20, June 2022
MOHWA Senior Lady Accepts Cameroon Concord News Call to Action 0
A senior Manyu lady has written to the Cameroon Concord News Editor-in-Chief, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, to acknowledge the positive role the online news platform is playing to help bring attention to the destroyed hospital in Mamfe.
The senior lady, who elected anonymity, acknowledged that there were issues within MOHWA as an organization, adding that she would mobilize other influential Manyu women so that appropriate actions could be taken to ensure that MOHWA continued to play an important role in the Division’s development.
“Rest assured that things will be rectified in the days ahead. I can’t stand by any longer and see MOHWA destroyed,” the respected Manyu lady said, urging the editor-in-chief to “please keep advising.”
Rather than be angered by the articles published by the popular Cameroon online news platform, the senior lady demonstrated maturity and agreed that criticism was the shock therapy that would enable all Manyu women across the globe to wake up and participate in the Division’s development.
Other calls regarding the article also acknowledged that MOHWA had been slow at reacting and that the constant partying by MOHWA groups in North America and Europe was giving the organization a very bad name. A caller from Norway who also elected anonymity said that though the criticisms were biting, they were also helping to bring some sanity to an organization which was unfortunately losing its way.
“We have been slow at reacting, but we are brainstorming. We understand the anger and frustration of those who are criticizing us, but we are organizing ourselves to play the role many expect of us. The destroyed Mamfe hospital will have far reaching consequences and the first victims will be women and we owe it to those women who have been left without a place to obtain the care they need to act promptly and properly,” the soft-spoken lady said.
“I know there are many Manyu people around the world who are angry that your platform is very critical of Manyu people, but we must understand that in any developed society, the media must play its role. It will bite when things are falling apart, but it will also appreciate when things work out well. We should be thanking those who have already taken the initiative to raise funds. They are driven by a passion to see things done. It takes honesty and love of humanity to raise funds. People with compromised characters cannot publicly declare that they want to raise funds for their people,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, other Manyu organizations have informed the Cameroon Concord News that their organizations will also be active in the days ahead. A source close to MECA UK has said the organization will be meeting in Coventry in the UK, adding that the focus will be on the unfortunate event that has left many in Cameroon terribly shocked.
“We will be doing our best to raise some money. This is the only way we will demonstrate that we feel the pain of our people back home. We are not in the business of winning the argument of who burnt the hospital. We are more interested in how our people can have proper health care,” the source said.
“We are also urging more honest people to come out and work for our people in Mamfe. When people trust those who are leading the effort, the initiative succeeds. We are aware that Minister Mengot has launched his own fundraising initiative and many people are already lining up to contribute. This is what we like to see. This is the spirit that will help Manyu grow,” he stressed.
By Chi Prudence Asong in London
20, June 2022
Belgium returns Lumumba tooth to family 0
Belgium on Monday handed over the last remains of slain Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba — a tooth — to his family, turning a page on a grim chapter in its colonial past.
Chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw gave the relatives a small, bright blue box containing the tooth in a televised ceremony, and said legal action they had taken to receive the relic had delivered “justice”.
The tooth was placed in a casket that was then draped in the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which celebrates Lumumba, who was murdered by separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961, as an anti-colonial hero.
Lumumba’s assassination — and the brutal history of Belgian control of the Congo — have been enduring sources of pain between the two countries.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo reiterated that his country’s authorities bore a “moral responsibility” over the killing.
“I would like, in the presence of his family, to present in my turn the apologies of the Belgian government,” he said.
“A man was murdered for his political convictions, his words, his ideals.”
Lumumba’s son Francois told Belgium’s RTBF broadcaster that his relatives had been waiting “more than 60 years” for this event.
“I think it will provide solace for the family and the Congolese people,” he said.
“We are opening a new page in history.”
A fiery critic of Belgium’s rapacious rule, Lumumba became his country’s first prime minister after it gained independence in 1960.
But he fell out with the former colonial power and the United States and was ousted in a coup a few months after taking office.
He was executed on January 17 1961, aged just 35, in the southern region of Katanga, with the support of Belgian mercenaries.
His body was dissolved in acid and never found.
But the tooth was kept as a trophy by one of those involved, a Belgian police officer.
The tooth was seized by Belgian authorities in 2016 from the daughter of the policeman, Gerard Soete, after Lumumba’s family filed a complaint.
‘National mourning’
The casket containing the tooth is set to be flown back to the DRC where it will be officially laid to rest at a memorial site.
The country is set to hold three days of “national mourning” from 27 to 30 June — its 62nd anniversary of independence — to mark the burial ceremony.
Lumumba’s older son Francois filed a complaint in Belgium in 2011, pointing the finger of responsibility for his father’s killing at a dozen Belgian officials and diplomats.
The investigation for “war crimes” is still ongoing but only two of the targeted officials are still alive.
A Belgian parliamentary commission of enquiry in 2001 concluded that Belgium had “moral responsibility” for the assassination and the government presented the country’s “apologies” a year later.
De Croo said Belgian officials “chose not to see, chose not to act” to stop the killing, even if they had not directly intended it to happen.
Lumumba’s children were also received Monday by Belgium’s King Philippe, who this month travelled to DR Congo to express his “deepest regrets” over the colonial past.
Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under Belgian rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.
Source: AFP