By Uche Eze Nkatta Idika (National Youth Service Corper - Oceanic Bank International Plc. -Abuja, Nigeria)
The News of BB’s death
When I received a phone call in the early hours of that Thursday morning, I was delighted to observe that it was a foreign call coming from Cameroon. I could readily recognize that the number belonged to a friend; Ngala Ndi. I was happy I would have a chat with an old friend who was still at home; that we’ll talk of old memories and discuss future prospects. After exchanging pleasantries, Ngala did not know how to convey the news to me, perhaps owing to the fact that he knew how close I was to BB. So he started by saying that BB had an accident on his way to Yaounde. I screamed and said BB just sent me a mail a day earlier, informing me of his new book to be launched on Wednesday 7th March 2007.
Not knowing the most subtle manner to present the terrible news to me, Ngalla borrowed from the usual ‘I hear say’ and I quote him: “Man, dem di talk sey e dey like sey e die ehh”. I reacted immediately by telling Ngala that it was a lie, that it was probably the usual ‘I hear sey’. I promised to call BB's number immediately.
When I dropped Ngala’s call, I dialed BB’s number but got the female French voice “Le numero que vous…” I could not wait for the customer service lady to continue. As I was terminating the call, I received an incoming call from Belgium. It was my brother Fogap Jasper. His question told me that the “I hear say” I got a few minutes earlier was spreading like wild fire. His question was brief: “Have you heard that your mentor is dead?” I told him of the call I received earlier and said I was going to investigate the rumor by reaching out to those whom I was certain would know more about the matter.
I immediately ended the call and placed another call to Cameroon. Within few seconds, Mwalimu George Ngwane was on the line. I didn’t waste time with formalities: “Mwalimu, I am getting a bad signal about BB. Can you confirm the story? “I asked. “My brother”, the Mwalimu replied with a heavy voice. “BB is dead together with Hilarious Ambe and Kwasen Gwangwa”.
I had never known Mwalimu to be one to crack jokes, but for the first time, I had to doubt him. As I was doubting the story, fear was slowly creeping in me and I got goose bumps. Then I started fumbling with my keyboard with numb fingers to send across an email to another set of persons I knew to be close to BB; notably, Barrister Charles Taku the UN Jurist, Tande Dibussi the acclaimed essayist and scribe, and Prof. Francis Nyamnjoh the eminent Cameroonian Sociologist among others. In less than 10 minutes, I got responses from Dibussi and Barrister Charles. Both of them confirmed the story. I was still not sure.
Three minutes later, I got another email. This time it was coming from the most unexpected source. The sender was “BATE BESONG”. At last I was relieved!!!! This whole story was a dream and BB has just sent me another email. But behold, when I opened the mail, tears started flowing like a rushing tap. I wept inconsolably. The mail read thus:
“Dear Friends and Colleagues of Dr Bate Besong. It is with utmost sorrow to announce to you all that BB is no more. He died today, 8th March 2007 at about 5:00am on his way to Yaounde with 3 others. His Daughter. June”
June is BB’s first daughter. She had just used BB’s email box to confirm the rumour to BB’s closest pals. BB crossed the bar at 5:00 am, on March 8, 2007.
My Relationship with BB
I cannot continue this tribute without mentioning my relationship with BB because it is this relationship that has shaped my perception about BB and forms the vital core of what is written in this tribute.
While doing my High School in Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko Buea, I spent my time in the library consuming literature of the political evolution of Cameroon. That was how I discovered this book in the school Library written by Mwalimu George Ngwane – Bate Besong or the Symbol of Anglophone Hope. After reading the book, I was so much interested in the person Ngwane was referring to and longed to me meet him. It was still George Ngwane who organized my first meeting with BB. It was during the first ever Pan African Conference held in Cameroon organized by AFRICAphonie and saw participants from many African countries with keynote speakers like Dr. Benedict Jua (who then had just resigned as the Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Buea – for fairly obvious reasons), Mr. Benjuka George and most especially Dr. Bate Besong.
After BB’s usually brilliant exposition during this conference, I asked him a question relating to his perception of the curricula of African History in our Secondary and High Schools. Impressed by the question, he responded by saying he didn’t consider what secondary and high school students read in the name of ‘African History’ to be indeed African History. He explained that this was largely because most of the textbooks used in High school African History were written by western scholars with obvious bias. It was this question that brought BB and me together. After the conference BB gave me and open-invitation to visit him any day, any time if there is anything for us to talk. He was always ready to disseminate knowledge irrespective of the ages of his audience.
Some few years later, I enrolled at the University of Buea while working as a part time attendant in a cyber café. BB then took me as his Personal Assistant (P.A). I recall how BB would pause his lecture upon seeing me and would call me into his class for introduction. “This is my Personal Secretary,” he would say. “If you want to get to my heart, you must pass through him.” That was how close BB and I were. This is why some of my pals called me ‘Small BB’, ‘BB’s Successor’ etc.
Who Was BB?
It is Mwalimu George Ngwane who wrote in 1993 that “Bate Besong is Bate Besong, if you call him Besong Bate, it will be somebody else, for his name refuses to obey the law of choice.” Bate Besong is a Nigerian through jus solis and a Cameroonian through Jus Sanguinis. He was born on the 8th of May 1954, at Ikot – Ansa, in present-day Cross River State of Nigeria, but of Cameroonian parents from Ndekwai – Mamfe. He did his primary education in Calabar and proceeded to the celebrated Hope Wadell Training Institute for his secondary education. After secondary school he was admitted at St Bede’s College Ashingkom where he got his A-Levels.
After his Higher Education he went back to Nigeria and got admitted into the University of Calabar (UNICAL) where he made his First Degree in English Literature Studies with distinction. His excellent academic results gave him an offer for an M.A in the renowned university of Ibadan, which as at then, was second only to Fourabay College (Sierra Leone) in the whole of West Africa. After his Masters degree, BB came home as a well-equipped scholar, and like Ngwane aptly describes him:
“He was armed like an obassinjom warrior; not with the brawns of a soldier but with the brains of an intellectual; not with the gun of a fighter but with the guts of a write – his only missile was the pen”.
And till his death, his missile has been the pen.
Back in Cameroon, BB inculcated knowledge in the lives of many people both in informal and formal forums. In informal forums he would sing dirges in off-licenses, he would recite poetry to the ‘Soya boy’ and he would narrate stories to the taxi drivers and his passengers. In formal forums, he started in CPC Bali, from there he went to Ahidjo’s place of birth – G.S.S Mayo Oulo (perhaps as punishment for his criticisms), then finally to Bilingual Grammar School, Buea.
When the university of Buea was created, he applied to become a lecturer there but was rejected (according to him) of because he had only a Masters degree – and an old one at that! Whether one’s ability to transfer knowledge is a function of when he obtained the degree is another issue entirely that can be treated under BB’s struggle as a reformer.
After his rejection, this is what BB had to say: “What does she want?” Apparently referring to the then Vice Chancellor of UB. “A PhD? Let her give me 18 months and I will get one for her”. It was with this determination that BB went back to Calabar to get his PhD in record time. After his PhD, he came back to Cameroon and got recruited as a lecturer in the Faculty of Arts with specialization in Drama and Critical Theory. A job he held until his dead that fateful Black Thursday.
BB’s Writings
BB happened to be one of the most controversial authors of contemporary Africa. Some say BB doesn’t write for the masses but the intellectuals. BB’s response used to be brief; “I don’t write for the Lazy-minded lots”. Perhaps, it was partly due to this criticism, seconded by the docile (not willing to read) Cameroonian public as suggested with his conversation with Babila Mutia that made BB to divert from Poetry to Drama; so that people could better appreciate the messages codified in his writings.
BB’s fame sprang from his writings. As an undergraduate student in Calabar, he was the editor of a Magazine called The Oracle. At the time he was penning out from the university, he published his first book, Polyphemus Detainee and other Skulls launched in April 1980 by the much-talked about Chinua Achebe. While doing his National Youth Service (NYSC) - A compulsory service for all Nigerian graduates, he served as a ghost writer to Mamman Vatsa who was later executed by his Best Friend Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (then president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) for an abortive coup d’etat. Vatsa's execution has been a point serious controversy in Nigeria over the last six months as IBB was making move to rule Nigeria again.
When BB got into Ibadan, he told me he was paying his fees and footing his bills by writing articles for the West African Magazine. He equally sent countless contributions to journals such as Opon Ifa, Okike, Quest Magazine, Drum Magazine and African Concord.
When he came back to Cameroon, he contributed to almost all the prominent English newspapers in the country. Before his death, he was equally a contributor to African Literature Association of America (ALA) Bulletin and the Senegalese based CODESRIA moderated by Professors Abioseh Porter and Francis Nyamnjoh respectively.
BB’s Struggle as a Social Crusader
At the time BB was leaving Nigeria, merit in the academic sphere was a rule and not an exception. That explains why Prof. Bernard Fonlon (of blessed memory) tells us in his book The Genuine Intellectual that Prof. Victor Anomah Ngu who became the Vice Chancellor of the celebrated University of Ibadan – UI (even as a foreigner) - left that prestigious position to return to serve his country Cameroon thanks to Fonlon’s prodding. Similarly, BB lit a flame in the literary world of Nigeria and could have moved on to far greater things if only he had stayed on in his adopted land. Yet, as Ngwane emphatically puts it, “the bells of patriotism were jingling urging BB to come home”. Just like Prof Ngu before him who returned to Cameroon to a much inferior position in one of the Government ministries in Cameroon, BB left the promising horizon of Nigeria for the rudderless open-air boat (La Republique Du Cameroun) in which he was not sure to see the horizon.
He came and took the position of a Form One teacher in one of the most remote villages in Cameroon in Mayo – Oulo. Yet was undaunted. Instead he wrote: “ Do not say you are abandoned and deserted my friend, for it is the beauty of your exile that has shown how ugly we have become”.
When BB left Mayo Oulo for Buea, one would have thought BB was finally at home in Buea, the Cradle of Cameroon Anglophone Civilization. Yet life in Buea was to a large extent a mat of thorns for BB. From B.G.S to UB, BB was subjected to victimization, witch-hunting, backstabbing and betrayal.
First of all when BB got into the Civil Service, he went without his salary for four years and resorted to excessive drinking and smoking. Subsequently, his friends begged him not to resort to these vices each time he met a tragic situation. For example, Sarah Anyang pleaded with him after the Fulbright Fiasco, “BB please, don’t resort to drinking for it is not good for your creative abilities”. (Source BB’s Archives)
In 1990, BB faced a twelve-hour standing interrogation with the police after he wrote a review for George Ngwane’s monumental book The Mungo Bridge To this day, Ngwane still describes this as “BB’s first baptism of fire”.
In March 1992, BB got another baptism of fire after the successful staging of his book, Beast of No Nation at the University of Yaounde. During a trip to CRTV for an interview with Eric Chinje, BB was kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination. BB always recounted that it took the protests of the Anglohone Writers Association, then under the patronage of Mbella Sone Dipoko (he still has an original copy of the press release that was signed by Dipoko to that effect) and the wide Media publicity for him to be released.
While in UB, BB usually declared that even his former classmates and in some cases, his tribesmen victimized him. I recall a particular incident which happened in UB while I was still there. I recall how a lecturer approached BB, pleading that he should aid him write a strong-worded letter indicting the lecturer’s Dean for intellectual immorality and promiscuity. Like an elder colleague wanting to assist a younger and ‘oppressed’ colleague, BB wrote this letter, but not without warning this lecturer to be sure that he had evidence to back his claims. The lecturer concurred. However, when things got hot the lecturer apologized to the V.C saying he was instigated by BB and others: “"Madam, I will be more delighted to let you know that, what was written dated 7th March was not by my mind...” Click here to read BB’s furious reaction to that outlandish and false claim.
This particular incident was very annoying to me because I personally supervised the typing of the said letter. BB came with that lecturer to my office that day and I vividly recall the enthusiasm the lecturer manifested when BB brought out the manuscript. He thanked BB several times and asked me to keep the letter “with maximum confidentiality”. For the lecturer to later claim that he was manipulated was a most shocking claim.
The Fulbright Fiasco
Perhaps the greatest betrayal BB had throughout his 53 years on earth was the ‘calculated’ and successful move to abort his Fulbright Fellowship. In the early months of 2005, a friend of BB resident abroad nominated BB for the Fulbright In Resident Fellowship at Elon University, North Carolina. Going through BB’s CV was enough to convince the scholarship board of BB’s literary prowess. BB was therefore offered a scholarship to come and teach African Literature as a Fulbright-In-Residence Scholar at Elon University.
A few weeks later BB had already concluded agreement with Elon University that approved his course outline in July 2005 and a message from Elon’s proxy and bridge between Elon and BB, a certain Prof. Greg Brian indicated that Elon University looked forward to welcoming BB and his family in August 2005. There were a total of 14 correspondences from Elon to BB, asking him to get prepared for this position. BB offered a mass in Catholic Church Molyko to thank God for this offer.
Ironically, few weeks before going to collect his visa, the American Embassy sent BB a letter saying Elon is no longer interested in a Fulbright Scholar for that session. How could this be? BB strongly believed that university authorities had torpedoed his trip because of his alleged support of students during the University strike of that year. As he stated in a letter to the Minister of Higher Education dated 13/12/05, he was the victim of “a most demonic ruse”.
Like all human beings with feelings, BB lamented bitterly after the fiasco of the Fulbright award. It was 6:00 am that morning when BB called me. His opening statement was short. “Uche, I am finished. If I have ever meant anything to you, come now and assist me. Come and print out some of my mails from your office. I must leave for Yaounde now with those mails. I am waiting for you at Malingo Junction.”
When I met him there, it was not the vociferous BB I used to know. He was downcast. He subsequently told me he was paying the price for his struggle for a better Cameroon, and that the cancellation of his Fellowship was payback for supporting student unionism. But a month later BB had rebounded, true to style, and he told me defiantly: “Uche, I am a fighter. They can never shut me up”. That was when he wrote the poem in honour of the two students who died during the UB strike of 2005.
BB spent his time fighting for a better Cameroon and he died in that struggle. What actually proves that BB is a martyr for Cameroonians is that he died on his way to deliver a keynote speech on the socio-economic quagmires in Cameroon. The title of the paper BB had to present was “Anne Tanyi Tang’s Socio-Political Satires: Retrogression and Resistance in Cameroon Drama”.
Farewell BB
BB, I am unable to attend your funeral, but I will keep vigil in honor of your soul. I don’t have much to say other than to remind you of the last letter I sent you after you informed me of your last book launch; that you, along with Mwalimu George Ngwane, have been my inspiration. At first I was genuflecting for your intellectual prowess. Now, I lie prostrate before your academic achievement. You were a true academic soldier and social reformer.
I know that if you had the power to control your faith, you won’t have died now. As Einstein puts it, “Everything is controlled by forces over which we have no control. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player”. I take much solace from another statement, this time from St Thomas Aquinas who said: “quid quid movetur ab alio movetur – what is moved is moved by an unmoved mover”. I also remember the words of Augustine of Hippo who said “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.” Above all I remember the words of Jesus “come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt: 11:28).
BB, you have fought a good fight, you ran a good race, may you now find rest in God’s mansion. I make my prayers through the blood of Jesus, that blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.
My Hero, go in peace
UCHE EZE NKATTA IDIKA
Uche Eze Nkatta Idika, B.Sc (Hons) Pol. Sc.
Quite a true historical picture of the fighter who will never die.as someboddy who has lived in Buea for six years and being BB's student, i corroborate all what you have written UCHE.the world is our witness and those who know the history of UB, at least from the year 1999. BB really fought until his death and life.
if Cameroon is an honest country let investigations really be opened on the 'Dr Agbor' case and those of sexual harrasments on female students by 'senior' authorities of UB.they know themselves.let them know BB is not dead.he simply rests.
Can you imagine some of his 'enemies' attempted humiliating his 'Headless but Holy Body' at his Academic honours on March 21 at Amphi 750 of UB by saying ''it is the way we write that will save us too''? I will let you( UCHE) and the world know how he 'disgraced' them, as the masses which he had always stood for, spoke for him.
BB is alive and his struggle continues .Let them not be fooled'...
Posted by: Solomon Amabo | March 24, 2007 at 05:13 PM
He was a rare GEM:
He talked when everybody was expected to be silent.
He ran when everybody was expected to walk.
He laughed even when it was noble not to open your mouth.
He crowed when others thought it wasn't dawn.
He thought when wisemen were sleeping.
He wept when others thought it was a joke.
He published, never to perish.
Neba-Fuh
Posted by: Neba Fuh | March 25, 2007 at 09:25 PM
Mr. Uche,
Thanks so much for an outpouring that remains uncommon, unflattering and
sincere, detailing a litany of thrills, trials and triumphs of a man who
understood the pangs and pains of a people who were caught in a Sisyphian
despair, entrapped in Dantern inferno, whose destinies were directed by
'okrika" politicians who acted contrary to what they profess in public
podiums, never hesitated to dictate to us that we are wrapped up in an
inpenetrable darkness in the Great Triangle, with potent influences from the
Mephistophelean forces of dermagogon....a man who was angered by injustice,
saddened by the socio-politico-economic realities of "Mimbo land" and "the
Mecca of African soccer," disappointed by the national and international
communities, yet, frightened by nothing...yes, a man, a writer, a social
crusader who acted as an axe that hammered every perpetrator of social or
political vice, lamented for a beloved country by masking himself as the
"obasinjom Warrior" in order to define and expose the predicament of the
"beasts of no nation," predicted the cruel death for the most talkative
zombie and finally ended up consumed in the most cruel death that shocked
the imaginations of all. Yes, the most cruel death for a vociferous,
fearless and daunting writer. Praise for Professor Bate Besong...the man,
the poet, the writer, the warrior, and in the words of his young academic
son, George Ngwane, "the symbol of Anglophone hope." The avalanche of
tributes and emotions, the cornucopia of emails and the quantum of tears
that have run down our cheeks are eloquent testimonies of the fact that you
were a man of the people...and even though your works appeared to be crafted
in a language that was naturally un-understandable, we could decipher the
hardly decipherable message....making us torture our small minds and feel
humbled by your humility and mastery in using a style that remains
incomprehensible even to the native speakers of English
Language....Morgantown failed. Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang had rallied all to
come see the simple man behind the wonderful, collosal and unputdownable
works....yet, there was a dramatic turnaround, from the traditional
champagne popping and exhange of emails, telephone numbers and having
lunch/dinner in Parisian model cafetarias to the lighting of candles,
singing of songs, recital of prayers in English and Latin, to the writing of
inspirational and farewell messages in the forms of poems, proses and
songs....We really feel cheated, that a literary baobab has quit the stage
without giving signal, yet, we remain thankful to God for the opportunity to
have blessed our lives with such a man....there is no exact way we can
mourn....and we possibly cannot undo the work of God....He has decided...and
agains this decision, no appeal can be made.
As Fr. Tatah Humphrey wrote in his tribute, you are dining with other
philosophical and literary giants on a table meant for the great men who
made news in this world...and as you embark on this great and long journey,
remember your fellow Anglohone brethren for whom you fought endlessly and
untiringly, and ask our political ancestors to really commend us to Holy
Maria so that we can find peace, love one another and work together for the
progress of that blessed land called Cameroon....
All is not yet peace, for all those who saw you, knew you and loved you will
pray for you and wish you well....
Avitus Agbor...
Posted by: Avitus A. Agbor | March 28, 2007 at 02:14 PM
Here is the Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jaques Fame Ndongo's Tribute as it was presented by his repesentative during Academic Honours to the Fallen Literary Icon, Dr Bate Besong on the 21 of March 2007 at Amphi 750 of the University of Buea.The tribute created a roar and only goes to confirm what BB had written to him, describing the thwarting of his opportunity to benefit from the Fulbright Programme in the US as a 'DEMONIC RUSE'
TRIBUTE TO DR BATE BESONG,BY THE
MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Once again,I join the University of Buea family to mourn the loss of another colleague, this time Dr Bate Besong, who died in a road accident on 8 March 2007 along with 3(three) other persons.
With the death of Dr Bate Besong, ireparable loss has been inflicted on the Higher Education family and on the University system in Cameroon and why not in Africa!Dr Besong died enroute to obtain a visa for an international cnference in America.As fate would have it , he obtained a visa instead to the world beyond.
Dr Bate Besong was without doubt one of the greatest names in Cameroonian and African writing.A prolific poet , playwright and critic, he wrote some of the first pages of modern Cameroon letters.We are still to assess the exact extent of the damage caused by that wanton accident along the Douala -Yaounde highway in the early hours of Thursday 8 March 2007.One split second,and such a loss!
DEAR MOURNERS
THAT DR BATE BESONG DIED ON THE ROAD SHOULD URGE US GREATER CARE IN WHATEVER WE DO.AS ACADEMICS , WE ARE BOUND TO TRAVEL;WE ARE ALSO BOUND TO 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 BE VERY 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;infact , in the way you travel.Take enough rest;caution against excessive speed.Do not take the road when you are tired or excited.Any of these conditions can lead to fatal consequences.
I have said this before :we need to be courageous in the face of death.As the saying goes , tough time don't last but tough people do.These trying times cannot last forever.They will end one day soon.
Let me take this opportunity to address my heartfelt condoleances to the University of Buea, to the Cameroon Writers' Association and in a particular way to Dr Bate Besong's wife and children.I pray God gives all of you the fortitude to bear this permanent loss.
PROF JAQUES FAME NDONGO
NB
The words in cape is are thesentences that caused the roar.
Posted by: Solomon Amabo | April 01, 2007 at 09:06 AM