283. Mbando.
Lexicon.
Mbando = a village community shrine.
Soongo = a grave.
Moonda = farm.
Moonda mo Soongo (literally a farm of graves) = cemetery.
Melima me Songo = a graveyard for a particular family.
Mokova – stump of a tree. Some mekova remain about 50-100 years without decay.
Mbando is a knowledge that e-Mokpwe acquired hundreds of years ago. A Mbando is a shrine. It is expected to take good care of the welfare of a village community. A Mbando is generally located close to
(a) a stone that will not roll or
(b) close to the trunk of a tree that has long life span or
(c) close to a mokova within the environs of a village wrestling field or play ground.
While Mokpwe families make formal appeals for assistance/relief on top of their respective “Melima me Soongo”, on the other hand Village Communities make formal appeals for assistance/relief on top of their respective “Mbando”.
I think that during my teenage years when I was in primary school every village possessed a Mbando. The Village Traditional Council of Elders consulted their Mbando in advance of contests, such as wrestling matches or in the face of grave danger such an outbreak of a plague or a war.
i-Mbando are probably suffering relegation now and are probably not given the attention that activates them. Intentions to revive and reactivate Mokpwe cultural sciences such as i-Mbando or creation of a “federal” Mbando to serve all Bakweri villages will no doubt take some time to materialize.
In the mean time Vakpwe can individually and collectively embark on measures within their immediate reach to save our cultural and traditional values from sliding further into ruins. Suggestions:
(i). Stop the sale of our ancestral lands
(ii) Intensify the use of our language and rehabilitate traditional names of persons and villages that are suffering relegation
(iii) write and pronounce ancestral names phonetically correct.
It is clear that part of our heritage and history will be erased if our traditional names of persons and places and their correct and phonetic pronunciations are replaced or superseded by strange names and wrong pronunciations.
The loss would indeed be profound and irreparable. The situation calls for a return to the use of our traditional prefixes: va, wo, woli, wona, wonya and a stop to the use of the alien prefixes: Ba, Bo, Bona, Di, Mu. Examples:
The ancestral pronunciation of the quarters of Wonya-Lyonga and Wondongo in Buea are respectively Wonya-Lyonga and Wondongo, and not BONA-Lyonga and BO-ndongo respectively.
The ancestral pronunciation of Livanda is Livanda and not Di-Banda (Mile 14).
The ancestral pronunciation of Wonya-Likombo is Wonya-Likombo, and not Bona-Dikombo (Mile 4).
The ancestral pronunciation of Wonjongo is Wonjongo, and not Bo-njongo.
The ancestral pronunciation of Wokova wo Lelu or Wokova wo Mbenge is Wokova, and not Bo-kova.
The ancestral pronunciation of Vakingili is Vakingili, and not Ba-kingili.
Our Municipal Councils have the competence to rehabilitate our traditional names that are suffering relegation while our Traditional Rulers and their respective Councils being the custodians of i-Mbando are the competent authorities to arrange possible revival or reconstitution of i-Mbando.
That is why ten months ago, precisely on the 02nd of September 2008, I addressed a letter to His Royal Highness the President of Fako Chiefs Conference and to all Lord Mayors in Fako Division, appealing for rehabilitation of Bakweri Traditional names that are being distorted or suffering relegation. I have not yet received a response to my appeal.
A rehabilitation process has to be started. In this connection I wish to suggest that Fako America and Fako_UK should jointly address an appeal to the President of Fako Chiefs Conference and to all Mayors in Fako and ask for the holding of a Conference on revival of Mokpwe Culture and Traditions. The conference will be held under the auspices of the Traditional Rulers and the Mayors.
Oma nanu.
Imba, Mbua Ndoko.
Mola Mbua Ndoko
P.o Box 38 Buea, South West Province
Cameroon, West/Africa
Tel/Fax: 332-25-35
Mobile/Cell: 986-24-61
Website: http://www.mbuandoko.com
Dear Mola Mbua Ndoko,
we(FECA/FAKO UK) thank you for bringing up the issue of changing the distorted names of our villages back to their original forms.
We also acknowledge receipt of the original you sent on the 2nd of September 2008. Immediately after your original mail on the 2nd of September 2008, FECA/FAKO UK set up a committee to look into the matter.
The committee will report to the Bakweri community in Britain at our next convention in August(next month). We are going to send you a report on our findings, and we would see how we would carry on from there.
To give you a clue about what we found when we delegated a Bakweri man in Fako Division to go to the Divisional Offices in Buea, Limbe, Tiko and Muyuka and get the names of all the Fako villages and their Chiefs, we noticed that the only villages in Fako that start with wo or wonya in the Bakweri Language that still retain their original forms on the lists we were given are the villages of Small Soppo(Wonganga, Woteke, Wovilla and Wolikawo) and Wondongo .
The rest started with Bo or Ba. When I was growing up as a child in Small Soppo Woteke, the then chief of the village, Chief Maija ma Ngoa(now of late), challenged any body(Bakwerian or non Bakwerian) who referred to his village as Boteke instead of Woteke. Just down the road, you have Wovilla village.
The people of Wovilla under the leadership of late Chief Kange(the father of Mola OG Elinge Kange and Mola Evell'a Kange, who regularly write on this forum) always let it be known to everybody that their village is Wovilla and not Bovilla.
Mola Forseh Wotany in the USA, a native of Small Soppo Wovilla, can tell you better. In Wonganga, all the sign boards have but Wonganga and not Bonganga.
We shall get back to you next month.
Mola Ngoina Elive, for FECA/FAKO UK.
Posted by: Ndoko | July 19, 2009 at 01:09 PM