Mola Mbua Ndoko: Wisdom and Ways of the Bakweri People

28. “au-mweli” !

He has been contaminated with an infectious disease, for instance, yaws.

Yasi nanu. A  Njoh  (a leopard) had been devouring goats in the village.  After it had eaten two goats that belonged to Motongo  mo  Nganga  Singe, Motongo vowed:

“If the Njoh ventures to come inside this my compound again, I will confront it.  If the Njoh fails to kill me I will kill it”.

(“e-Njoh  e-jeli  fete  anu  tena  ama  ewoka,
yetena  esano-wi  te;
imba  ne  yo-nwa”).

Motongo then loaded his gun.  There was bright moonlight when the Njoh came in again.  After the Njoh had climbed up to the top of the fence that surrounded part of Motongo’s house and when the Njoh was about to jump inside the fence to seize a goat, Motongo fired at the Njoh, “tuum”. 

The target was the Njoh’s chest. The Njoh roared and groaned.  As it continued to groan, inhabitants of the village shouted joyfully:

27. (i) “Luuwa lasa nyama Ndome”.

A piece/slice of “Ndome” meat is required for the “Luuwa”.

nyama = meat/fish.

nyama  ndome = a piece or a slice of “Ndome  meat”.

“Luuwa” is the final phase of a specific traditional treatment for a specific illness.  A “luuwa” is expected to terminate completely an illness and give a new lease of life to a patient. 

Ndome/Ndome a Nyame is a fish.  It lives in the sea.  Some “luuwa” require that a piece of “Ndome” meat MUST be part of the special meal (itoto) that the Traditional Doctor cooks for the patient to eat.  There is no substitute for “Ndome  meat”. So, no “nyama  a  Ndome”  no “luuwa”.  (No “Ndome” meat, no “luuwa”).

Wojuwa = villages within Buea customary court and parts of Muea customary court.

Hundreds of years  ago “Ndome” meat was available only in markets at beaches of the villages of Missellele, Tiko, Bwinga, Bimbia, Liyengu  Mboke (New Town Victoria), Ewota (Bota) Vatoke, Vakingili, Njonji, Vewonde (Idenau), Sanje. 

Paths/tracks that connected Wojuwa villages and the villages along the coast meandered through thick forests that were infested with wild and fearful animals such as elephants and leopards. 

That was why people in Wojuwa villages were disturbed whenever a Traditional Doctor declared that a piece/slice of “nyama Ndome” was required for the execution of a “luuwa”. 

274. Mokala Misoli.

A European Christian Missionary.

The first European nationals with whom e-Mokpwe was familiar with are the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Germans, the British, and the French. More than 100 years after the advent of Europeans in Bakweri land the behaviour of the first Europeans in Bakweri land has left indelible impressions in the minds of the Bakweri up till today. 

e-Mokpwe attaches specific meaning to the name of each European nation.  Address some one as “Mokala  Potoki, Mokala  Panya, Mokala  Jamini, Mokala  Englisi, or Mokala Flenji”, a listening Bakweri audience will understand clearly the point you are driving to.

Early Christian European Missionaries in Bakweri land have also left permanent impressions.  “Mokala  Misoli” is a reference to a peaceful, non controversial person, someone who is not interested to be embroiled in disputes and intrigues and who shows no wish to take revenge.

A phrase with a meaning similar to the expression “Mokala  Misoli” is “mbo  esa  fanga  fao” = banana does not cause damage to a cutlass.

Lexicon:

Mokala = a Whiteman; a European.

e-Mokala = the White man.

Potoki = Portugal

Panya = Spain .

Jamani = Germany .

Engilisi = England ; Great Britain .

Flenji = France .

Misoli = a distortion of the word “mission/missionary”.

Misoli = missionary.

Mokala  Misoli = a European Christian Missionary.

Oma Nanu
Imba Thomas Mbua Ndoko
Dallas Tx, USA

26. “Luuwa laa fimba”.

The final phase of a traditional treatment is taking place or is about to take place 

Traditional Treatment is carried out in three phases:

Phase One:  The sick person makes use of four medications ordained by an ordained Traditional Doctor and commissioned to cure.   The medications are: mbgweli, eso, wosongi and moteya.

Phase Two:  Actual treatment commences if the patient responses well to Phase One of the treatment.

Phase Three: known as “luuwa” takes place when the sick person has fully recovered.

A patient who is satisfied with the results of Phases One and Two of a treatment decides to undergo or not to undergo the final phase (Phase Three) of the treatment.

It is when a Doctor is about to commence or has already started final treatment that it is said “luuwa  la  fimba”.

Lexicon:

Luuwa = Final phase of a traditional treatment that is expected to terminate completely an illness and give a new lease of life to a patient. One phase of a “luuwa” is the consumption by the sick person of a special meal called “Ito-to” prepared by a Traditional Doctor. 

“Ito-to” is composed of bits/slices of staple food - fish, meat, vegetable, plantains, palm oil, water, tubers, such as coco-yams, salt pepper, mushroom. 

The traditional Doctor boils the “itoto” in a clay pot and feeds the patient with a bit of the
“Ito-to.”  In the course of consuming the ‘itoto” the patient and the Doctor throw particles of the food outside the house.

“itoto” immunes a patient against possible infection that may be contained in any staple food that the patient may eat in future.

mbgweli = a medication powder to be licked.

eso = a liquid medication to be drank after the medication has been submerged for about an hour in rain water, in fresh palm wine or in liquid extracted from the stem of a plant called monda-ndo-wani.

moteya = a massage medication.

wosongi = medication administered in the form of enema.

“Luu-wa  la  fimba”.

Literally:

(a). An expression of joy and satisfaction in that at long last the plight (pains, oppression, prosecution, extortion) that we are living with is coming to an end or will come to an end soon.

(b) The devastating blow against the enemy/adversary/the monster/the witch is now being launched or is about to be launched.

Oma Nanu
Imba Thomas Mbua Ndoko
Chicago ILL, USA

273. “Na gbwe-ya ewolo na timba ngundu”.

After toiling I have returned home with empty hands, that is, without being given the reward I deserve or expected.  What a grave misfortune ?

“na  gbwe-ya  ewolo  na  timba  ngundu” was an expression of grief that was sang in a chant by a mother who survived her children. 

The chant has been converted to an idiom that expresses serious disappointment – lamenting for suffering a grave misfortune, for instance, experiencing a very poor harvest, for not being paid for work or services rendered, loss of business, suffering defeat in a contest, an estranged spouse, being disqualified after winning an election.

“na  gbwe-ya  ewolo  na  timba  ngundu” = I have toiled and am returning home with nothing to celebrate,  without some thing to show that I too have been working. I have toiled for nothing.

Oh  !  I have been toiling for nothing.  What a grave misfortune ?

Oma Nanu
Imba Thomas Mbua Ndoko
Chicago ILL, USA

272. Moondo mwe Eto asa kandene.

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It is impossible to split the tail of a rat.

moondo = tail.

Eto = a rat.

kanda = to split.

“mondo  mwe  Eto  asa  kandene”.  Hundreds of years ago at the time when this idiom was composed there were no precision instruments with which a surgical operation to split the tail of a rat could have been carried out.

The sharpest instrument at that time was probably a kitchen knife or the knife of a palm wine tapper.  That is why the splitting of the tail of a rat was seen as being impossible.

Even if present day surgical instruments of precision now make it possible to split the tail of a rat the idiom “mondo  mwe  Eto  asa  kandene” refers particularly to persons who are descendants of a common maternal ancestor – brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews. 

e-Mokpwe view is that since the relationship of this category of persons is linked by blood it cannot be “split” or terminated, even when the persons concerned change their names and make declarations that they no longer have any connections at all with members of the family with whom they have disagreements.

Oma Nanu
Imba Thomas Mbua Ndoko
Chicago ILL, USA