While Bo was lying in state at the chapel at Sacred Heart College in my presence, I wrote two poems in honour of him. One was long and the other was short. But they were the same poem in different versions. They were different in that they told the story of Bo in their different ways. Here below is the short poem:

THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

(For Francis Leo Muma Bofua Geh)

Our Bofua has done it
He`s gone, gone with a bang
Packed, bag and baggage
And left the door wide open.

He couldn`t have faked it
For we all heard the bells he rang
Now he`s free, while we suffocate in this cage
So, what shall we do with his mighty pen?