Martin Jumbam

Why I am a blood donor (Part III)

In the final part of my reflection on blood donation, I bow to the memory of the victims of the Kenya Airways tragedy that struck our land a few years ago. I was on that plane a few hours earlier and the thought that I would now be history had it happened earlier in the day, still paralyzes me with fright. But, what has this got to do with blood donation? A lot. 

Why I donate my blood (part II).

In Part I of this reflection, I recalled how complete strangers gave generously of their blood to save my sister, Monica's life.  Several years later, it was my turn to receive the challenge to also give some of my blood to save complete strangers, people I would never meet or know. This was not even in our own land or among our people.

Why I am a blood donor (Part I)

By Martin Jumbam

A friend was over at my office the other day when my phone rang. It was a nurse from the blood bank of the Laquintinie Hospital in Douala. She told me of a woman scheduled for a delicate operation that afternoon who did not have enough blood. Could I come over and give her some blood? I told her I would be there within an hour.  

Retiring Gracefully

By Martin Jumbam

Some of us, who studied at the University of Yaoundé in the seventies, had the fortune to have sat at the feet of no greater a scholar than the venerable Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, whom the Lord called to his eternal reward on August 26, 1986 in Canada, the land Professor Fonlon always considered his ‘second home’. Canada was the home of his friend, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, for long Canada’s Prime Minister. Anyone close to Dr. Fonlon knew how proud he always was about his relationship with Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau with whom he was on first name basis!  Both men must now be exchanging notes in Paradise.

“Corruption is as damaging to the society as AIDS is to the human body,” panellist says.

By Martin Jumbam

The government anti-corruption arm, known by its French acronym CONAC, has been very active over the past weeks. From one seminar to another, Minister Paul Tessa and his team have been explaining the organization’s role to both public and private business people, who are not always convinced that a government-created structure, like CONAC can effectively stem corruption, which is generally seen, rightly or wrongly, as more endemic in government circles than elsewhere.

We are their shepherd

By Martin Jumbam

On Thursday, July 24, 2008, I stood before the members of the Bui Family Union of the United States of America, commonly known as the BFU-USA, as they held the 20th anniversary of their Union at the Holiday Inn in Edison, New Jersey, to plead with its members to come to the assistance of a technical educational institute, the Cameroon Opportunities and Industrialization Center (COIC) of Kumbo, Bui Division, in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. The said institute has been mismanaged to near extinction but some dynamic and determined sons and daughters of Nso, who refuse to let this institute of technical education die, have been campaigning for its revival. This is one such plea made to sons and daughters of the Nso people, residing in North America, urging them too to join the reviving process.

"Bush-fallers": Welcome back home!

(Revised and reproduced from The Greenfield Review: 5th African Poetry Issue, Vol. 8, Nos. I & 2, 1979, pp. 135-7)

There, far below, are the beautiful, meandering waters of the Wouri River. Huge trees with majestic trunks stretch out their gigantic arms to the winds. They stand on both sides of the Wouri like sentinels protecting the eternal flow of its waters to the sea. Their big leaves, stalked onto strong branches, are dancing leisurely in the wind. The wind caresses them, tickles them, and occasionally one of them, unable to stand the incessant fondling of the wind, snaps off its stalk, crash-landing onto others that had taken the same ecstatic leap hours, days, or even months before.