By Walter Wilson Nana & Elvis Tah (The Post Newspaper)
The Faculty of Arts has lost its pride, its pearl. I doubt if Cameroon would be able to produce another BB in the next four or five decades - Prof. Albert Azeyeh, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Buea.
Dr. Jacobs Bate Besong, Lecturer, Department of English, University of Buea, UB, who died in a ghastly car crash, March 8, alongside two other Cameroonian literary juggernauts, Dr. Hilarious Ngwa Ambe, Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a and a driver, Samson Tabe Awoh, was Thursday, March 22, laid in his final resting place in his native Ndekwai in Mamfe, Manyu Division.
Prior to the final stopover at Ndekwai, the UB community, friends, well wishers of Dr. Bate Besong, Wednesday, March 21 paid him Academic Honours at the Amphi 750 of UB, which turned-out to be too small to accommodate the more than one thousand mourners.
In an ecumenical service by UB Chaplains and led by Fr. Anthony Murphy, the clergymen prayed that the vacuum created by BB, as Dr. Bate Besong was fondly called be filled. Fr. Murphy said BB was a man sent by God and that he did his task faithfully and a time well spent on earth.
He said the accident that befell BB and others was not because God could not avert it. "God knows everything that happens on earth," Fr. Murphy commented. The Priest advised that there should be no sense of doom in our midst. "God is overall and in His great hand we live," he said.
A lecturer of African Literature, Playwriting and Critical Theory, some of the students of BB put up a sketch dubbed Breakfast With BB. The Theatre students re-enacted, in a succinct manner some of BB's teaching idiosyncrasies.
TributesDr
Mrs Joyce Ashutangtang Abunaw of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, USA, described BB as 'A Literary Kaiser". She saw BB as a one-eyed giant in the midst of the blind. Babila Mutia, an intimate friend of BB, fluted for BB, accompanied with tears of remembrance.
Dr. John Nkengasong, President, Anglophone Cameroon Writers' Association found in BB an assertive, firm and committed writer.He said BB had his impact on the younger generation of Anglophone Cameroon writers.
Head of Department, English, UB, Dr. George Dopgima Nyamndi wrote: "BB was a labourer who has handed to us the legacy of a prismatic epitaph. Each reader will find in it, just evidence for his conviction."
Prof. Albert Azeyeh, Dean, Faculty of Arts was devastated. "Faculty of Arts has lost its pride, its pearl. I doubt if Cameroon would be able to produce another BB in the next four or five decades. According to Azeyeh, BB was not only a scholar, artist, poet but also one of extraordinary qualities.
"His prophetic vision was outstanding. He was also very duty conscious. A meticulous and indefatigable researcher, in fact in his words "an authentic scholar."Despite the splenetic atmosphere, BB's Dean still had a moment to be happy. "One thing I am happy about is that as a writer, BB will never die. A hero has left us so, let the world come and mourn with us awhile," he requested.
A friend of BB, Prof. Bole Butake said he is one of the rare persons who never quarrelled with BB. "It is strange," Butake added. UB's Vice-Chancellor, VC, Prof. Vincent Titanji cautioned mourners to "desist from baseless speculations and mourn our dear friends in dignity".
Titanji had this reading of BB. "He was like a mirror, reflecting and decrying what he perceived as mundane, corrupt or unjust in society." He highlighted BB's independence of spirit. "I remember calling him a "Red Feather" on the cap of UB, not because I agreed with all that he said and stood for, but more in recognition of his independence of spirit, his creativity and boldness."
The VC said Bate Besong did not sit around regretting that he did not have money or had not been appointed to a duty post. "He wrote and published profusely, so that no one was left in doubt where he stood. He lived up to his calling as an intellectual," Titanji noted.
Titanji expressed worry on how the vacuum created by BB will be filled. "Bate Besong was a poet, a critic, a dramatist and above all a devoted lecturer. He leaves behind a vacuum that his many students will now strive to fill."
Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo said BB's demise was a big loss not only for Cameroon's Higher Education system but also to the African continent. "Dr. Bate Besong was, without doubt, one of the greatest names in Cameroonian and African writing. Dr. Besong died en route to obtain a visa for an international conference in America," he said.
Fame Ndongo advised lecturers in the higher education system to be careful on how they travel in and out of the country, as well as on what and how they write. "Quite often, and without our knowing it, it is how we travel that saves us, just as it is what we write that saves us too!!
We must, therefore, be careful. The Ministry of Higher Education has lost enough of its teachers. I exhort all of you to be careful in the way you drive; in fact, in the way you travel," he said.
"Dr. Bate Besong was, without doubt, one of the greatest names in Cameroonian and African writing. Dr. Besong died en route to obtain a visa for an international conference in America,"...
…"Quite often, and without our knowing it, it is how we travel that saves us, just as it is what we write that saves us too!!"
These are the utterances of the Higher Education Minister of Cameroon at the funeral of the learned scholar- Dr Jacobs Bate Besong.
If 'logic in truth' is anything to go by, then one is not suppose to praise his fellow man at his funeral, except he could have done same if he was alive.
For the Minister to describe Dr BB as '...without doubt one of the greatest names in Cameroonian and African writings'; but whose administration allegedly stifled a golden opportunity Dr BB had to dissipate his knowledge abroad, in a Fulbright Fellowship last year; is a cause for concern.
The Minister's use of the verb 'save' in the second quote is an intentional polemic raised to judge Dr BB's demise from the choices he made. The Minister is callously interpreting the causative effects on the courses we choose in life. What a display of intellectual cramp from the so called Minister.
Without going into the flimsy argument of who determines how long man lives on earth, I would like to make the following points to the 'eternal' Minister:
1) Most great men have always quitted this earthly stage in spectacular ways. e.g Jesus , the Christ; Martin Luther King, President Kennedy , Steve Biko, etc.
These people made choices that put them on the steering wheel, while cowards like the Minister are always lost in the wagon's crowd. They led while you, Mr Minister, always follows. Mr Minister, you are a follower-that is your choice; or else you won't have been eating the maggots from wounds of the oligarch in Yaounde. Mr Minister, I am sure you know 'how' to travel and 'what' to write, so that you will live forever. What a callous mind!!!
Dr Jacobs Bate Besong is a legend- a rare gem. His works ‘save’. His choices are exemplary. His struggle will not stop.
You can kill the flesh, but not the spirit.
Here, we have their errand boy mimicking the words of the plot masters... Go party in Yaounde with Madame and Co, but remember your nightmares will always be clouded with the ideals BB preached; and then tomorrow you will answer in the people's courts even if you decide to live FOREVER. Intellectual coward!!!!
Mr Minister,'Yours Truly' would not have invited you to his funeral, if that were possible. Your realm and his, cannot cross. You live in a realm of continual denial while 'Yours Truly' was emancipated from mental slavery.
Let me remind you, Mr Minister that the only common denominator we share is mortality. You may claim to know the 'how' and the 'what' to postpone the inevitable, but why can you not just eliminate physical death? keep your cheap lessons from your unsolicited 'gnostics' , 'mystics' and 'marabouts' to yourself.
Jacobs Bate Besong's exit leaves an indelible influence. He quitted doing what he loved most, just like the American astronauts on board the space shuttle 'Columbia' who lost their lives, while returning to Earth(February 1, 2003).
Jacobs BB lives on.
Neba-Fuh
[email protected]
Posted by: Neba Fuh | March 28, 2007 at 04:43 AM
To have heard a Minister make such a calous statement at the demise of the finest scholar that ''anglofool'' cameroonians have had in recent times is no strange news to any with a little knowlege of the realities of the cameroonian power ploitic. What made it sound bizarre, was the MR MINISTER'S remark that scholars be careful about what they write and should not drive when exited.
Happy enough, that emisaary of rift, bearing the message was nearly booed off stage by a people stretched to the limit for so long,''glory be''.Glory be to that fine soul for a life long struggle to expose a vision;ess and bareen regime. Shame on u Mr Minister and entire clique for fighting hard to leave nothing behind but DISGRACE to unborn Cameroonians.
TEM EDWIN NJI
Posted by: TEM EDWIN NJI | April 17, 2007 at 05:05 PM