WHY THE VICE PRINCIPAL SLAPPED ME

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

Throughout my five years at (Sacred Heart College, Mankon-Bamenda) Saheco, our Vice Principal was the Rev. Brother Norbert, just like the Principal was the Rev. Brother John Phillips.

A MODEL OF A MAN

Brother Norbert was in many ways, a man in a class of his own. He was hard working, indefatigable and always present. He was a totally committed sports master. He himself loved sports and played football well. However, sometimes he served as referee. I used to feel sorry for him because he was bald and whenever he headed the ball, I feared he might get hurt. Even so, he never showed any signs of pain.

THE SCALES OF JUSTICE

Brother Norbert had a strong sense of justice. Once the First Eleven of St. Bede`s College were playing against our school on our own football pitch. The referee was the very sarcastic Brother Joseph whom we students named “Whiteman Njoh”. I do not know why. During the march, Brother Joseph was openly biased against the visiting team to the extent that unable to hold it any longer, Brother Norbert cried out “Referee!” On another occasion, we were sitting in a classroom with Brother Norbert when Brother Joseph sent a student to come and collect a chair. Brother Norbert replied that all the chairs were being used. Despite that response, Brother Joseph sent the boy back to collect the chair. Brother Norbert got angry and shouted: “Tell Joseph, Norbert says, No!”

THEFT IN THE DORMITORY

Brother Norbert was a man full of sympathy. When we were in Form Two and I moved up to my main House dormitory, St John`s, a theft occurred in the dormitory one night while we were in class for private studies. As it turned out, the thieves robbed a number of dormitories and deemed it necessary to use my suitcase which was in the dormitory, to pack away their booty. The matter was reported to the police at Bamenda up-station and the principal and Brother Douglas (whom Lourdes students had nicknamed `Brother Handsome` because he was really handsome) drove us the victims in one of the two Beetle Volkswagens the school owned, to and from the Police Station. It turned out that the ring leader was a drop-out student from our very school. After that tragedy, Brother Norbert in his kindness told my family that he would buy me a new suitcase. In the end he did not and my family did not. Instead of pressing him, the family decided to get me at their own expense. We did not take it out on Brother Norbert because we all knew he was a good man.

CONFRONTATION WITH A STUDENT

Brother Norbert was very forgiving. He once had a problem with a senior student called Charles Ntah. Charles was in Form 4 when we entered Form One. I do not remember exactly what happened but there was some confrontation between the two and in his anger, Charles reportedly grabbed Brother Norbert and lifted him off the ground, apparently with the intention of throwing him down. Brother Norbert is said to have screamed, “Charles Ntah, put me down! Charles Ntah, put me down!”   From what I remember, after that incident, Brother Norbert quickly forgave Charles and forgot what happened.

Brother Norbert used to walk very fast, with arched hands. Perhaps that was why the senior students nicknamed him, “Stocks”. One person who used that name often when referring to Brother Norbert was Ben Natang Jua who was in Form 5 when we were in Form 1.

FILMS THAT KEPT ME GOING

One Saturday night the whole school was in the auditorium being entertained to a film. I believe it was either Les Tanks Arrivent or Les Titans. These were the two films that were screened more times than any other during our five-year stay at Sacred Heart College. Brother Norbert was the staff member in charge of student entertainment. When it came to film shows, his all-time able assistant was Emmanuel Moma Kisob who was a year ahead of us. One day trouble broke out between Kisob and Brother Norbert. When we were treated to a film show in the school auditorium, the film was screened from a projector placed in the middle of the hall and facing the front where there was a giant white screen that had been put in place for the purpose. The film of that day came in two reels. Unfortunately, Kisob screened the second reel before realizing that it was the second and not the first. When Brother Norbert realized that, he screamed at Kisob to the effect that he had shown us the film “inside out and upside down!”The poor boy! How I felt sorry for him! Even so, Saturdays on which we were treated to film shows were the most entertaining for me at the school. I loved them and always looked forward to them.

THE DAY BROTHER NORBERT TURNED AGAINST ME

It was another Saturday night and another film show was announced in the refectory for the whole school by the Senior Prefect, Joseph Tamankag (of blessed memory today). We were then in Form five, at a time when our school did not have a High School (the Lower and Upper 6th).  The announcement was made while we had supper. That meant that as soon as the meal was over, students had to rush to their dormitories, leave their cutlery there and take their classroom chairs to the auditorium for the film show.

As usual, the Form Fives were the ones who sat furthest to the back of the auditorium, up in the balcony. I was sitting with classmates Paul Njofang, Charles Bongjoh, Michael Tandiba, Emmanuel Ngwa and Donatus Boma. Brother Norbert came into the hall, torch in hand. After surveying the hall and apparently satisfied that all was well, he sat on the floor slab. Although we were all taken aback, we were not surprised seeing this coming from none other that Brother Norbert. He was that kind of man who could improvise at any time and sit anywhere, as long as it was convenient to him.

Even so, we agreed that it was not fair for our Vice Principal to sit on the bare floor while we sat comfortably on chairs. We decided unanimously that we should offer him a seat.  The question now was who of us was going to do it. Who was going to offer his seat to the Vice Principal, and then watch the film standing?  Yet, no one was willing to be the sacrificial lamb.

All of a sudden, I rose, grabbed my chair and after calling my classmates “cowards”, I walked forward from the back to where Brother Norbert was sitting. When he saw me coming, he motioned with the light of his torch the way the forces of order do in Cameroon at night when they want to stop a commercial driver in order to extort money from him. Not understanding what the Vice Principal meant, I continued towards him like the Good Samaritan, eager to give him my seat. There upon, he walked quickly towards me and slapped me on the right cheek and barked: “Carry that chair back to where it was!” Astounded and at a loss, I obeyed. When I rejoined my classmates, they all burst out laughing at me.

I said nothing. Nonetheless, after the film show, I boldly walked up to Brother Norbert and told him in no uncertain terms: “Please, Brother, I was bringing the chair to you since you were sitting on the floor. I don`t know why you slapped me”.

“I`m sorry, Robert”, he said apologetically. I didn`t know that. I thought you were leaving the hall.”

“No, Brother. I wasn`t”

“Okay. I apologize. Is that okay?”

“Yes, brother.”

When the Vice Principal left the hall, my classmates rushed to me with a thousand and one questions:”What was he saying to you? What did he say?”

Still hurt at how they had “betrayed” and humiliated me, I said categorically: “I`m not telling you!” Thereupon I left the auditorium and willfully abandoned them there. I “dumped” them the way we used to dump Our Lady of Lourdes girl friends with whom we had fallen out.