Ntumbaw Fon’s Celebration, Hope of Peace, Love and Reconciliation Ignited

  Shey Lontum Fon Yembe

The place was the palace esplanade of Ntumbaw in Ndu sub Division. The day was Tuesday Lih January 6 2015. The occasion was the end of the “celebration” of the “disappearance” of Fon Salifu Kwangsah of Ntumbaw. The personalities were diverse and numerous amongst whom were Fons; The Divisional officer  Ndu; the Lord mayor and Deputies Ndu Council;  President NTUCUDA, and many others like Dr. bamboo etc.

What thrilled many was the arrival of HRH, the Fon of Nkambe and a huge entourage, of the Nwarong society and some women’s groups. The entire nwarong society of Nkambe was to occupy the entire Ntumbaw for over five hours, with the Ye Nwarong leading and the magnificent display of the Mabh Nwarong; Nkoh; and others.

It was during the speech making that signs of hope for Peace, Unity and Reconciliation were indicated. In his welcome address, the Coordinator of the organizing Committee of the ceremony, Dr. Bambo took time to make an anecdotal narrative of a family that was very divided after the death of their rich father. The elder brother who had inherited more, on going out for an international trip, instructed an engineer friend to dig a big trench between his compound and that of his junior brother, so as to keep them perpetually separated.

The engineer, on the contrary, decided to rather build a bridge linking the two compounds and this shocked the junior brother who felt and thought that it could have been on the instructions of his elder brother that the bridge be built. So, when news came that the elder brother was on his way back, he was put in the company of those to go and receive him at the airport. The Big Boy was embarrassed, shocked and frightened with the presence of his junior brother, but could not express it. When they got home, he was more shocked with the discovery of the bridge instead of the trench ( ditch) separating them. It was then that the engineer was discovered to being at the centre of the efforts to reconcile the two brothers. The love they have today is unprecedented. The story received an explosive  and thunderous applause.

The Mayor of Ndu, on his part stated that “ We can chose our friends, but we cannot chose our neighbors.” Again, there was an explosive applause.

Then came the turn of the Fon of Nkambe. He stated in Limbum that “ a ngon’ mbum, si kit fur ndi ngon’ ka’! Yu si ke tfur I ki ba ndi nsu!” ( In Mbumland, we don’t have land boundaries. What we have is farm boundaries”. And he added that no body should introduce the negative phenomenon in Mbumland that will inflame division amongst Mbum people.  They, Mbum elders will do all to see to it that neighbors and brothers live in peace and not be let to be misled to fight each other. The applause was unprecedented. In fact, when the D.O stood up to speak, he demanded that the Fon of Nkambe’s remarks be translated into English. This was done and the Fon himself, not satisfied with the translation, sprang up, seized the microphone and repeated what he had said, this time in pidgin English. The D.O then dwelt on the theme of Unity, Reconciliation and good neighborliness, promising to do all to build bridges where others had dug ditches.

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