Mola Mbua Ndoko: Wisdom and Ways of the Bakweri People

169. “munya osi mo ki-nyelele foni nyama”.

You should not abandon meat in fire.

Yasi  nanu:  Mosuka, a youth was about to abandon his piece of nyama  ngowa in a fire because heat from the fire had apparently become unbearable.  Mosuka’s grandfather Mola Ekongolo then asked:
“Are you abandoning your nyama  ngowa  in that fire. ?
You don’t abandon meat in a fire.

167. “Ndomene asa-lo malo-ngo”.

Trade through third parties or middlemen does not always bring complete satisfaction (Do it Yourself!)

ndomene -  to ask someone to carry out a task for you.
malongo – marketing; buying and selling.
mofasu, plural mefasu = a big fish of good quality.

Yasi  nanu:  Ewune had a charged programme of social activities so she was not able to go to the market .She then asked Liyengu to buy for her a big fish (mofasu) of good quality for the entertainment of guests she was expecting.  Liyengu bought a mofasu that she considered was good enough for the amount of money that Ewune had assigned for the purchase of a mofasu.  But Ewune was neither satisfied with the quality of the mofasu nor with the price that had been paid for it. 

166. “Inona molumbu aso-nga lumbu la gbwamu”.

A talkative bird does not build safe and impressive nests.

Maito, maito, kaii  !  It’s time to narrate tales.

Yasi  nanu.  Responding to a question why Ngaaka (palm bird) does not weave safe and impressive nests Ikula  Nyame  said:

“inona  molumbu  aso-nga  lumbu  la  gbwamu”.

“A talkative bird does not build safe and impressive nests.

172. “Seke te e-ngoma mbwa-ya yo-ndi eveli foni wooli”.

A person’s wealth is recognized in terms of the value of the treasure he has actually acquired and not in terms of his participation in dance rings of rich people.

As recent as seventy years ago a wealthy person attending an “eyuu” ceremony took along with him to the ceremonial pitch one or more good looking goats or a cow of an impressive size.

Then, at the peak of the dance known as “e-Ngoma  a  Mbgwaya” he danced close to his goats with his wife or wives conspicuously busy supporting loose ends of his loin cloth (esanja) of an exaggerated size. 

In order to facilitate identifying goats with their respective owners a dancer is not expected to dance too close to some body’s goat. In order words each dancer is expected by tradition to dance beside his own goat.

Yasi  nanu:  Mokondo was nicknamed “Bola  to  nje” because of his waywardness.

“Bola  to  nje” is a Douala expression meaning capable of doing any thing, notably mischievous.

Mokondo habitually defied security checks and gate crashed into important ceremonies. 

159. “e-Nyuwa Mboli emo ngeya o-gbwaaka”.

The orphan baby goat survived and developed within a herd of goats.

Yasi nanu:  Soon after Ndumbe’s only goat delivered a baby, a tiger entered inside a fence that surrounded Ndumbe’s compound and devoured the mother goat, leaving the baby.  Ndumbe now no longer interested in raring a goat or nursing a baby goat decided to destroy the baby goat. 

156. “Misoli mamba Njombe a Nyame ! mamo siva ndi o-tena ena mwita meene; masa mwe-neya o-woso”.

The tears of Njombe  a  Nyame flow only inside his body, and are not therefore seen in his eyes and on his face. Good intentions/ideas that cannot be put into effect because of lack of the mean.

Maito, maito, kaii  !  It’s time to narrate tales.

Yasi  nanu:  A group of Wolinyama youths once asked Ikula  Nyame if he was aware of the reason why no tears flow from the eyes of Njombe a  Nyame, even when Njombe wailed in pain and grief.  Replying Ikule explained that tears used to flow profusely from Njombe's eyes, but ceased to flow after Njombe suffered very serious stress. 

153. “Njonji fe wee-ka liongi”.

It is not necessary to emphasize that there is enormous fat in the body of Njonji.

Njonji = a whale. 

liongi = fat.

Njonji is widely known to contain enormous quantity of liongi in its body.   

At an assembly of a village traditional council when young fishermen repeatedly talked about the large quantity of liongi in a baby Njonji that they had just killed, an elderly person reminded the young fishermen that it is common knowledge that the body of every Njonji - baby, adult, sick, old - contains enormous quantity of liongi. 

152. â e-Kema ema nya maese

Kema a monkey has delivered twin babies.

Maito, maito, kaii  !  It’s time to narrate tales.

Yasi  nanu:  Three birds, Yuungu, Wombe and Kaki Inoni asked Ikula  Nyame to explain to them why Kema  Nyame (the monkey) does not deliver twin babies. 

They pointed out that although they rest on trees for long periods none of them has ever seen a Kema that has twin babies.  (mandenga  Kema  asa  nya  mae-se”?).

189. “Maliva ma ngeli Wonya Manjanga”.

Water is hostile to Wonya Manjanga.

Yasi nanu:  Manjanga was married to three wives with whom he had seven children.  It was remarkable that four of Manjanga’s children had been victims of water related accidents. The first accident occurred in far away Lake Barombi  Kotto in the lands of the Barombi and Vakundu.  One of Manjanga’s children was in a canoe that collided with a floating log when the canoe was ferrying passengers from a bank of the lake to Barombi  Kotto village.

201. “e-tiya moto ose-yake ligbweya”.

You don’t engage an idiot on farm work.

eti = foolish.

e-tiya  moto = a foolish person; an idiot.

ligbwe-ya = farm

Yasi  nanu. Njika  Nyame employed Nambese and Suume in his farm to weed and cut down shrubs at the edges of the farm.  Nambese and Suume being idiots could not distinguish weeds from crops.  They uprooted every thing that was green – weeds, crops, maize, coco-yams, sugar canes, pumpkins, yams, stems of plantain and banana plants. 

164. “Maame nu ndeya e-nge-nge”.

There is no reason for me to suffer from fast heart beats.

As recent as fifty years ago e-Mokpwe  used Kpwave and Mangala to identify  practitioners of evil witch craft and thieves respectively. It is believed that a witch does not vomit.  A bowl of liquid Kpwave was imposed in public by a village community on an accused person.  If an accused person failed to vomit the Kpwave he/she was instantly declared a witch.  The punishment was expulsion from the village.

When a man was accused of stealing, the village community invited him to handle in public on each of his hands a bundle of Mangala ordained by a specialist Traditional Doctor.  The Mangala are expected to excite a thief to laugh foolishly, dance continuously until he becomes fatigued, drops on the ground and then fall into a trance.  Recovery from a trance takes a long time.

210. “e-Kpweli Mosongi”. (Fallen from grace).

A True Story: Laugh, the world will laugh with you.
Weep, you will weep alone.

Yasi Nanu: Mokoko mo Joo-njoh was in charge of a WAPV (West Africa Plantations Victoria) shop that was situated at Mutengene road junction.  That was about 1935. Mokoko was charismatic, kind and popular.

180. “o-wuuve maliva o-waana, u-ngele munya ?seke munya mo lima”

How dare you attempt to use your mouth to fan a fire when you have water in your mouth. The water will put out the fire.

Yasi  nanu:  A twelve years old boy Ekpwa sat on a couch (ewongo) close to a fire over which his mother was boiling food.  When in the course of drinking water Ekpwa was inconvenienced by a wave of smoke, he attempted to use his mouth to fan the fire when he still had water in his mouth. 

205.“Seke te i-Njoku ini, i-kpwaa-na mokomba mo”

I am not one of the feeble elephants that fall down when struck by one gunshot.

An elephant is doomed to death when a bullet penetrates into its eye or its ear.  When a hunter is unable to target the eyes or the ears he may decide to lame an elephant by shooting it on the knees.  Thereafter the hunter starts targeting an eye or the ear.

It is common knowledge among e-Mokpwe that some members of Maale societies claim that they are able to transform themselves into elephants.  They say they also possess varieties of melonda and mesomba (fetish) that protects their elephants from gunshots and also fetish that enables them to extract instantly without surgery any bullet that is lodged in their elephants. 

183. “fusa ene ndawo o-kpwe-eya ndi efefe”.

Depart from this house/home and enter into another house/home.

This is an extract from one of the citations of a Traditional Doctor at work.  The Doctor would introduce the sick person to his ekanga (relic) and to the medicinal leaves in these words:

“na  gbwe-eya  ndi  wami,  seke  te  wa  moto”.
(I am treating my own person, not an alien).
“wami” (own) in this case = my brother, my relative, my friend.
“seke  te  wa  moto” in this case = not the patient of some body that I do not know.