REMEMBERING MAMI ROSELINE ANOMA

The wife of my late cousin, Commissioner of Police Isaac Anoma, Mrs Roseline Anoma died recently. News of her death was a big shock for us members of the Anoma family, in the large sense of the word. The original Anoma was a son of the then ruling Fon of Mbu (Baforchu) Njie Angieh, who unless I`m mistaken, handed the throne to Fon Fobolingong I. Anoma begot Tayong (my paternal grandfather), Ngu (father of Professor Victor Anomah Ngu and John Niba Ngu), Achu who later settled in Muea and a sister through whose ancestry the present Anomas (Ernest, Eric the military officer, Ufei,Valentine, Felix etc) sprang forth. The reason why we the family shall for ever remember Mami Roseline Anoma is that we loved her much. We loved her because she cared for us. She neglected none of us and would always look for us wherever we were. In fact, so successful did her marriage become that some Mbu (Baforchu) men became determined to look for a wife only in Manyu Division from where Mami came. Pa Isaac spent a significant part of his professional career out of Bamenda. However, he was finally posted to Bamenda. That was when I was in the early classes of Sacred Heart College, Mankon. The day Ufei and I met for the first time at their family residence near the former Roxi Cinema in Bamenda, our two body chemistries immediately clicked and we became very close and fond of each other. She had lived and schooled in Yaounde and so at that time she spoke very good French which I admired greatly. She was at Lourdes and so we wrote letters to each other and sent them to the other person through the baker (whom we called `Boulangerie`) then in Ntarinkon who supplied bread to both Lourdes and Sacred Heart. Sometimes she would drop hers in the Volkswagen of our principal, Bro. John Phillips, wile he was at Lourdes visiting the principal there. Many Lourdes girls dropped their letters in his car. It seems he knew it and did not mind because when he was there, the window of his car was down and therefore easy of access to the girls with eager letters. At the time – and perhaps today – it was fashionable for Sacred Heart boys to have girl friends in Lourdes. For all one can say, those relationships stayed at the platonic level. Even so, we relished them. I talked Ufei into finding me a “nice” girl at Lourdes. She did not hate the idea but felt strongly that I should be the one to “discover” my girl by myself and chat her up by myself. She felt that such an approach would prove to the girl that I was “a man”. The problem with me was that I was shy. That was why once, during the brainstorming, Ufei replied to one of my letters and said it was not advisable for her to be my “go-between”. It was the first time I heard that expression. My relationship with Ufei has remained strong over the years, except for the occasional lapses that usually come from me. Ufei`s eldest brother, Ernest, was in Form 5 at Sacred Heart when I entered Form 1. So I was very much a “fox” to him. But he looked after me very well at school. One day, many years later, I visited the Anomas at the Bamenda residence. While Ernest and Mami were seeing me off, Mami said to me: “When you go you greet Martina, eh?” Ernest asked: “Martina na who Mami?” And she said: “Na some Papa ye sister.” Although Mami may have gone, her name and spirit remain. So we feel she is still with us.