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No Corpse In The Casket, No Casket In The Grave.

(An except from The Kingomen Kingdom by TJ Nsoyuni)

      The king died three weeks after he fell ill. He died in a private clinic ward in foreign land, in Basoa.

    In Kingomen tradition, he must be buried immediately. This was not happening. 

    In Kingomen tradition only a selected group of people saw the corpse of a Kingomen king or handled it. This was not possible. He did not die among his people.

   King Mapre died thousands of  miles away from his palace and no traditional rite would be performed until his remains are with his people.

He died in a public setting, this was against tradition. His remains were kept in the morgue, tradition forbade this. 

People not known to him or his tradition handled and touched his remains, this was an abomination. 

     To make matters worse, the king’s corpse was kept in the mortuary for days. Keeping a king’s corpse past a day meant he died late in the evening or in the night. Kingomen tradition forbade night burials, this was not the case here.

     Dark clouds covered the land, two thick double rainbows clouds appeared in the sky in the east, crisscrossing one another. 

     The roosters refused to crow, the birds did not chirp. 

Strong winds blew in the land at night. All the rivers of the kingdom stopped flowing. 

The elderly lady who went to tilth her coffee farm around her house did not come home that night. The couple that went to bed woke up sleeping on the bare ground outside of their house. The man who was very sick asked his wife to escort him to the pit toilet behind the house. Half way behind the house he stopped and told her his last Will. 

The earth cracked, maggots and worms came out complaining how hot it was down there. Crops withered and twins went missing. All trees shed their leaves, raffia wine did not flow for the taper. All the bush animals escaped and the hunters came home empty handed. Early morning church goers saw the centenary throne at the entrance of the royal cemetery.

A message was sent to Kingomen that their king ‘has died and his remains were kept in the mortuary.’ 

     An announcement was made informing the people. The town-cryer let the people know that the sun has set in the land, that the kingdom was waiting for the corpse of the dead king and that until it arrived and was buried, no mourning rite could commenced.

Lightning flashed, the tree trunk split, thunder rumbled in the dry weather. Women returned from their farms early and the men felt powerless. The land and the rich cultural tradition stood naked in Shame, the big disgrace.

After two weeks in the morgue, King Mapre’s remains were removed, a wake keep ceremony was held in the home town of the Senator. 

Later that day the corpse was brought to his palace in Vfem- kingomen in a casket and was kept in the local mortuary for another three days. Kingomen people did not bury their kings in coffins, this one would be buried in casket.

When his remains were removed from the local morgue, it was laid in state in the palace hall in the open for overnight viewing and many paid their last respects. This was the height of Kingomen tradition abomination.

The land and the people felt helpless, the Senator came with Soldiers that were well armed. The funeral plan went well until…

The next day, before bringing the corpse to the local church, a special Kwifor seven-man group appeared unexpectedly. Tradition and modernism met.

 They asked everybody to leave and allow them with the corpse. A counter order was given by the Senator, asking no one to leave.

The guards who guarded the corpse since it arrived kingomen refused to let the cult men into the hall. Most people left and a handful refused to leave. Wanting to see for themselves. 

The Kwifor men came with spear grass in their months, with the royal leave on their foreheads and their hats on. The one who spoke was their leader, he put his spear grass in his mouth and none of them spoke again.

The seven-man cult members moved to the court yard in front of the palace hall and stood in a circle with their heads down. They lifted their right arms up to the sky, opened and closed their hands three times simultaneously.

Nimbus clouds darkened the entire kingdom, thunder rumbled from all the four corners of the kingdom, with lightning striking the courtyard where they stood. Heavy torrential rain followed and when they all brought down their arms the rain ceased instantly.

This was right around sun rise in the morning, the cult members caused the sun to shine over head when they lifted their two arms and opened their hands to the sky. When they brought their arms down, the sun returned to it normal position and the rain water that was everywhere dried up.

With all these happenings, the remaining people who did not leave, ran away. The Senator and the guards were left. They were strangers, they knew nothing about the kingomen tradition. The guards trembled with fear but for the heavy banknotes in their pockets.

The Kwifor cult members lifted up their heads, opened wide the eyes and looked up to the sky, the kingdom dimmed. They all closed their eyes at once, this unleashed midnight darkness in the land, everywhere became very dark. The cult’s night music started playing from nowhere in a distance and coming closer. 

Fear could be perceived in whoever was still there but there was nobody except the corpse and the cult members. The corpse did not run away because it was a corpse. As the music played into the courtyard where the men were, it became louder and louder, its intended effect was achieved, it concealed any noise. Four of the seven cult members, stepped aside, opened the casket and took away the corpse of king Mapre.

When they left and were a good distance away, the cult music that had turned into a dirge was heard fading in all four corners of the kingdom. It was floating in the sky and rhyming in everyone’s mind in all four direction. 

When daylight came back, it was still scary and noone mustered the courage to go into the hall until the reverend father came.

As the priest and the Senator stepped into the hall, their eyes saw it at once and they knew what to do. The senator quickly ran to the foot of the casket, held it as the priest held the head of the casket lit as the two closed an empty casket. 

Only these two knew that there was no longer any corpse in the casket. The guards who had returned like everyone else were instructed not to open the casket again.

The casket was taken to church, this was  still against tradition. The reverend father bless it and a requiem mass was said on its behalf for the king. After that, the remains of the king were taken to the royal cemetery where it was buried with some traditional rites.  

The Senator thought of how much money she paid for the casket and could not stand the empty casket buried in that tomb without her husband’s body.

As the funeral reception went on, the Senator recruited some three strong men from around the kingdom to join the brought-in guards. He paid them money with the promise that she had a job for them. In the middle of the night, she brought them to the royal cemetery to dig up the casket. They dug it up and covered the grave the second time with no corpse in the casket and no casket in the grave.

Because of what happened during the reign of king Mapre the Great, Kingomen Kingdom enacted new laws: 

No princess from any kingdom shall become queen of kingomen kingdom, no prince with kingly DNA from other kingdoms shall become king of kingomen kingdom. No king of kingomen kingdom shall stay out of the kingdom for more than six months. tbc

If you are motivated by this story-line, chip in a contribution to support my writing. You can buy my published work too. Search for TJ Nsoyuni in on the Web and buy from your favorite site. Thank you.

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The Egg of Life.

She‘s been sitting in the same position for who knows how long now, but for her mind and her thoughts that have been darting between the where-about-fate of her husband and the singing, clapping and foot stomping of the children in the playground. She switched thoughts to the singing of ‘one-one eh, one-one eh’ song.

‘One-one walome, Two-together, Three patricia, Four follow me,

Five fadaman  Six sicilia, Seven Sabina, Eight motubo, Nine Nigerians,

Ten quitapa, Eleven morocco, Twelve calendar ’

        (The singing faded away as she refocused on her husband)

The thought of his fate frightened her. Yesterday evening about the same time, he came out of the house and called her, when she came close to him, he pointed with the left hand saying: 

‘It is that cock I want to take along tomorrow for my divination with the seer’. 

All the fowls in the compound were hers, she bought them and raised them, because the man was the head of the household he did not ask for permission, he gave orders and they were executed. 

The husband and fowl had gone before the day opened its eyes and now that the eyes were about to close, there was no sign of him. What had happened? Was he alright? Had anything gone wrong, her mind and thoughts were switched to the main matter of the day; Her husband’s fate.

Helena, Helena’ she screamed, calling her daughter’s attention. The daughter was busy playing her ‘one-one-eh…’

‘Ma-a-aa’ she answered.

‘Have you seen your father today?’ she queried.

‘No-o-o’ the little girl responded, still overwhelmed with the ‘one-one-eh’ song play. 

The woman turned round and went to sit at the same position she had sat for most of the day, facing the same direction her husband disappeared to, it was from that same direction he was to appear from.

Life and doing nothing: the unfortunate thing about doing nothing in life is that one never knows when one is done doing nothing.

She twisted in her seat and looked at the clock, it was bedtime and her husband had not come back from the oracle… tbc.

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    Nanotechnology Applications.

Introduction.

     Nanotechnology is a projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, and top down, developing today to make complete high-performance products. It is the engineering of functional systems at a molecular scale.

When materials are decomposed and rearranged into smaller scales, their characteristics change. Nanotechnology is based on the concept that a nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

Bottom-up: 

This is when materials and machines are developed from molecular or atomic components by the principles of molecular recognition.

Top-down: 

This is when nano-objects are constructed from larger components without restricting their atomic-scale control.

  Nanomachines and Biomaterials: 

When new chemical properties of semiconductors and conductors were found, Nanomaterial empowered the production of new devices. Materials exhibit different properties as they exhibited at the macro level which enabled unique applications to take place. This gives room for opaque elements to become transparent, and insulators become conductors at nano-scale treatment like silicon.

Material perspective:

It has been observed that the decomposition of materials at the nanotechnology scale level changes their properties. 

Several mechanical and physical phenomena that appear when the system size is decreased by these effects are known as mechanical effects or quantum size effects.  Electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of the materials changed at nanoscale rearrangements.

Molecular perspective: 

With advanced chemistry, a lot of techniques are used to ‘prepare a wide range of chemical compounds such as polymers and pharmaceuticals, but the extension of the control gives birth to the question of how these molecules could be reassembled into more advanced supermolecular assemblies. 

Molecular self-assembly is gradually evolving into supramolecular chemistry to make the new components which can reassemble themselves.'(wifinotes.com.2012).

Molecular recognition:  ‘Molecules rearrange themselves chemically by molecular recognition. There is a special force that is present between molecules, a noncovalent intermolecular force which supports the conformation of the chemical similarity of molecules.’ (wifinotes.com.2012).

Applications of nanotechnology in some fields:

Medicine: 

This involves the employing of nanoparticles to deliver drugs, heat, light, and other substances to particular types of cells. Particles are engineered so that they are attracted to disease cells, thereby allowing the treatment of those cells directly without damaging other healthy body tissues. It also allows the detection of diseases at its early stage.

Space exploration: 

Nanotechnology holds the key to making space exploration more practical. Nanomaterial advancement makes it possible for making a lightweight solar sail and a cable for a space elevator possible. This reduces the amount of rocket fuel required and lowers the cost of reaching the orbit and traveling in space. Nanosensors and nanorobots could help improve spacesuits’ performances, spaceships, and equipment used to explore the planets and the moon.

Cell fuel development: 

Nanotechnology can help stabilize the shortage of fossil fuel and gasoline by making the production of fuel from low-grade raw materials economical, increasing mileage in the engine, and making the fuel from normal raw materials more efficient. This can be achieved when nanotechnology increases the effectiveness of catalysts. Catalysts in turn can reduce the temperature needed to convert raw materials into fuel or increase the percentage of burning fuel at a given temperature.

Air and water purification: 

Nanostructures have catalysts whose membranes transform vapor and other gasses from cars and industries into harmless gasses when released into the atmosphere. This is because nanoparticles have larger surface areas to interact with a reacting chemical than larger particles. Water purification has been greatly improved by the use of nanotechnology. 

Nanoparticles are being used to convert contaminating chemicals through chemical reactions to make them harmless. This technique is also used to remove salt and metals from water using electrodes composed of nano-size fiber. And lastly, nanometers in diameter are being used to remove virus cells from water.

Food: Nanotechnology is improving the level of agriculture at all levels. This ranges from how food is grown to how it is packaged. Many companies are developing nanomaterials at the level of agriculture which will improve the taste, quality, and storage of food. Food safety and the health benefits of food will also be improved positively at delivery.                                                 

Engineering: 

Nanotechnology in engineering has various blocks of nanoscales like nanoparticles, nanosheets, nanowires, and nanotubes. All these display unusual and unique impressive mechanical properties. (nanowerk.com.2007)

                     TJ Nsoyuni. 

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Two Husbands One Wife

  

Cont…

Lavbam greeted the visitors and let them into his house. When they were seated, he told them he did not know any of them. They were an elderly man, a young man, and a woman.

The man introduced himself and his companions and explained the reason for their visit.

Lavbam looked at them again keenly and told them once more: ‘I don’t know you, we don’t know you. You are not the person we were waiting for today.’

The man agreed, adding that he and his family were here on Neene’s behalf.

Two years ago, the man courted Neene. It was the real love-is-blind thing that turned into something. 

Neene had six children with her husband, Husband Number 1 (HN1) including a set of twins. The children were grown and their mother started a petite business. 

She started ‘Buy-am Sell-am’ of vegetables.

The first time the two met was when she was going to sell her vegetables. The man bought the goods after which he asked for a favor. 

She accepted and bought and delivered beef to him. 

It stepped up from the shop and deliver to shop, deliver, and cook, then shop, deliver, cook, and eat.

The Physic law of attraction set in ‘Unlike pulls attract and like pulls detract’ She started returning home late with flimsy excuses. 

At times she spent the night and would advance that she spent the night at her father’s compound. Her father’s compound was in that direction. 

She attended every occasion and event in the Mbingyi compound after she started this affair. 

Some months later, she left her husband for the man who was sitting in Lavbam for the introduction. This justified where she was having pleasure and comfort and love and care.

Husband Number Two (HN2) was tall, with broad shoulders, he was caring and loving. He was everything Neene wanted in her husband. Though, she met him at an older age, when she already delivered all her children. He was okay with it.

HN2 did not want children at his age. He was a widower and all his children were grown too. 

All he wanted was a lover and a companion. Neene had all these and more to that her marriage was falling apart. Her husband had found more pleasure in his hunting business and had established their farmhouse as his primary place of abode. To her, this was abandonment and neglect. Before HN1 could realize it, his wife was already living with another man in another village.

He came back home in a hurry and put a few things together to seek justice in the customary court of the kingdom. 

To him, the law was on his side. This was his wife of years. They had children together, they had lived together until people said the two reassembled one another.

That same morning that HN2 was in Mbingyi asking for Neene’s hand in marriage, a man and his friend stood by the entrance to the palace. They were not early-morning travelers, they were men on a mission. 

They carried a keg of raffia wine and a fowl inside a cage. The man and his friend wanted to be the first to attend to the palace court registrar. They considered their case a priority. The case of a married woman running to another man after six children with her husband and after a lifetime of married life. The man with his friend at the entrance to the king’s palace was HN1.

The case was registered, and investigations were open. many in kingomen could not understand how a woman with six children from one man would run away to another man.

 The trio in the case were elderly people and grandparents. This divided the opinion of the Great Lords in the council. Some were for and others could not understand what on earth could cause a woman to leave her husband after so many years of living together.

HN1 claimed Neene was his wife because they have been married for years and evidence of that was that they had children together, grownup children. 

HN2 claimed Neene was his soulmate. He had paid her bride price some weeks ago. He was the rightful husband who did the right thing as culture and tradition demanded.

Ndzeedzev, Ntaa-Nkum, Lun, Tsenlah and Melim, and Tsenkar the lead Great Lords in the council could not come to a consensus. How would you take someone’s wife of many years with children and give to a husband of one or two months who did the right thing by paying her bride price? Impossible, the Great Lords in council disagreed more.

This divided opinion spilled out to the court of public opinion. Many supported HN1. The children were proved that the woman in question was his wife. When the wife was asked in court who was her husband, she stood with HN2. Many supported HN2, he did the right thing, marrying the wife through acceptable channels.

Witnesses came to testify and to attest to who was the real husband of Neene. Some said the wife should belong to the father of her children, others disagreed saying the man who did the right thing according to tradition and custom should have his wife. 

This was the greatest dilemma that had ever rocked the Kingomen Kingdom. 

Who was right? 

The norms of the culture and tradition or the evidence of nature? 

The divide and the claim of wife ownership spilled out and over. It divided friends and friends of friends. It pitted the family of HN1 to that of HN2, and it pitted the village of HN1 to that of HN2.

There was a lot of name-calling and more divided opinions. There was a lot of talk about traditional norms and the breaking of traditional norms.

This case was unprecedented, never before heard of in the history of the kingdom did a wife of many years with children leave the husband for another man. 

This case was groundbreaking, ‘who will be the father of the children if tradition is respected?’ Some wandered.

The result or the outcome would set a precedent for how a similar case could be decided in the future. 

This case pulled a crowd to the kingdom courtyard. People came from far and near. Whenever anyone heard of the type of case, they became interested and made plans to attend the next hearing.

The children in the witness circle stood by HN1, their father, as for their mother, no one doubted her motherhood, she was the one who was pregnant with each of them.

In modern times, divorce would have been the way out. There was no divorcing here as HN1 had not paid Neene’s bride price, as his wife. 

They were precedents set for runaway wives, but the runaway wives were younger wives. 

This case was different, the men and the woman involved were senior citizens with grandchildren.

The kingdom had a way of settling complicated cases and this was not one of them. This case would be a glass-ceiling-breaker case, and the entire kingdom wanted to know.

The case of a pickpocketer was before the court. The complainant was sure the defendant was the one who stole from him. The defendant swore to his innocence that he did not.

 Since there were no solid eyewitnesses and one or two that came as witnesses, supported either the complainant or the defendant because of long-standing friends. This gave the Great Lords in council no other option than to evoke the final judgment style in any complicated case that came in front of them.

 The complainant and the defendant would swear on the centenary throne and the land would decide. This was honesty-of-conscience and then one swore.  Punishment for the crime was for the land to decide and not humans. 

The crowd present in the palace witnessed this rear method of passing judgment in some cases. After swearing on the throne. the complainant and the defendant left the palace letting the land decide their faith.

Those present were more interested in the case of the married grandma who left her husband of years with children for another grandpa, who immediately paid her bride price.

In many scheduled hearings the Great Lord still did not come to a consensus or a decision as to who was the husband and to whom the children would belong. 

Even when they agreed that the woman has made her choice, what about the children? Would they belong to their biological father or would they follow their mom to belong to her new husband?

This case was not similar to that of a presumed thief and a complainant. This case could not be decided by swearing on the centenary throne and letting the land decide. This was a landmark case where a precedent would be set. 

Would the husband be HN2 because he did the right thing or would the husband be HN1 because he had made and raised children by the woman?

The case was brought before King Mapre, and the King listened to the facts and details of the proceedings. 

His decision would be final but would he decide for HN2 as he was the highest custodian of tradition and HN2 followed and respected tradition? Or would he decide the case for HN1 as a family with children was the nucleus of the kingdom? 

This dilemma put the king in the position of the Great Lords in the council as well as the entire population of the Kingomen Kingdom.

The king asked who was the father of the wife in question and he was told that the father of the maiden was Great Lord Mbingyi. The king requested Mbingyi be present at the next hearing as he promised his entire kingdom he would decide the case in that hearing. 

Everybody went home wondering how the king would do it.

At the next hearing, Mbingyi answered the summon from the kingdom and made himself present. The presence of Mbingyi was a secret known only to the king and the Great Lords in the council.

When the case was called, the entire courtyard full of the multitude went dead with silence. Those who were waiting in the outer courtyard were all ears. Loudspeakers were mounted and extended outside the hearing area for all present.

The king asked the questions when the two men took their positions and after swearing them in with a dean gun on behalf of Thunder. 

The woman came and made her position known as she went and stood by her new husband after swearing in too. The children present stood in the middle and when the king asked them they all went to stand by their father.

As tradition would have it, it was very clear the court proceedings had been here and it was here again, so there was no breakthrough. 

Then the king evoked the last Joker and caught everyone by surprise. The two husbands and the wife in question were surprised too. Even the Great Lord Mbingyi did not understand how his presence would decide this famous case.

The king asked the two men to sit down, and they sat down. He let father and daughter stood before the king. He asked them to make sure they recognized and accepted themselves as father and daughter, they did smiling at each other.

Then the decision came.

The king asked the maiden of Mbingyi to sit down, and she did. The king called on the two men, HN1 and HN2 to stand in their own standing circle. Each got up and took a position. HN1 stood by Mbingyi’s right hand and HN2 stood by his left hand. The king asked the two men if they knew Great Lord Mbingyi. They both answered yes, in turns. The king equally asked Mbingyi if he knew the men. Great Lord Mbingyi answered in the affirmative after looking at both men, one at a time.

He clapped his hands three times and told the king that he recognized the men. Then came the verdict.

The king: ‘Great Lord Mbingyi, do you know these two men who are claiming to be both married to your daughter? Who are they?

Great Lord Mbingyi step ahead again clapped his hands and told the king and the Great Lords in council that one was Tannkwaa and the other was Sallemon. 

Everyone in court jeered and could be heard saying ‘he knows them by names’ The jeering conveyed.

Tannkwaa, or husband number one was from Meluf. The people of Meluf were the first scientists in the kingdom.

A group of smart Meluvians once stole a cow and put shoes on its hooves. The front hooves were facing in front and the back hooves were facing back. 

The four men in the heist were wearing boots too. So when the cow owners traced the walking trail and the direction the thieves took,  they got lost as they identified six rainboots marking five moving in the same direction and two moving in the opposite direction.

Later when their secret leaked, they confessed that they used the rainboots to prevent cow foot rot.

Tankwaa was a renowned person in the kingdom, he was a heavy eater, he was strong and powerful, and a man full of strength. 

He helped bring home all your maize from the farm in one visit. He could eat seven loaves of fufu in one sitting. 

His tasting of groundnuts was a tray of groundnuts. When he plays a drum on an occasion, the instrument will sink into the ground.

 If one was planting coffee on the farm, his presence meant one did not need to dig the planting hole, he used his heels to dig the holes. 

Everything about him was strength and mystery. For those who knew him some of those mystical sayings were exaggerated.

Sallemon or husband number two, the widower was a drum maker. He made the best drums in the kingdom. There was a story about him with Uncle Kaukauna. 

Sallemon was among the few people in the kingdom who embraced the Christian religion earlier. During conversion and baptism, he was christened Solomon. As Christianity would have after hearing the story of King Solomon in the Bible, he preferred to be called King Solomon.

At one grouping, the group had requested a new base drum, the group wanted a younger member to bring the drum from the drum maker. In the process of directing him to whom to ask when he reached the location. They referred to his Christian name Solomon.

Uncle Kaukauna stood up and corrected everyone in the group that this man was not Solomon but Sallemon.

The king smiled and allowed the murmuring to quiet out, after which he continued. 

The king asked the question everyone expected or did not expect.

The king: Between Tankwaa and Salleemon, who is your in-law?

As custom demanded, the Great lord Mbingyi stepped forward again, the third time, and clapped his hands, greeted the king, and spoke out the mind of his family. ‘Nyah,’ he said. Then he proceeded to point and called out HN2 as the recognizable and acceptable husband of his daughter, Neene.

According to Mbingyi, his family had seen both men in their compound because of Neene, but they had received the bride price from only one of them and that one was Sallemon. Sallemon was the rightful husband because he did the right thing according to tradition and culture.

There was murmuring and cheering and disgruntlement from the crowd.

The king asked for quiet and cleared the air.

King Mapre let his people know that Tannkwaa was a he-goat. He explained that according to the ways of the kingdom, if a man stayed with a woman without paying the bride price, that man did not have any right over the children except that he was a biological father.

If a woman remained with such a man for life, the children will be returned to the woman’s compound for anything traditional to be done on the children’s behalf. 

If the woman died without her bride price paid, her corpse would be returned to her father’s compound for burial.

Tannkwaa was the he-goat in this case and now that Neene’s bride price was paid, her children would belong to her new husband, Sallemon. Tannkwaa got a new name. He was nicknamed Tannkwaa the He-goat.

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Ancestral Appeasement Opener.

                     

Ancestral appeasement opener was a universal offering of sacrifices to the ancestors in the kingdom of Kingomen. 

An individual Great Lord or Lord carried out this sacrifice on behalf of his family members and the domain.

A  specific period was set aside for sacrifices and appeasements, it was usually between the end of the Rainy season and the beginning of the Dry season.

 The Lords, or the Great Lords performed an opener-sacrifice to enable family members from far and near to come and perform their sacrifices and communicate and communion with the ancestors. 

They come to ask for favors and good tidings in their everyday life. It was part of the cultural tradition of the kingdom.

Mbingyi put everything in place and picked a day to carry out the appeasement opener for his large family. As a Great lord and a leader of his family, he looked forward to this event with hope.

He hoped and prayed that what happened last year would not repeat itself. Two of his children flew in from abroad and their sacrifices were rejected by the ancestors. 

They were part of a conspiracy that neglected and refused to receive the king of Mia-mbe, stating openly and making it known that the king of Mia-mbe was a lesser king in Kingomen’s kingdom and could not be accorded the respect meant for the mighty king Mapre of Kingomen kingdom. 

The cultural tradition’s nemesis caught up with them sooner than expected. They suffered the wrath of tradi-cultural dereliction.

When Lavbam cast the cowries, they all fell on their bellies, facing away from each other. They revealed that the two children of Mbingyi needed to go start their appeasement and sacrifices from the Mia-mbe kingdom. 

The Kou Kingdom, the Karn Kingdom, the Mia-mbe Kingdom, and the Shen Kingdom, together with the Kingomen Kingdom made up the mighty Kingomen Kingdom.

Neglecting any of these kings was the same as neglecting your uncles simply because none of them was your biological father.

Kingship in Kingomen tradition and culture did not differentiate, it did not neglect. It did not choose or prefer. 

A king was the king, any king was the king. if a king came in front of the Kingomen subjects in any part of the world, he was the king. He was treated and accorded respect and honors that a king deserved. His blessings were universal and surpassed the blessings of Great Lords and Lords in all of the Kingomen kingdoms. 

His sacrifices and appeasements were versatile and could be performed for any son or daughter of the Kingomen kingdom anywhere and at any time. 

A king as an individual was an institution and Kingship was communal. As an individual, his pronouns were plurals. Kings did not hold grudges, they forgave wrongdoings as often as possible and as many times as possible. The forgiveness of a king was divine. If a subject came to the king, it was a blessing, If the king came to the subject, it was a double blessing of a lifetime.

‘His children could have asked the king of Mia-mbe to perform this sacrifice abroad and spare them the time and the expenses’ Mbingyi rolled this in his mind.

‘The sacrifice performed by a king was mighty’. He thought aloud. ‘Now they must go make peace with the king of Mia-mbe before their sacrifices could be performed by him their father, What ignorance’ he concluded.

At Mia-mbe, the two Mbingyi children met with the intermediaries of the king as tradition demanded. They, later on, met with the king himself. The king was joyful to receive them in his kingdom. He acknowledge the kingly welcome he was given abroad.

When his visitors made known the intention of their visit, the king forgave them immediately. For those who showed dereliction of tradition and culture when he was abroad, he used the opportunity at hand to forgive them as well. That was being the king and carrying our kingly duties. 

After the two children and their families returned from Mia-mbe, where they went to obtain remit for their neglect and omission of cultural traditional values toward the highest custodian of tradition, all was well and went well.

When Mbingyi put their fowls on the threshold of the family door, he thanked the king of Mia-mbe for his good heart. He used this opportunity to ask for forgiveness from the ancestor for all the sons and daughters of the kingomen kingdom who were abroad, especially those that participated with his children in ignoring kingomen cultural tradition.

‘No matter who you are or what you are or where you are, tradition is tradition. Your tradition is your culture and your culture is you’ Mbingyi incantation.

He called on the ancestors to forgive his children and their brothers and sisters abroad. He blamed the Whiteman and his ways that derailed and misled them abroad. 

‘Where a man was his tradition is’ he said this, taking up his head to look at his children. Then he asked the ancestors to receive the sacrifice and they did.

The fowl closed its eyes in sleep and lowered its head onto the family door threshold, it held its wings together and its legs did not move. This was like hypnotizing the fowl, Mbingyi let go of his hold of it and walked to his seat where he took his time to look for the knife. He walked back and the sacrifice was still in the same position, unmoved. This was the sign that the ancestors have accepted the sacrifice.

He took hold of the legs and the wings again while the fowl slept and he asked the children to grasp the neck of the sleeping fowl, they did and everything after was good talk about how successful the sacrifice was. It was a happy ending for all. 

‘My gong is ready, the camwood is enough, the knife, the ‘she-nkan’, and the wine are available, everything is in place, all is set 

Mbingyi went over his list before retiring for the night.

A moment ago, he had said nite to Shae and Lavbam. Shae was a maiden of Mbingyi who was living with a man that had not come to dowry her; they had six children including twin.

She came in early in the evening to let her fathers know that someone would be visiting them the next day on her behalf. To his fathers it was okay, after many years of living together with so many children, her husband was doing the right thing. They did not think of any surprises.

‘Tee-nding-nding-nding-nding-nding,

 Tee-nding, tee-nding, tee-nding

Tee-nding tee-nding tee-nding, 

Tee-nding tee-nding tee-nding’ 

The gong broke the quiet of the early morning of the event day after the cock crowed the third time.

Mbingyi had not slept soundly as he would on regular days, he had merely kept vigil as he heard the first cock crow, the second, and the third crows. 

At the third cock crow, he jumped to his feet, lit his bush lamp, and paced out to the main living room. This was a big family room, built like a hall with two pillars supporting it in the middle. It had seats to accommodate most of the family. 

The seating was arranged in order of position and seniority. Mbingyi as the Great Lord was the only person in the family who entered the family house and went on his right. 

The rest of the family including Lavbam went to their left. Lavbam, the second in command to the mbingyi dynasty sat closest to the door, across from Mbingyi. The two spoke face to face. The rest of the family sat in any order on the left side of the family seating room. There was no segregation between men and women but they sat according to age. The children sat at the tail end or at times if the seats were limited, the children waited outside to be called if needed.

‘Tee-nding-nding-nding-nding-nding, 

Tee-nding tee-nding tee-nding

Tee-nding tee-nding tee-nding, 

Tee-nding tee-nding tee-nding’ 

This second round of the gong was played after a waiting period. It was played at the threshold of the family house to wake up the representative of the ancestors, and it did.

The Mekwa-shu homestead was attached to the main family house. Me-kwa-shu was a youthly juju dance that danced from the rhythm of the xylophone, drums, a wooden gong, and some rattling bamboo. The masked jujus or masquerades danced with tied rattles on their ankles. It was called the Kikum dance, and the mbingyi Kikum dance was known as the Mekwa-shu.

At one corner of the Mekwa-shu homestead were termites holes, in one of these holes was the representative of the mbingyi ancestors.

The Serpent twisted and turn when it heard the sound of the gong and it understood the message. It was the living summoning the spiritual. It twisted again and its hosts understood the move, the guest would be living for the season.

The ancestral representative crawled out of its resting place and moved toward the sound of the playing gong, keeping close to the walls of the house as much as possible.

When the Serpent reached the open yard where a few people had gathered, it kept close to the walls as well. It had done this over the years. 

A few family members including Lavbam who was always present at any event in the family, notice it and knew what to do. ‘Keep your cool, don’t be scared, and don’t make any move’ Those who had been at this event knew the drill.

The snake came right up to where Mbingyi was and placed its head on the family door threshold. Mbingyi who was the link between the living and the dead, welcomed it and sprinkled some camwood on its head. 

He stepped aside to let it enter the family house. It went in to rest at the site where the family gods or shook-a-Nyuy was kept. There, the serpent became invincible. it became a spirit, and though it was spotted now and then around the compound throughout the dry season, it was harmless. It was scared of anyone as anyone was scared of it. It returned to its resting abbot at the beginning of the wet season after the first rain to wait for the next appeasement opener next year.

Mbingyi stepped back and picked up the sacrifice, the fowl. He held it in his hands and summoned the ancestors. Starting with the males and followed by the females.

‘Fathers of Mbingyi’ he called them out. ‘Takong, Ndze, Chin, Tangwa, kouven, Langwa, and Tabiy. This was to summon their spirits. These were his predecessors.

‘Mothers of Mbingyi, Kghwe-Kghwee, Biy, Neh-nee, Nntang, Nghooh-lah, Boiylah, and Bongbinin’ were the female ancestors.

He placed the sacrifice on the threshold and plead with the ancestors to take their share from the living. He reminded them that he, Mbingyi Tanleh, or Gread lord Tanleh was the one heading the family at the moment. 

This was one of the rare occasions that the Great Lord introduced himself with a name other than his title. Most often he was referred to as Mbingyi or Great lord mbingyi.

The Incantation:

He went on, The family has communion today to offer you this sacrifice.

Receive this as we are following in your footsteps.

It is the beginning of the sacrifice seasons and this is the sacrifice from the living to you our ancestors.

We ask you to give us health in exchange and heal those who are in sick beds. 

May our farm yield increase. May our animals multiply in stock. Let our chicken hatch in their tens and twenties. Let our goats reproduce in triplets and quadruplets. Let our herds of cows double.

May our children marry. Bless us with children, twins, and triplets. May our wife be fertile and our maidens be more beautiful. Let them marry well-to-do men.

Let our sons and daughters receive what they asked for. Let their job position be juicy. Those who are doing business, may what they put out to sell be sold. 

Our people do not take what is not theirs. Our people earn out of their sweat. Let sons and daughters of Mbingyi earn out of their sweat 

The Get rich quick syndrome is not for us. We do not cut corners to make a living. 

As the Mbingyis, we are known for our hard work. Reward our hard work.

If anyone hates our own, do not give them the chance to hurt them. If the enemy lay their hands on our heads. Let that enemy fall down and break the neck. 

Let our children do well in school and score high in their examinations. Let our children travel abroad. Let our senior citizens live long to see their children’s children. Let those who are abroad and in overseas remember us. Let them share in your blessings and protection as we share in this sacrifice. Bless us the more, and protect us as always. May we not cut our chins on the farm or wound ourselves at work. May accidents not locate us. Dead should avoid our own. Let the children bury their parents. Untimely death is not our own. we should live long to see our children’s children.’ 

Then he paused and asked of the ancestors and the sacrifice.

‘Take this sacrifice, receive this sacrifice, and show us the sign.’ he said. The sacrifice closed its eyes and dropped down its neck onto the threshold. 

This was a sign that the ancestors have accepted the sacrifice…(TBC)

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A child vs Obedience.

    

      Obedience is the practice of being dutiful and submissive and compliance with authority.

      A child is a miniature of a person still in the process of becoming a person. Children rely on a person for everything. At a tender age, they respect the authority of the person, especially their parents and immediate ones.

      Children are socialized to respect authority figures to gain social approval and manage self-image. With this respect, they show they become well-fitted members of society in the future. 

They are socialized this way because authority to them is an expert in life and authority acts as an agent of influence. It goes without saying that children would disagree with their parents on how to do things because their school teacher said it should be done the other way than their parents. At this point, the teacher is the higher authority than the parents.

     Our little ones are socialized to respect authority figures because they are not familiar with real-life situations and they lack a grasp of reality.

 This too is done because of the uncertainty of life that is unknown to the child’s world. ‘All of us would not want our children to go through what we went through in life’. Most parents would think. That is why we are always there to guide, protect and direct our children so they are not led astray by their natural tendencies.

     The way we socialize our children leads them to the line that it is profitable to obey an authority figure. Because this authority figure is the one that would protect them from danger, give them food, shelter, and care for them since they are still vulnerable.

Benefits of obedience to the child

     The benefits are aplenty, the children grow up to become well-fitted and acceptable members of society. The children grow up to understand life and see it in a feeling manner. They grow up to live with the inculcated ideas to respect so that they too can be respected.

      The only negative consequence can come when the children are socialized to respect the authority in a violent way or when they are meant to revolt against authority or disrespect the authority figure. This can only come from the authority that is bad, bad authority figures will have socialized children to be bad.

      How we socialized our children may seem the best for us, but in the watchful eyes of government authority; we might be overdoing it or underdoing it. That is when this authority comes in to put order. The best way to socialize our children is to do it ourselves under the supervision of the government authority figure.

      Socializing our children should be commensurate to their ages, as infants, as a child, or as adolescents: the socialization methodology should correspond to the child’s age and social standard. It would be a poor method to socialize a child with electronic gadgets usage and video games playing rather than books and school gadgets that can make the child learn.

     By TJ Nsoyuni.

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How Much Is Enough To Retire In The United States Of America?

     If you have never thought of this, don’t be scared. If this is the first time it crosses your mind, be attentive. If you have thought of it harder, lower your guard. If you always roll this in your mind, give it some serious consideration after reading this.

     Case study: A Nigerian couple that worked and retired in America with enough to last them the rest of their lives.

This writing is based on an ideal retirement amount; One Million Dollars. 

     The allowed retirement age in the United States is 65 years but one can retire early or late depending on personal decisions.

     The poverty threshold in the United States is $17.000.00, anything above that is middle class. Though, the US class system has a lower middle class and an upper middle class. 

     With an ideal amount of money in the bank to retire and the retiree wishes to be a middle, middle-class citizen, $40.000.00 a year will last 25 years, $50.000.00 a year will last 20 years and anything more than $50.000.00 would last less than 20 years. 

     The above suggestions are when everything is equal and health is ideal too. If a retiree lives 20-plus years after 65, that means seeing grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

     As an African, if one dies at this age, it is referred to as ‘Letting the earth receive the body and the soul returned to the creator’ Life is celebrated, though my mom would tell you one is never happy when death visits in the family no matter how old or fragile the family member is.

     The Nigerian couple lived a great married life, the husband read enough meaning in the American phrase ‘Happy wife happy married life’ and he understood it as an Africa that ‘Your wife must win all couple “fights”’ and learn to be silent if you want the ‘fight’ to end but never ignore your spouse whatsoever. Make sure you tell her the truth before going into silent mode.

     The couple was driving on Interstate 694 one Sunday afternoon from St Paul to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota when what happened or didn’t happen landed them in a strong debate. 

     The wife was so passionate about her viewpoint that at that moment she wished she jumped out of the moving car rather than arguing with her husband, but he was her husband for years. 

     The husband wished he stopped the car on the highway and kicked her wife out of the car but she was the love of his heart and the mother of his children.

His American-ness kicked in and the husband told his wife calmly;

‘Darling, you win’

‘What?’ the wife screamed.

‘You are right…I mean correct, you win’ the husband darted among the three words.

This infuriated the wife more, ‘How do I win when a moment ago you told me how wrong I was’

‘No, Darling, I have reconsidered and you are correct’ the man said in a calm voice again.

‘Which one are you advancing: right, correct, or win?’ She wanted the debate to take a turn.

     The husband understood this and went into silent mode. 

For a moment the woman went wild, saying anything. What she said at that moment was what she said.

The husband could not understand why with victory the wife was so angry.

‘I know victory is celebrated by the victor, so surprising that my wife wins a debate instead of being happy, she is angrier’ His thought told his mind.

     For a moment the husband did not talk, he said nothing and when he switched off silent mode, he talked about the party they were attaining. He successfully convinced the wife to look forward with excitement to the party. When the couple pulled up onto a parking spot, the man quickly step out and ran around to open the car door for his wife.

     They had great times together. When they retired, the husband took his share of savings and returned to Nigeria. This was not too much money when one can not tell the taste of apple juice, it was enough.

The wife remained in Minnesota.

     She had little or no assistance or government support. Each time she was in need and they checked her bank accounts, she was told ‘You have enough money to pay’ She did not have public insurance and that was how her life savings shrank.

She almost went back to work since she paid everything out of pocket.

     None of the two made the United States home. They thought the US was a place for work. Work and go back to their original home. They did not make it a home to live in and benefit from what the country could offer.

     The United States of America is much more, if we call the US home, make it home and you would live at home. If you run away because you didn’t make it home, back home will be very strange. If you stay, because of the lifestyle and the benefits of this country you didn’t make your home, it would be strange.

     Rich white people inherited the richest and wealth because their first-generation immigrants called this country home, made it home, and lived here as home after work or retirement. 

     They created, invested, and opened businesses or family businesses that at times saw four generations of the family working in that business at the same time. They went to schools like us, and they earned diplomats like us but they invested and worked in family businesses. This helped to pass down the chain of riches and wealth from generation to generation.

     BFU GA and MECUDA MN, have become children that went to an occasion with an adult member of the family and were given food to eat. Either group did not only remove the meat first, they remove the meat first and had to remind the adult that:

 ‘Uncle, uncle the food is getting finished, I am the child here’ because, in a situation where a child and an adult eat from the same plate, the child takes the plate away to the kitchen.

     A community center is the first step in belonging to a community. One can not call a place home if one has not invested in that place. Your house is an investment, I understand but it is an individual investment. It is not an investment as a business investment or a communal investment.

     In ten, or twenty years to come, one would go to the MECUDA center to eat achu or drink some yellow soup. One will go to the BFU GA center to ‘chew’ ‘ndzering wo Berr’ because one remembered the taste of grounds nuts from Berr that one once bought at Jakiri, this made one requested seeds of groundnut from Berr to be imported and cultivated in Georgia.

     These centers would help us to teach our children our language, they will serve as a daycare center for our children and an adult center for our senior citizens. There would be a market for our local edibles and a business center for local businesses.

     There, one would meet our own barber, shoe mender, tailor or seamstress, carpenter, plumber, and maybe the office of a creative writer or a studio for our own musician. 

Our own restaurant and our own meeting house will be there as well. There would-be our party or occasion centers.

This would be to make it home to live at home after retirement even if the retirement amount is not as ideal as one million dollars.

      TJ Nsoyuni.

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THE MAYOR OF KUMBO AND THE ROLEX WATCH.

Hi, greetings.

 This book is now published and available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites. Order your copy from the link below. 

The Mayor of Kumbo and the Rolex Watch https://a.co/d/1B1HW5d

Remember to write a review after reading the book… Thanks for your business, I very much.

The book tells the story of a man with a good heart.

An inferential referencing envisioning an ultra-modern City of Kumbo. 

TJ Nsoyuni’s style of facts fits fiction, he writes a novel that cuts across cultures and reflects on all humanity.

 You find yourself immersed in this novel that once you start reading, you don’t put it down until you read the last sentence. ‘What is man?’ The response follows suit.

The joy of being increased or making it in life is giving back. This is a story of how tradition and modernism blend to improve life in what is called better the lives of Kumboians – Build Bui Back Better.

This book is very affordable. Please after reading remember to write a review. Share the link with your families, friends, co-workers, and community. 

Let me know if I can help get you a copy. If you send me $12.95, I can order the book for you. Let me know.

Thank you. I appreciate your business.

       T J Nsoyuni. 

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Sleep in Your Spouse’s Snoring.

                          

Your spouse got up from bed first and made a peanut butter sandwich for their breakfast.

He or she forgot to close the peanut butter jar. He or she forgot to put the spoon away.

They left the whole kitchen area in a mess. 

Do you get up later, saw this mess, and screamed or yelled and drew your spouse’s attention to this?

No, I would not. Given the number of years married together. Even if it is a single day married together.

 I will close the peanut butter jar and put it away. I will put the spoon away or put it in the sink. I will clean up after my spouse. 

This is called sleep in your spouse’s snoring.

If this routine of messiness becomes a frequent phenomenon, I will never bring this to my spouse’s attention, never. 

This is what is called the real definition of sleep in your spouse’s snoring. 

Marriage is as complex a mystery as life. 

You get married as young as you did. In your youth or the prime of your life. After ten, or twenty years of marriage, age takes a toll on you. Other events in life weigh you down.

Your family, your children, and your grandchildren. There are life challenges. There are family challenges too.

You are no longer agile or stout. Both of you, you or your spouse, your energy level is moderate. At times, manageable terminal illnesses like high blood and diabetes are part of your lives.

The only-most important thing that still belongs to you alone is your life. 

There might be wisdom if you cultivated some. Patience becomes the key if you have some left. 

The act of empathy increases your number of days. The admiration and respect and hope of the younger generation that look up to you as a role model gives you lots of happy moments. 

Your life becomes a quoted example. Your marriage becomes a measuring parameter for most marriages. 

Your children and how they are doing well in life and their behavior become check marks of your successful life and their better upbringing. 

Successful life becomes an accomplished life. An accomplished life sets in when you agree and accept that your life is at its optimum. You look back and there are no regrets. (This varies, it is not standard.)

To tidy after your spouse or learn to sleep in their snoring requires coming a long way. You avoid yelling or getting mad at little things. 

You control your thinking and reasoning. You don’t shout at your children or grandchildren when they do not hear you or respond to you as you would want them.

The two of you as a couple speak to each other from the hearts more than from your voices. Each other’s opinion is valued. You agree to the same thing ninety percent of the time. 

This becomes so beautiful that the two of you look at each other in understanding and see no difference. The young girl or the young man you married some twenty, or thirty years ago is now the most beautiful girl or the most handsome man in their fifties. (people are more beautiful or handsome in their fifties than at any age)

A speaker once told his audience, ‘One day, I showed my wife of more than two decades my gray hair. She complimented me by showing me her own gray hair.

 This was so beautiful but I started the topic and should have been given the listening ear. I did not complain’ he said and continued. ‘I gave her the broadest smile I could give and added  ‘We are getting older together.

This was literally sleep-in snoring like really sleeping in your spouse’s snoring.

Relationships have many kinds of snorings. It could be a difficulty, an issue, a misunderstanding, or a habit. It could be a worry. It could be anything unbearable or uncomfortable. 

In life, if you dispel the faulty one to pick the perfect one you end up with the worse one. If a mistake was made, learn to sleep through it. 

Snoring can tear your family apart, snoring can break your relationship and snoring can break your marriage. 

If you are reading this and you are at the point of no return or you are getting there in your marriage or in your relationship, this writer’s intention is that this helps. 

If you have not reached the above-mentioned points, learn how to navigate it If you ever reach there or get there.

Human relationship is a mystery, and very unpredictable. The people that are so very happy today can become enemies for life in the next moment. It does not have to be like that.

 It is not worth it. If you read TJ Nsoyuni’s The Mayor of Kumbo and the Rolex Watch. You would understand why you have to take life simply. In the book, the author tries to answer the question ‘What is man?’

 A man told a group of friends at a family event, 

‘I have been married for almost two plus two decades today. I can tell you it has not been eating cake for forty years. 

Though my marriage life is not perfect, it is perfect. Though my marriage is not the best it is the best. 

I can’t complain, we have had issues, we have had difficulties. We have had our own misunderstandings. 

We have had our own many snoring times, either way, we have slept in each other’s snoring.

That is why we can look behind and count four decades plus of marriage life.’ Then he dropped this big one for advice.

A friend of mine told me she and her husband worked opposite shifts because she was a terrible snorer. She worked the third shift and the husband worked the first shift. 

When she returned from working the third shift, her husband headed to his first shift job. That way she had the entire house to herself and her snoring. When she was at work at night the husband had the entire house to himself and peaceful sleep. 

This arrangement worked but almost broke her marriage. The wife was not comfortable in her third shift job and the husband did not love it that he was spending the night in bed alone.

The couple talked over their issues and agreed to face their fears. The wife agreed to seek means to treat her snoring. 

It worked. As nature would have it, the man started sleeping soundly when the wife was snoring. On days that the wife did not snore, she slept very well but her husband would not sleep well. It became another problem for them. The man was literally sleeping in the wife’s real-life snoring. 

The couple sought ways to fix this. They figured out what to do. 

The wife cherished her snore-less nights to sleep very well, and the husband needed his wife’s snoring to sleep very well.

A specialist encouraged the wife to continue her treatment for health and he asked the couple to record the wife’s snoring.

 This couple became so happy again. When it was bedtime the wife put on her nasal strip for a beautiful night’s sleep, and her husband played his wife’s recorded snoring for a better night’s sleep. The couple found a solution to sleep in each other’s snoring.

                                             TJ Nsoyuni.

(This shall become an adaptation to the book:  Kanada Marries Her Mother’s Husband by TJ Nsoyuni.)

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The Return of Ngonnso.

         

Those gathered in the outer courtyard of the palace were fourth or fifth generations sons and daughters of the land. They were waiting for the return of the stolen deity. Ngonnso was away from her land and away from her people for over a century in a foreign land.

She was snatched away in the Nso-German era. The Germans conquered Nsoland at the end of the eighteenth century during the scramble for Africa. With the German slogan of ‘German’s flag at the sun at all cost’, the German war with Nso was fierce, brutal, and cruel. It was messy and nasty.

The Germans, with superior weapons and better war skills, wreaked havoc and killed and conquered.

When they made a move to capture the reigning king of Nso at the time, the king escaped with the notion that ‘he who fights and runs lives to fight another day.’

The German warriors entered Nso palace, but they did not find the fon, they took away Ngonnso. She was taken from her people without her concern or the concern of her people. The Germans stole her.

Great Lord Ntaa-Kum or Ntaa-kum as he was referred to was the third most powerful traditional leader in all of Nsoland.

Ntaa-kum was the lone Nso dignitary and the only person who saw Ngonnso taken. He had an idea where she was taken to. He did not wait for the Fon to return for him to give him the information.

He took it upon himself to recover the deity before the people could be aware or before the fon could be informed. 

As the story went, Great Lord Ntaa-kum decided solo and took a white fowl to Bamenda Up-station to appease the Germans in exchange for Ngonnso.

The Germans stole her away, they desecrated her royalty when they wrapped her in fealty rags and sneaked her from her land in the dead of night.

By daybreak, she was in Fon Galiga’s Palace in Bali. The hinterland headquarters where the Germans assembled their loot and antiques or war relics for on-wards transportation to imperial Germany. 

When the Germans defeated the Balis, they made the Bali palace the headquarters of the German kamerun hinterland.

This was while construction was going on at up-station Bamenda. They later transferred their headquarters to Up-station.

Ngonnso statue was a replica of the original Ngonnso the foundress of the Nso dynasty. This replica was a skillfully carved-out image of the princess. It was carved at the time when she was still alive and reigning.

 They wanted to carve out an authentic statue of her for posterity.

 The most expensive and durable wood was used and the best carvers in the land were employed by the palace to do the carving and embroidery.

 She was embroidered with sparkling cowries. The carvers spent more than a year in the palace, carving and perfecting from the original.

Like the statue, the original Ngonnso or her majesty Ngonnso was the perfection of Nso beauty. She radiated and bristled when she came out in public. 

Those who saw her told her story relating it to creation. ‘The creator baked her well under strict rule.’ they said. She was not underdone or overdone, she was well done and ready and the creator produced her into the world into royalty.

She grew up the most beautiful maiden in the palace and the land. The best tattoo artist was brought to tattoo her face and her teeth. She had three tattoo stretch marks on each side of her mouth and some dotted tattoo markings on her forehead. 

Each time she came out in public, she wore the most expensive beads on her waist. She tied the most costly traditional wrapper called bveh-rreeh.

 She carried a traditional bag on her wrist made out of raffia fiber and wore royalty bangles from elephant tusks, her bracelets were made from unprocessed silver and she wore a raw-gold ring from Gold Coast.

She was tall, and she stood out among women her age and beauty. Though with royalty, she was never mistaken. She was Princess Ngonnso or her majesty Ngonnso. She was the queen of the land.

Formal education was not available at her time but she had informal education. 

She was well-spoken, well-refined, and with royalty, she was polite and quiet and she was aware of her social class.

 She was benevolent, considerate and amicable, and a people person. She was a leader, a great leader.

She was full of ideas and very discerning. She was intuitive, observant, and resourceful. She led and ruled over the Nsoland and its people with rigor. 

She was disciplined and capable. She was her majesty the foundress of the Nso dynasty. She ruled the Nso people for a very long time. 

Her reign served as the parameter by which Nso paramountcy is measured till today. 

Her meaning and importance to the Nso people were why Ntaa-kum did what he did. 

Unfortunately for Ntaa-kum, when he reached Bamenda and before the Germans could understand the importance of the deity to the Nso people, it was en route to Germany. 

The last ship to sail from Bimbia to Europe had sailed a day or two earlier. Ngonnso was believed to be on that ship. Ntaa-kum returned home empty-handed, bitter, and disappointed.

The fon of Nso came back to his palace a few days after Ntaa-kum sojourned to Bamenda. 

He was told the war had ended and the Germans had retreated. To him and most Nso people, the retreat of the German soldiers was a victory for the Nso people. 

When he learned Ntaa-kum had gone to Bamenda with a white fowl, the fon and the palace interpreted his action as treasonous. “The betrayal of the Nso people.” They concurred.

On his return, Ntaa-kum expected to be celebrated for bravery. He ventured into the German’s den to ask for the return of the Nso foundress.

 He was not arrested, he was not locked up, he was not killed, and he was allowed to return to his people. He was allowed to live to tell the story.

When the family learned of their family head’s return, the Ntaa-kum family quickly assembled other family members to organize a safe return party. They cooked food, organized dances, and were dancing when the unforgettable happened.

The anger at the palace was unmeasured, the king and the palace did not wait for Ntaa-kum to explain. 

They choked him and a dreaded masquerade came out and took Lord Ntaa-kum to Kiseeh where he was executed. His traditional staff was returned to his family members who were still in a celebratory mode with the message ‘nominate or designate a new leader.’

Ntaa-kum was killed with information about the whereabouts of the Foundress statue. 

Since he told no one, no one knew it was taken to Germany until a century after.

Because of the Ambazonian war of restoration, the Nso fon who was in exile in French Cameroon visited Ngonnso in a museum in Germany.

‘Where is Ndzee-dzev? Where’s Ntaa-kum?’ the foundress questioned and continued. 

‘Where’s Tav-nwerong? Where’s Tav-giri? Where are my people, our people? Why are you here alone?

Why are you standing in Nsoland talking to me in Lamnso in faraway Germany? (The deity mistaken the artificial red soil the fon stood on as the land of Nso.) 

The deity understood the language, she understood the incantations and knew that they were from her land. Then she continued in her doubt.

Why are you standing hundreds of thousands of miles from me and talking so close to me?

 Why do you throw camwood on me instead of sprinkling it on me? Why do you use water from a bottle instead of water from a calabash? You speak my language, the language of my people but why are you so strange? 

So strange in action and doings. Why can’t I be clothed in royal garments? Why am I still here? In the cold and far away from my land and my people. Why have you joined them to shame me, to continue to exposition me for their selfish aims?

Why am I not hearing the joyful lullaby of my people and the singing of women and the mahjong drums of the Mfus with their heavy voices and the clapping cutlasses?

 Did you have to come to me or the desecrators were supposed to bring me back to my people?’ the deity continued with her lamentation in disbelief.

I see people I don’t know, familiar faces and voices that I have seen and heard for the past hundred years or so.

 When I heard your voice, I thought I was among our people.

The deity looked around and saw that cameras were still filming her and pictures of her were still taken. 

She saw a handful of people dressed like her people but they were all smiling and happy.

The fon collected the royal dressing grass ‘rhoiy’ wheeled it in his hands and throw it at her. 

Why do you throw this at me? why can’t you put it on me? Why can’t you dress me in the royal ngwaave?

 Or I am no longer royalty again?

For her thousands of years in the wilderness, in a foreign land. Where she was kept locked up and humiliated with staring blue eyes and foreign languages. 

When the Nso foundress heard her own language spoken some months back she imagined when she would soon be amongst her people.

The Nsolympic or the Nso-Olympic was a variety of Nso games or sporting events. It was informal but competitive. 

These games or sporting events were intense and spontaneous if the people were waiting on something.

 They were informally organized, and trophies were not awarded but winning was celebratory. 

These games or sporting events were fluid and dynamic, they could stop if the waiting situation changed and picked back up if another waiting period set in. 

The games or sporting events were aerobic, sometimes in aerobic, they were exercising, calculative and educational. 

They were the means by which the local games and sporting events were passed down from one generation to another. 

When the older ones played the younger ones were the spectators. Talent was developed and sportsmanship was inculcated. 

Sometimes disagreements led to fights but the spirit of Nso-ness and one people one ancestor was exposition and maintained.

Today, the Nso people were waiting for the return of Ngonnso. A group of girls drew up the Shi-gweeh or follow-the-ladder game and were jumping. 

Another group played hopscotch and the third group played ba-hti or the grass or corn silk tapping game. 

Opposite these groups were some boys playing soccer locally called mbang in a demi catch format. Those by the mosque were playing kwa-ki-larr or the touch-and-run game. 

Behind the Mfu-bah’s building, some girls were jumping the rope game. In front of the Mfu-bah courtyard, some boys were playing the She-thoone game. 

There were many types of games going on in groups with either their own spectators or no spectators. 

The ta-ba-lah game, the button-hole game. Bee-zee, kwangg or the stone game, here was the five stone kwangg, and over there was the seven stone kwangg. 

Some boys were playing soccer ball taping and counting and another group of boys were playing tom-bell soccer.

 The German government agreed to return Ngonnso.

 After a series of exchange visits, a site was chosen for a modern museum. The building was modeled after the German museum where she lived for the last hundred years. This was intended to preserve Ngonnso and some Nso artifacts returned besides Ngonnso.

The museum was named the Ntaa-kum Museum in honor of Great Lord Ntaa-kum who was innocently murdered as a traitor for doing the right thing. The incident was retold, this time with vindication.

The fon and the palace apologized and Nso accepted to perform Ntang-ree or Sacrifice to make peace with the ancestors.

The delegation that came included the German Ambassador to Ambazonia, the German minister of culture, and the German foreign minister.

A restitution fee was paid and apologies were made. A relation was created and a scholarship scheme was initiated for sons and daughters of Nso to go study in Germany. 

The German language was introduced as a study subject in Ambazonian schools in Kumbo.

The return of Ngonnso was finalized with a date set and a full itinerary made public. A chartered Lufthansa plane brought her home. 

The plane took off from Berlin-Germany and landed at the Bamenda-Bali International Airport, (BBIA). 

On landing, she was dressed with the royal Ngwaave, a thick stem of creeping grass. 

She sat on the owner’s seat of a Durango SUV alone with a driver in front and an attendant in the front passenger seat. The three were in a convoyed of Germans. 

A trail of curious onlookers lined up the Ring road from the town of Bamenda to Babissi. Siy as this boundary town was known, was the entrance into Nsoland. When the convoyed reached Siy. The convoy stopped, and the deity was set in her land for the first time in more than a hundred years. 

Taah-wong and Yeeh-wong, the two traditional rite performers of the palace welcomed her into Nsoland at Wainama with the sound of a gong and a song. Some libations and incantations were performed and said. 

The song:

a -a fheey woo lai-bey a kun wei fheeh-sin.

Wir suiy o-o won ntoh nso a-a, ji ngonnso yensin

Wir suiy o-o won ntoh nso a-a, ji ngonnso fheeh-sin

a-a fheey woo lai-bey a, boo wei yensin

a-a fheeywoo lai-bey a kun wei fheesin.

Wir suiy o-o a-taa ntoh nso a-a, ji ngonnso yensin

Wir suiy o-o a-taa ntoh nso a-a, ji ngonnso fheeh-sin

Wir suiy o-o vee-bai veh fon a-a, ji ngonnso venni

Wir suiy o-o vee-bai veh fon a-a ji ngonnso si bam.

a-a ngonnso woo bong ben a-a boo wei lai-e

a-a Ngonnso woo lai-bey a, boo wei yensin

There was a stopover at Jakiri where the deity was put on display at the Mah-tuum auxiliary palace. The trial of onlookers was thicker from Wainama to the Nso palace as every son and daughter of Nso wanted to see this centenary statue.

    TJ Nsoyuni

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       Most Afraid Of:

          

                                     (True facts)

    The noblest thing in life is to do the right thing and be good. Remember, Kings in palaces like the wealthy in mansions despair too. It is life, an alternation.

    It’s been so scary for me, like many of you reading this, I have been wondering, 

    ‘What am I most afraid of?’

    On 7th January 1996, my cousin’s grandma died at my hands. She breathed her last breath on my face, making me sick for days. My grandma died one month later on the 11th of February that same year. I was not afraid.

    On the 3rd of January 2000, it was the first day of the 2nd term of the academic year 1999/2000, I died. (There were no mobile phones then, but I have people who can attest to this fact.) If you lived in Buea during this time, you surely know of this fact or if you have people who live in Buea then till today, they are living witnesses to the fact. Mr. Roland of Street 7 Great Soppo and Mrs. Relindis or Mami Frank as we call her, are…

    I dashed into Roland’s house in Street 2 Great Soppo at 8 pm without knocking on the 6th. He and the wife ran into their bedroom, Mami Frank who was wailing over my demise got up and held me…

     ‘If you are a ghost, I will not let you disappear,’

     she screamed in her tears. I ate ‘kibuur’ that my mom had fried for me to convince them that I was not a ghost.

    The next day, Tuesday, Mami Mado, or the Bali woman whose house is by the CS Great Soppo Hall, threw pebbles at me, saying 

    ‘Our tradition says if you throw pebbles at a ghost, it will disappear’. I did not disappear, I explained to her what made me come down late from Kumbo and that I did not know about how I died. Never ever scared.

    It will be a few years later when the little girl from Kikiakelahki that I greeted in the morning, happily and funnily in Lamnso was knocked down by a taxi at the Bakweri Town entrance, Great Soppo. She died in my hands at the Mount Mary Clinic, Buea. We buried her that same evening because she was Muslim. I was not afraid or scared.

    Some years have impacted my life. As a November born, always sick in November. On 13th November 2011, a car hit me on Robert Street N, West St Paul… 23rd of November 2013, a Semi truck hit me on Arcade St, St Paul. On 3rd November 2019, I hit a deer on the ramp from Canterbury Ave onto HWY 169 N. I wasn’t afraid, not scared of November.

    Sometimes in life, share your experiences with others. Share your pain, share your loss, share your stress and your traumatic happenings. These come in different shapes and categories. I have passed through life feelingly and life has passed through me in almost all its forms.

    I thought my experiences could withstand any life happening until 2021 became another 2011 for me. My experiences are documented and my flag pin. ‘If I had survived 2011, the year among other things that I had overdrafts in my bank account for 52 weeks because of life’s happenings, I will sail through any other year for the remainder of my life.’ 

    But life is not always as thoughts.

    At the close of 2020, 10:00 pm local time, the dawn of 2021, 31st December, we lost Uncle Nsakor at Melong. He was buried on the 1st of January 2021.

    I sailed through the year praying as I have always done against sudden death, accident, and illness or death or sickness, till the evening of one day in August. My mom called me at work to say my baby brother was seriously sick in Douala.

    He was discharged from a clinic where he had been admitted for days and he was refused re-admission into two or three clinics that same day. He was not talking, he was not eating and he had not used the restroom for days.

    The thought of a classmate at Mbingo Clinic Annex Mutengene saved my brother’s life. He would be transported to Mutengene where treatment started immediately. That same day he used the restroom the night and was referred to Buea General Hospital the next day. We brought him to Buea and he made a full recovery.

    Sister Edith would close 2021 for us in a shocking manner, not that death is not certain or that it is not the ultimate end of life. But that is unexpected when it happens unexpectedly.

    What is my point here, is when you take a stand, pin your flag, and face your fears. I personally will be among the many to tell you it is normal or it is ok or everything will be ok, I find it difficult to tell myself that, and I find it difficult to face my own fears.

    Life can be so great in an imaginative mode, I thought I was on top of everything until my rock was taken from beneath my feet and my world was shaken again for me to find a new equilibrium. 

    Such is life, an alternation.

    If the job satisfaction is no longer there, quit, if the pleasure of working is less satisfying to the dollars earned, it is time to think of starting all over again. If the people around are no longer interesting, make new friends. If staying in makes you gloomy, try the outdoors. If working too many calls for working too much, take a longer break.

    Personally, I can not count how many times I have seen 12:12 on a timepiece. Each time I see this I make a wish for good health, no sudden death, no accidents, no ailment, no sudden sickness, for a good, great, better life.

    If I was given an opportunity to start all over again, I will still be my mother’s son, I will want to marry the girl I married, and I will wanna have my children. I wanna have my life, my life.

    Face your fears, don’t be afraid, and do not worry about tomorrow more than tomorrow itself. Have no regrets and be hopeful. Think positive, act positive, see positive, speak positive and it will be positive. At whatever age you find yourself in, try new things. You would be glad you did.

    TJ Nsoyuni.

    https://www.facebook.com/tj.nsoyuni/

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    Family Meeting.

          It is the break away from the dictates of the man of the house or the yelling of the woman. It’s not a family reunion or family dinner or family come together, it is not family time, it is a family meeting; where the parents and the children sit and talk in turns, heart to heart. Each; expresses happy times or sad times, good times or bad times. Each; tells what makes them happy to belong or when their pride was let down.

      I called it family democracy, where you learn your infant child has grown to adolescence or your adolescent child has grown to an adult. A family meeting is when you know your children more, and you feel their feelings. They tell you how your actions and behavior affected them. You let them know when they made you proud or when they let you down. The parents learn the child’s perception of life and its fears.  Trust is gained and friendship is created or friendship is taken to the next level. You become their confidant and they see you as a parent, a friend, and a role model to emulate. Family meetings solved problems and settled siblings’ conflicts. It builds cooperation and enhances trust. It opens up free communication between the parents and the children, the children and the children.

       Family meeting is enriching, it tightens the bond and set priorities. It rekindles a sense of belonging and makes up the family, where the family supports the family unconditionally.

       Last Sunday I pick up a fight with my little girl in the church because, in one of our talks, we had discussed an intention to adopt a child. When she looked at the little children in church, she wanted the adopted child to be either 13 or 14 years old. but I insisted the child would be less than five. This is what she told me. ‘You will have to call a family meeting and everyone’s opinion including mine will be sought.’

    Family meeting; empowers the family; and makes the family healthier. Try it you will be glad you did.

                                                                           TJ NSOYUNI.

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    Upgrading One Another.


                     
        It is universally accepted that human nature may fall into a nice, predictable nut. Most often than not we find what works for us and stick to it: maybe a news channel that echoes what we want to hear, a friend who provides the comfortable friendship we so very much desire, or a work habit that gets the job done. When we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us. Life becomes pretend: we pretend to be good, we pretend to be honest, we pretend to serve the people as their leaders, we pretend to support or help others, we pretend to be too busy, we pretend to live and maybe one day we will pretend to die. Everything becomes pretend or pretends to:
        Maybe it is a late-blooming midlife crisis for us, and we try to shake things up a little, then we take a different route to work, say or suggest things we can’t do or realized, sample food menus that scare us, or read articles that challenge us, we think of, or call an old friend that rubbed us the wrong way some years back. This writer does not pretend to have the key answer but the writer’s imagination suspects that doing the same old thing expecting different results, truly may be the definition of insanity.
        We live in a world that bubbles too fixated on how to showcase, how to individuate, and how to exert within a given mile radius. With our smart world, we become smart apps where one size fits all suddenly become the 1992 people eating peoples’ bones. How do we explain to a child that the scholarship app on the village store shelf which is for free, demands that the benefactor be 80 years old, with both parents alive as a condition to qualify? Or that on the same shelf the scholarship scheme looks like a scam simply because proof documentation had cancels, erasers, or were typed, photocopied, and scanned in a way that Android could not justify its authenticity. This scared many donors. Think of a situation where a small business proposal was proposed to digress the tension at the time, like wildfire, it was cherished by all and accepted by none, even its initiator, it died its natural death. What about the Medical Container meant for the same village store? but to the other shelf, it has never been realized, to the best of my knowledge.
        We should look across the waters and tell the child to doff the hat for the WGB Shelf because the initiator believed in the self and has held it and cherished it every step of the way. Today it is the parameters that even the Development Associations used to upgrade someone. If you feel like upgrading society, don’t be anonymous, let your intent be realistic. If you promise the village store, keep your word. If you can’t upgrade someone directly, why not work hand in glove with those who provide reasonable un-doubtable public accountability.
     
          ***somebody upgraded you, upgrade someone too***
                                              TJ Nsoyuni.
                       

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    The Fon as an Accessory to Stealing…

     (Media res…)  

    Baye and Biba were not siblings, though they refer to one another as wanyiy, or sisters. They knew each other through Yeawon, the mother of twins. 

    Yiy-a-wooni was a schoolmate to Biba and a distant relative to Baye.

    Their friendship was further strengthened as both women lived in the town of Mbveh. They were traders on the same market line at the Komo main market. Though, their merchandise was different. They saw each other every market day.

     The cousin of Manyi lived in John Bosco St and her schoolmate lived at Roh Ngasah, the Hausa quarter.

    These two knew each other five years ago when an unfortunate incident brought them together. 

    The strange incident was the news in town. Everyone told the story of how twins only days old bewitched their mother and cursed her right hand to transfix above her head.

    When the news that Yeawon’s deformity has been reversed with an order from one of the twins reached the women, they decided to visit their friend to confirm.

    They were to trek from Mbve to Shisong before taking any transportation to Mbuluf.

    Their meeting point was the Cornerwater Junction and the time was 11.00 am. None of them had a timepiece but the timing was not a problem.

    When the Imam’s voice from Roh-Ngasah came over the loudspeaker from the mosque, it was about the same time the church bells were played to summon the Christian faithful of St JohnBosco Parish for their daily morning mass at 5.00 am. 

    This was the method of keeping time for most inhabitants in this part of the world used.

    The Imam’s voice was heard by the woman at John Bosco, and the church bells were heard by the woman at the Hausa quarter as the city was still asleep with its eyes closed and its voice silent. 

    This reminded each woman how much time each had for them to meet.

    Since both women lived near schools, putting their meeting time at 11.00 am was not by chance. 

    It was by default, it was easier to get to the meeting point within minutes of each other and on time following the activities of both schools. 

    The school bell of the Muslim school in Roh-Ngasah and that of the CS John Bosco were always seconds apart from each other.

    Meeting at the meeting point on time depended on the distance each woman had to travel. This was not an issue. 

    Their travel distance was almost the same and the topography of their roads was the same. 

    Unpaved earth road riddled with potholes filled with standing water. 

    Both women were to descend to the meeting point. 

    One from the left and the other from the right of the Mbveh market veterinary clinic. 

    Getting out of the house for each of them was a matter of ‘do you want to walk in a hurry or do you want to walk like a lady?’

    Both noted the first, the second, and the third bells from both schools. The third bell told it was assembly time for the two schools. 

    After the voices of both schools quieted out, it told the school business of the day had started.

    When the quiet period was broken by another bell, it told again that this was the first break. 

    The method of playing the lunch breaks for both schools was similar: 

    Ngo-ong, ngong-ngong-ngong-ngong-ngong, ngo-ng. 

    After which one heard the cheering of the Muslim students and the praying and cheering of the Roman Catholic students, it was 10:30 am local time by every timepiece.

    Manyi’s two friends set out to meet. From John Bosco, Baye came through Tah-mbveh. 

    From Roh-Ngasah, Biba came through the main motor park. 

    The women did not have enough time to greet each other with their normal euphoria as the scene in front of them reminded them of what happened the day before. The day before was kavi, the biggest market day in Komo.

    The rocks and the stones, the sticks and the irons, the leaves and the coffee branches, the tires and an empty gallon with some human blood piled and mixed together, the stink of gasoline,  reminded anyone who saw this, that yesterday, the main market day missed being one of those jungle justice days. This did not happen because the thief accused Fon of Komo as being his accomplice.

    The Fon was the custodian of the land, any law of the land that made the indigents misbehave against societal norms put him on the spot. The Fon shared in the blame if any law of the land was broken. You blame the Fon, you blame the people indirectly.

    The two women passed the scene entering the bush as much as possible as they trekked up the Mbveem hill.

     They walked abreast as it was very early in the morning and resorted to moving in India file when a car or a taxi rolled past by. Since their distance was long, they had time for all the stories women told each other. 

    When the first taxi of the morning rolled past, Biba told her friend the story of the first taxi in Komo. 

    The first taxi in Komo was owned by J. Wongibee and his family. They were a privileged family in Komo that lured young people to work for them.

    This family was associated with a lot of frustrated young men and women brought to the Mbonso farming land to work for them and they were never paid. 

    The story was told by Young Denis, their provision store attendant who was imprisoned by the Wongibees after working for the family for years. When young Denis asked to be settled, the Wongibee accused him of stealing their printer machine. He was imprisoned for three years. 

    Many in Komo believed the Wongibee were sent on earth to come and frustrate people. Young Denis was a brilliant, smart, intelligent young man who passed the entrance exams into Sasse College like the Wongibee children but because his family did not send him to college he did what he had to do to make a living.

    Eman Wongibee, the eldest Wongibee, traveled to the Whiteman country called Britain. He was top of his class from the lone and prestigious CS Shisong. He attended secondary and high school at the renowned Sasse College in Gbuea at the foot of the Fako mountain.

    He went to Nigeria for university studies and later to London for further education.

    It was from London that his junior brother back home ate the black plum. Like the saying, ‘His brother went to Britain and Francis got a taxi’. 

    Back in the day, cars were rare, and the privilege and well-to-do had vehicles that were lorries or land Rovers or Volkswagens. The businessmen owned the lorries and the landrover and the early Roman priests who were all white men owned the Volkswagen called the kibong-nganri. 

    These were days when cars stopped to bypass one another. This was not because the roads were only narrow but because the drivers were not brave enough to bypass one another as cars do today.

    Franco was the last known Komo person to celebrate his nuptial ceremony with flower girls throwing rice mixed with coins. With his brother in the Whiteman country and the wealth his family illegally amassed from the sweat of young people, doing this was nothing to them.

    Onlookers scrambled for the coins after the couple walked over the rice and money. This wedding was eternalized because the famous Kibanteh Dance Group from Shisong wore their first-ever uniform. It was showbiz, an extravaganza of how the rich rubbed the less privileged and used their wealth to show off. This was the difference between a marriage and a wedding celebration.

    The first assembled lorry in Komo was made in the Mbingyi compound. It was called the Kicheey-ke-Mbingyi. It was a lorry made from other lorry parts. If one were to picture it today it would be a Utility cart in a golf field. 

    When it carried the children of Mbingyi around town there was a lot of fanfare for them and jealousy and envy for others. The driver had a style of playing the horn. Those who knew it, who were familiar with it, told others that the cricket from Mbingyi was coming. The honking and the shouting and screaming of onlookers composed the following song.

    Kicheey-ke-mbingy……..ekwang. (2x)

    Kwang-kwang juju….ekwang (2x)

    When Franco Wongibee had his taxi, the taxi fare was 25 francs CFA per passenger. For the taxi to move from one location to another it had to be full of passengers. The driver and the passenger in front and three passengers behind.

    Though most people trekked, it was pride to save twenty-five francs to ride a taxi. This was the same as owning the car yourself.

    As the two women descended the Mbveem hill on the leeward side toward the city center, they were thrilled to see police Joe Kibang as he mounted his bike heading for work. Many locals never hide their surprise at the sight of him as he was a Whiteman in the police force of a Blackman country. He was native and spoke the dialect.

    The women did not take the steep footpath on their left to come out above St.Theresa School Komo. This direction would have shortened their journey but they kept right as the road leveled up. It was at Levelland St that Madam Biba finished her story. 

    Touching her friend and calling her by their intimate appellation, she told her,

    ‘Wanyiy, this is where Fran Wongi used to sit’ using the short form of Francis Wongibee.

    Fran was not the driver of his taxi but he had the same job as his taxi driver. 

    When the driver picked up the car in the morning and left the compound, Fran went behind the house into the coffee farm and stayed there the whole day. When he was sure that people were no longer traveling in the evening, he came back to the house to either meet the driver waiting for him or he came back to wait for the driver. Either way, this was for the two to tally the taxi balance of the day.

    The job Fran did in the coffee farm was that each time his taxi went west he picked a rock and East, he picked another rock. 

    At the close of the day, if his rocks totaled ten, he expected the total money worked by the driver to be twenty-five francs times four times ten. If the balance fell short of what he expected, the driver was fired and a new one was hired.

    By the time Biba finished her story, the two had walked past the Komo roundabout, right down the palace boulevard. It was at the sighting of the palace building that Baye and Biba delved back to the events of the previous day.

    Biba and Baye walked abreast the remainder of the way as there was less traffic there. They kept silent when someone approached them. They delved into their conversation when the passerby was a distance. The two expressed themselves freely. One for and another against the accusation.

    Against: I still can’t believe the king of Komo of all leaders can be an accessory to stealing.

    For: The thief evoked his Royal Highness’ name as the cause of his beating. At the palace, the Fon ordered him to be taken to hospital. Can an innocent person do that?

    Against: The king of Komo is the land, he owns all the people and the animals, he just needed to express his desire for, and an elephant can be cooked for him’

    For: He didn’t deny it, or express surprise: he ordered for a thief to be taken for treatment.

    They were quiet as a man approached them, and when he was a good distance, they picked up from where they left.

    For: An accomplice to stealing is a thief, he or she gets the larger sentence.

    Against: So, our Fon could go to jail? And for a long time?

    For: It’s not I, I never said that, but the law, the law says that.

    This was on Reevey, the day after Kavi: the local market day. On Kavi, before midday, someone raised an alarm.

    ‘Thief, thief, thief:’ he shouted in the dialect.  As it echoed in the four corners of the Mbveh vicinity, everybody rushed to the scene. A manly voice asked for the entrance to Nsan-Meluf to be blocked. 

    ‘Ohoo wee-rah Nsan, ohoo wee-rah Nsan Meluf’. The alarm had the effects.

    A pregnant woman bent down to carry dust, she could not, so she picked up pebbles.                                                                                                       The well-dressed man heading for Nsan-Meluf wanted a small branch from the coffee plant, and he broke down the whole coffee tree.              The man by the farm picked up a large rock. The mechanic in the motor repair shop picked up the larger iron or rod he could carry, the other brought a tire. 

    The clandestine driver, who packed his car to see what was going on, brought his reserved gasoline. As the thief was being given a snake beating, someone asked for an egg. A tray of eggs was shattered on the culprit’s forehead one by one. The dust or pebbles was hauled onto his eyes, the iron rod was used to break his bones as he was stone with rocks. 

    He was kicked and slapped and insulted as he covered his face from being smashed. 

    The man with a bad month ordered he be set on fire. As they hauled tires on him, gasoline was poured and the smoker nearby provided the lighter.

    Just as the mob was about to set him on fire, a green truck rolled down the Corner-Water valley from Mbveem, three men in boots and red hats jumped from behind the truck in time, firing shots in the air. The mob stood aback, and the thief looked up and cried.

    ‘Commander, commander,’ it is the king, the Fon, the Fon of Komo is the one who put me in this mess.’ All gasped at the allegations, and three title men; Mbingy, Maa-mo, and Shey Kang Nwerong who were nearby walked over to him to warn him.

    The Fon of Komo was the people, the people of Komo were the land, and to allege that the supreme custodian of the Komo culture was an accessory to stealing, was treason against the land. In Komo, treason was punishable by exile or death.

     This thief was as good as dead as he was already. He was trying to save his life by using the name of the King of Komo. Lies, this should be debunked immediately. The three traditional leaders concurred. They walked up to him and said in unison.

    ‘Mind what you say here, how can you use the king’s name to whitewash your act?’ they told him.

    ‘I am not lying,’ he responded. ‘The king asked me to bring this goat to the palace, I was stopped here and called a thief, and now this judgment on me, look at me half dead’ if I am lying ask the Fon’ he said in pain.

    The people of Komo have a saying that their ‘Fon has eight hundred eyes’. Eight hundred eyes meant eight hundred legs and eight hundred ears. This was true as the Fon got the information and details of it, as it was happening. He immediately dispatched Ndzeedzev, Ta-nkum, Lun, and Faa-jang to the scene. These were the Great Lords in waiting at the palace at the time.

    The titled men consulted with the Company Commander and agreed that he, the thief, be taken to the palace to clear the Fon’s name.

    Did the Fon order goats to be brought to the palace? (TBC)

     (It is this writer’s wish to write and publish about our growing up and about our communities. Please, tell your children so that they tell their children and their children children tell their children that their first generations had growing up stories)

                           TJ Nsoyuni.

    Posted on

     Belonging, Leadership, and a Following.

      

                                                      Belonging.

         Belonging by default is an old cliche, it does not work like that any longer. Today’s world has taught us not to treat a neighbor worse than a  brother. If you invest in friends and neighbors and put your faith and trust in them, they become family.

         In today’s world, belonging is by the strength of the pull forces. What do you offer me and my family? What is the take home from here?                                                  

         Where is my interest in all these? or where is our collective interest here? What do I get to show for belonging? How do you treat me when I belong? How do you see or considered my presence when I belong?

         There is a lot today that it takes to feel to belong. It is no longer because we speak the same language or because we come from the same area or because we attended the same school that we have to belong together.                        

         Belonging is freedom, belonging is a choice. Belonging is empathy and belonging is love. Belonging is belonging in the real textbook definition of it. 

         Today’s world is no longer an era where people by default are pulled together, confined together, and made to live together, or forced to be together within a certain setting, obeying certain rules simply because people are bound by language, geolocational origin, culture, or traditional background. If one belongs and is not free to question certain things then that is confinement.

    If one belongs and that does not increase the being, then it is repression. If one belongs and does not individuate, then there is no need to belong. 

         Nature created man with various capabilities and these capabilities makes belonging complete. It takes everyone from the floor member or the everyday person through leadership to make a completely thriving community.

         In every community when people are allowed to belong with little to minimal restriction or control when people are listened to, when there is one-on-one contact or when people are identified by their names. It portrays the highest level of belonging.                      Find such a society, find a society closer to perfection.

         A perfect society might be a fallacy in reality, but striving toward perfection completes the ideals of belonging.

                            Leadership.

         Leadership as the face of an organization or the face of the community should know this. Leadership is the team, not an individual. Leadership that is absolute, reasons alone, thinks alone, falters alone then fails alone. 

    Leadership that decides alone makes mistakes. Leadership that leads alone is limited. Limited in viewpoint, limited in ideas, and limited in the know and in the do.

         Absolute leadership is top-bottom leadership. It is leadership that is, ‘Know what you know I should know what you know when you know what you know,’ I am the boss. In the political sphere, this is a dictatorship. This is true in any setting.

    Dictator leadership centralizes its organs and has control over everything including the lives of the people it leads. 

         Leadership that is teamwork allows people to lead. This leadership is relative leadership. And it is I know that I know, floor members or the common person in the community knows what I know when I know what I know. 

    It is broad, it is involving, it is participatory, everyone contributes, and it is representative. It deliberates and takes the majority opinion into consideration. 

         In the political sphere, this is called democracy. Between dictatorship and democracy is the best leadership known as 51% or simply called Democracy. It is a form of bite and blows. It takes from the people and leads the people with or from their opinions.                              The leader has the ability to veto a decision if the decision is not in the favor of the majority.

         Relative leadership is, If you know and know that you know what you know, the people are the leaders. This is teamwork, you walk by me and be a friend. 

         Relative leadership takes from the people. It leads the people with their own viewpoints and their own contributions. Relative leadership consults with the governed

         Relative leadership moderates every discussion and redirects every deliberation. It suggests and motivates or stirs every opinion or opinion for the general good. 

         Relative leadership minimizes the risk of being abandoned. This type of leadership calm-down tense moments where there is friction or calls to order excesses or tames the hardliners. 

    It does not impose or supper impose ideas. Relative leadership is successful leadership. Successful leadership is great teamwork.     The face of successful leadership reflects teamwork. 

         For instance, the secretary makes the announcements, and The minutes secretary takes the minutes and posts them. The public relation officer publishes matters related to the public. 

    The communication department head takes charge of releasing all communique or press releases and is the spoke person of the group or the team. The leader works hard from behind the scene encouraging the team. Leadership is seen from the outer as a team, not as an individual. Take the example of the White House and the United States leadership. 

    How many times does the President come out to announce stuff that his secretary of state can announce? If the US president says something it carries weight. It is very significant. It becomes a policy statement.

    Great leadership listens to more and talks less and when it talks it is informed information.

                                   A Following:

         True followers are a following when there is no election. True followers are a following when there is nothing to prove.                A following is consistent, it supports and criticizes where necessary.

         In every given instance, it is more difficult to maintain a following than to lose it. If you are a terrific leader if you are an enthusiastic leader. You unite your following and make it a true following. True following is made up of supporters and nonsupporters. 

         If you are a true leader with a true following that has a true belonging, build bridges and raise from among your following the next generation of leadership. Leadership is what the next generation would say about you in the future, how a leader made a following a belonging.

    TJ Nsoyuni.

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