Thousands have gathered at the Yaounde Sports Complex to celebrate the life of Ma Mukar Alice GWEI (MAG), mother of H.E Shey Jones Yembe.
Ma Mukar Alice GWEI (MAG) was born in 1940 in Mbaka – BINKA. She was the first child of the traditional ruler of Mbaka - BINKA, FAI Nyakwansah. were she a boy, she would have succeeded her father.
She married her husband Pa Shey Joseph GWEI in 1959, her husband who had just completed primary school in 1955 barely four (4) years after. They were both so young that her father did not approve of the marriage and would only accept the dowry after the birth of their first son. Her father would then name this first son Yembe which means that her husband’s family will see that son but will not have the son because he will belong to her own family. She followed her husband to Nkambe 11 km away from Binka where they both established petty trading with income that the husband had earned as a Population Census Officer and a loan from his own father. She evolved from there to be very enterprising and at some point, she and the husband were the wealthiest in the community before being overthrown by other businesspeople. This she did simultaneously with farm work and being a dedicated housewife and mother.
She had 3 children: Jones Yembe, Aaron Nfor and Rose Muntah. Her husband died in 2007
and followed by the death of her daughter Rose Muntah in May 2018 and her son Aaron Nfor who died in April 2022. She has 11 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. It should be noted that apart from her biological off springs like stated above, she was a mother to several children whom she raised and brought up. She was a baptized Baptist Church Christian and a member of the BINJU Baptist Church Nkambe for several years and would later transfer to Nkambe Baptist Church as this was closer to her home. She was a member of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Women’s Union. It should be noted that she offered several thanksgivings for her life especially towards the end in the Nkambe Baptist Church, and always mentioned how important it was to do a thanksgiving while you are alive for your life than for others offering a thanksgiving in your memory when you are gone. And she was so fond of her Pastors and would courageously be telling how she wanted to be buried by the church when she died. She put a lot of emphasis about having friends and the importance of family. It is true that some of herfriends had preceded her, but she has also left a lot of friends and family to mourn her and who will absolutely miss her and her generosity in deeds and words. For record purposes, she belonged to several women’s groups, Njangis (some of which have been taking place in her home for more than 60 years), church groups and earlier in domestic science groups where she interacted with people from different cultural backgrounds and thereby improved tremendously on her cooking skills to become one of the best cooks in town. This can be testified by the several of her friends,the children and their friends, the grand children and their friends who have tasted her food. Anyway, there was food on her table every day and there was no day that someone else did not eat her food. She was very polite, soft spoken and respectful but also very brave, very courageous, very bold and firm, all ingredients that made her to be very honest, full of integrity and ready to face the truth all the time without fear nor favour. It was known that, if she saw a snake in her farm or else, she would follow it and would sometimes hold it by the tail before killing it. Some neighbours would sometimes call her to help them kill a snake when they were afraid, her husband would call her too though! She was also very funny and could throw the best jokes even in difficult circumstances. It was lovable being around her, What a Woman!
Mama was diagnosed with breast cancer at the Yaoundé Reference hospital in 2005 (17 years ago) where they followed with an operation immediately. The cancer will come back several times and since thenthere has been several other operations. In 2016, an American Doctor specialized in Cancer gave her just 6 months to live but by her faith, she would live for another 6 years. On Sunday, the 4th of September 2022, she was feeling very weak and tired and was taken to the Nkambe District Hospital at6pm. The Doctor diagnosed that she was anaemic and immediately asked for blood to be donated and a few minutes thereafter, there were more than enough people to donate blood and after analysis of the blood donated, two donors’ blood group matched that of mama and was safe or void of any diseases.
She immediately received blood transfusion that evening and the next morning Monday 5th September 2022, she was doing extremely well and asked that they make her a video in which she was sending greetings to her only surviving son and reassuring him that everything was okay. Later that evening as they will be giving her the second dose of blood, she became very restless. On Tuesday 6th September 2022, when the nurses were struggling to put her on oxygen after seeing deteriorating situation, she softly and gently asked them not to bother and asked them if she has not tried and need to go and rest. She died that Tuesday 6th September 2022 at 6:30am.
Farewell Ma until we meet again, to part no more.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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