On a warm rain-washed day – July 24, 1937 – in the rolling green hills of Besongabang, in Cameroon’s verdant Manyu Division, Southwest region, a boy was born whose life would ripple far beyond the humble borders of his village. That boy, Carl Enownewu Tabenyang, grew to become not only a father and patriarch, but a community leader, and above all, a sage whose words carried the weight of truth and whose actions left the fragrance of integrity. Pa Tabenyang as he was fondly called entered the world in an era when births went unrecorded in the ledger of dates, hence his arrival went unremarked on paper; yet his impact, as time would show, was to be profound and lasting. His passing in June 2025, days shy of his 88th birthday, was more than the death of one man; it was the silencing of a steady moral voice that spoke consistently for peace, love, justice, education, family, and unity. His extended Manyu family and friends around the world will remember him as a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand and great-grandfather. A man for all seasons who moved with the times his passing marks the end of an era. Pa Tabenyang will be buried on Saturday, September 12, 2025 in his native Besongabang. Although his earthly voice is stilled, his spirit still resounds, in his family, community, and in the countless lives he touched with integrity, and love.

Humble Origins of a Great Man

Pa Tabenyang’s story is one of resilience, providence and destiny. From the outset, his path – neither smooth nor certain, was marked by both challenge and promise. His mother, deeply traditional and determined, saw little value in formal education. But destiny had other plans and fate intervened. A Swiss missionary, Dr. Martin Stucki-Stirn, saw in young Carl a rare spark, and through his intervention, secured his admission into CPC Bali in 1958. Later, another benefactor, Mr. Donald Capill, stepped in to sponsor his further education. But in 1960, circumstances drew him back home, and thus began his journey as a teacher in Besongabang and later in Ntenako. His life ceased to be about personal ambition; instead, it became one of service. Besongabang had not merely a son but a torchbearer – one who would illuminate paths for generations yet unborn.

Teacher and Mentor

Pa Tabenyang was more than a teacher. He was a beacon and symbol of possibility as he carried the torch of knowledge into the classrooms of Besongabang and Ntenako. He imparted reading and writing, but more importantly, he offered hope. He did not just teach children to read and write; he taught them to believe. He taught them discipline, fairness, and the conviction that their roots did not determine their destiny. To a generation of Manyu youth, he was the living example that one of their own could stand equal to anyone, anywhere. Through him, children saw that a larger world existed beyond the familiar hills and modest homes of their youth. He was not only a teacher of books but a teacher of life. His insistence on integrity and his refusal to bend to corruption became legendary. He taught his students that knowledge without character was empty – and he lived that lesson daily. Those who knew him then testified to his dedication to duty and zero tolerance for corruption.

Politician, Patriot, and Public Sage

It is impossible to speak of Pa Tabenyang without acknowledging his boldness in public life. A member of the ruling CPDM, he nonetheless stood apart from those who sought politics for personal gain. His militancy was not for privilege but for principle. He belonged to the lineage of patriots who believed Cameroon’s greatness lay in diversity of opinions, justice, fairness, and equity. Once, during a meeting at the Mamfe town hall, then Manyu CPDM leader, erstwhile Minister Peter Agbor Tabi (RIP) vowed to crush and even kill his political enemies, including Pa Tabenyang’s son – Thomas Tabenyang (TT) – then Southwest Provincial chairman of the main opposition SDF party, whom he cited by name, as he scornfully sneered at Pa Tabenyang. In the presence of the security and administrative top brass, including the erratic and impulsive Southwest Governor, Oben Peter Ashu (RIP), Pa Tabenyang with his trademark poker face like a gifted ventriloquist, fired back without mincing words: “Mr. Minister, with all due respect, I am very proud of my son’s militancy in the SDF; in the same way you should be proud of your brother, [Chief John Agbor Tabi (RIP)], who is leading the secessionist SCNC movement; which unlike the SDF is not a legally registered political party. So, if you are going to kill your political enemies, start by killing your elder brother, who wants to break up Cameroon, before threatening my son.”

The ensuing silence was deafening and you could hear a pin drop. Deflated and confounded, Agbor Tabi was left speechless. Pa Tabenyang’s words, sharp and unflinching, exposed Agbor Tabi’s hypocrisy and reminded all that he who seeks equity must come with clean hands. That was vintage Pa Tabenyang – fearless, principled, and unwilling to bow to intimidation. It was a moment that defined him as a man of integrity and courage, unafraid to confront and speak truth to power no matter whose ox is gored

A Father to His Family, A Father to His People

Beyond public life, Pa Tabenyang’s greatest pride was his family. He delighted in being a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. His philosophy of kinship was expansive; for him, kinship was covenant. “Tabenyang Carl Enow’s family,” he once said, “includes my children, my grandchildren, great-grand born and unborn, including the mothers… Anyone who tears or decides to break away from this bond does so at his own will.”

These words were more than sentiment -they are a testament to the human ties that bind Besongabang, past, present, and yet-to-be-born. They were the philosophy of his life. They spoke of his insistence that family, in all its branches, must remain united. For Besongabang, too often divided by disputes and chieftaincy quarrels, Pa Tabenyang was a bridge-builder, a quiet force urging reconciliation and reminding everyone that no cause was greater than kinship.

The Walking Encyclopedia and Sage of Besongabang

Pa Tabenyang’s life was threaded with humility. Not seeking acclaim, he cultivated wisdom in everyday acts – teaching students, comforting a grieving mother, bridging divides, urging kin not to sever blood ties. His was a leadership not of pomp but of presence, incarnating the ancient values of responsibility, kinship, and steadfastness. One of his greatest attributes perhaps was his consistency in words and in deeds. Even when he disagreed with his associates in a group, he never abandoned that group to form another. Pa Tabenyang was principled, fair-minded and with a detribalized and cosmopolitan outlook.

Indeed, those who knew Pa Tabenyang best often marveled at the breadth of his mind. He was, in truth, a walking encyclopedia of rare precision, a lover of English literature-Shakespeare, John Keats, John Milton, Geoffrey Chaucer – and a devotee of classical music – Mozart, Beethoven, Bach. In him, Manyu had a man whose intellect straddled numbers and poetry, grammar and imagination. To converse with him was to be lifted, to be stretched, to be reminded that the life of the mind was as important as the labor of the hands.

Enduring Legacy

Today, like the Besongabang Diaspora that rallies for community development projects worldwide, the memory of Pa Tabenyang lives on not in monuments, but in the character of those he taught and the unity he forged. In the end, the monuments Pa Tabenyang leaves behind are not of stone or bronze, but of character and conviction. They live in every student and every family reconciled by his counsel. They live in every Cameroonian who still believes, despite everything, that their country can still be great.

Pa Tabenyang was, above all, a man of the people. Born in humble circumstances, elevated by acts of kindness and committed to returning that gift tenfold, he was a teacher whose classroom extended to every heart; a leader whose authority was love; a sage whose council was silence and compassion. He was a principled man who, by his personal style and distinction, invited either passionate praise or rabid criticism. Still, in all that he stood for, no one could fault his undying love for people.  But perhaps his greatest legacy lies in his example; in his humility, in his consistency between word and deed. In his cosmopolitan spirit that transcended tribe and embraced fairness for all. In his ability to combine frankness with gentleness, principle with patience.

Indeed, history will remember Pa Tabenyang for what he contributed to humanity, and he will always remain alive in the hearts of Manyu people, especially the Besongabang people, as a most valued sage.In death, Pa Tabenyang matters because Besongabang has lost a sage, Manyu has lost a pillar and Cameroon has lost a true patriot. But none of us has truly lost Pa Tabenyang – for his life, like the great classical music he loved, plays on in memory, in inspiration, in action. May we honor him not with grand memorials, but by building the compassion, unity, and wisdom he lived by. May every child he inspired, every relationship he mended, and every life he touched be his lasting monument.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA

On the 29th of December 2024, seven members were suspended from the Manyu Women International Association (Nyene Mawn) after they withdrew £23,500 from the meeting reserves without permission.

Over the last six months, these ladies, now known in the Manyu diaspora community as the dodgy seven, have engaged on a campaign of blackmail against the President General of the association, Dr Mrs Patience Abangma who recommended their suspension.

The Dodgy Seven’s newest stunt is to hire an amateur in social media activism with a Manyu name—- Ndip Joshua Ako. Last week, this publication contested in strong terms misrepresentations by the jester and his pay mistresses. After the write-up, Ndip Joshua Ako released a series of wretched smears against the Chairman and Editor-in-chief of the Concord Group.

The purpose of this flat write up is to refocus the conversation. There are three principal points that Ndip Joshua Ako has so far failed to address or challenge from last week’s post and Cameroon Concord News is calling on him to clarify them forthwith. Firstly, he is a container-loader in Sweden with a pitifully undernourished mind. Second, he is a product of the Mondoni Oil Mill/ CDC Camp, so, although he is in possession of a Manyu name, he retains no Manyu tendencies. Third, he has been paid to orchestrate a campaign of deception and blackmail against a grandmother he knows little about.

Ndip Joshua Ako, a man with a wooden and oily face has been told by his relatives that he is a native of Sumbe, a village in Manyu Division that has produced so many champions. His family migrated and settled in a CDC camp in Fako division where Ndip Joshua Ako was presumably conceived. In CDC Camps, where life as painted by Nsanda Eba in the “The Good Foot” was rotten-down-to-earth, Joshua must have learned to smear seventy-something-year-olds.

After leaving South Africa in 2006, Ndip Joshua relocated to Berlin and was sheltered by a respectable Sumbe business woman for obvious reasons.  Unable to obtain residence in Germany, Joshua was shipped by his Sumbe sister to Sweden where he now resides. Instead of representing Sumbe with decency and decorum as laid down by the Sumbe Monarch His Royal Highness Chief Ayuk Hope, he has by some strange happenstance become a joke with a Smartphone whose sole purpose is blackmailing of his superiors.

The decision of the corrupt seven to hire Ndip Joshua, who spends all his time on Face Book counting English, has angered many within the Manyu community at home and in the diaspora. The container loader who is struggling to make ends meet in Sweden says he is searching for truth on a topic he is tragically unqualified to tackle. He claims the attack on the earned reputation of a renowned Manyu elder is in the interest of the community, not a campaign of intimidation. Ndip Joshua and his pay mistresses have crossed the reddest of the reds line and are now walking on broken bottles.

Two things may happen in this defining moment. One is that the loud sounding nothing Joshua Ndip may crack under the strain of this public relation disaster of his making and the other is that he may apologize publicly for his madness and stupidity and desist from ever attacking an elder without hard evidence.

So far, people close to him say there has been little sign of him learning from his moment of madness. However, a family member in the US, who spoke to Cameroon Concord News but sued for anonymity, puts that down to him being a slow learner. Another family member in Cameroon said, “Every family has a black sheep but we are so unfortunate to have two and he is one of them. Instead of working hard to support people in our family like many in Europe are doing, he is there making noise on social media. Our family home has been run down for many years; he has done nothing about it.”

Ndip Joshua Ako, a man who counts English as if English language is a numeracy exercise, claimed to have studied in so many universities around the world. However, research into his background shows that he is a professional student who enrolls at universities with the primary purpose of defrauding the student finance system!

According to his social media profile, he has an MSc in Political Science from the SÖDERTÖRNS HÖGSKOLA and another MSc in Environmental Science at the University of Cape Town. He also has in his academic bank a BSc (Hons) in International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in London and a Master of Arts (MA) in Communication for Development at Malmö University. Finally, he has an MSc in Political Science at Stockholm University. In one of his social media attack on my person, he stated that he has three First Degrees and two Masters Degrees!!  But with all of these, Ndip Joshua Ako still possesses the working vocabulary and brain power of a nine-year-old.

Interestingly, there is some good news here and it is that Ndip Joshua is the first Manyu man with three First Degrees, two Master Degrees and no PhD yet! Correspondingly, he is the only Manyu man who thinks football clubs in Europe are NGOs. We all should not be surprised that this intellectual eunuch will pop up over the next few years with those hopeless online PhDs that are the hallmark of Mondoni Oil Mill and CDC Camp children.

His claim that football clubs in Sweden and other European countries are non-profit organizations betrays some ignorance and portrays him as a successful and prominent academic failure or better still an academic Lilliputian!  Even the CPDM subsection president for Mondoni Oil Mill where he hails from is very much aware that football clubs are huge businesses generating profits.

No right thinking person can muster the courage to say Joshua Ndip is 100% Manyu. Some deep within his family have attempted to describe him recently and one of them was quoted as saying “in Britain, he is a Postman or Milkman baby”.

Ndip Joshua should concentrate on improving himself; he should focus on his family back home and be responsible. The problem in Nyene Mawn is real. The fact is, however long, the issues will be resolved. One fact remains, Nyene Mawn does not need Ndip Joshua Ako and his social media antics. This August, Nyene Mawn queens will gather in Paris and a greater Nyene Mawn will emerge that will reveal that Mami Patience Abangma is a woman more sinned against than sinning.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai