Foreword to Tav-Njong's Corner

By “Tavnjong” Martin Jumbam

A few years ago, a prominent anglophone journalist, for whom I have great admiration, ran in and out of my office, day in, day out, for weeks on end, urging me to accept a column in his then newly created tabloid.

Unfortunately for me, it was of those moments when my capricious Muse usually deserts me for weeks, even months on end, making writing an excruciatingly painful exercise.

I explained my difficulty to him, and promised to write for his paper once my fount of inspiration began to flow again. But, he would not take such a non-committal stand for an answer. I then promised to write for him on one condition: that he allows me the latitude to write on just about any topic of my choice. The deal was concluded and I went to work.

I courted Mother Muse like I have never done before, and when she finally took pity on me, her humble servant, she turned my fount of inspiration back on, and a patchwork of ideas began to take shape on the screen of my computer.

When our journalist friend came to see me again, I proudly brandished before his eyes the fruit of my labour, which he accepted with many ululations of joy.

Barely one week later, however, he was back, this time looking visibly worried. No sooner had he taken a seat than he pulled out my articles from his brief-case. His editorial team had, he said, decided that my writing was too political for their liking. If I wanted them to publish my work, I would have to water down what they considered “the acidic nature of [my] political ideas,” whatever that meant. If you heard him, you would’ve thought I was the one begging for the privilege to be published in his paper!

I was pondering where to send those articles when the newspaper vendor came to my office with a bunch of papers, among which was The Sketch. That was the first time I was seeing the paper. So there and then, I decided I would send those articles to The Sketch, which received them with delightful surprise.

That is how “Tavnjong’s Corner” found its way into one corner of that paper for the short time the paper appeared on the stands.

It is therefore with much gratitude to Denis Ngala, the founder and publisher of that paper, and his dynamic team of reporters, that I reproduce those articles here. Unfortunately, as I edit these articles for publication on my website, Denis Ngala is no longer with us, having tip-toed prematurely out of life, like many other young people of our country these days. The English poet, T. S Eliot, seeing what a rich harvest of young souls lay waste on the frozen battle fields of Europe in the early part of this century, expressed astonishment that “death [could have] undone so many”. Had he lived in the Cameroons of today, Eliot would no doubt have expressed the same painful astonishment in the face of the rich harvest of death in our land, especially among the youth!

I shed a tear for Denis Ngala and for many like him who, as a Lamnso expression goes, suddenly “break” at the height of their youthful days. In Denis’ honour, I hereby reproduce those articles from The Sketch, which, like most tabloids in the Cameroons of the hectic heydays of political turbulence in the early 90s, did not survive for long..

Comments

[alex]

This is a nice story

[Lamlenn Eric]

Tavnjong
I simply LOVED it. Be sure that I will read your site much more often.
I am an artist and in the process of making my website too.
Have fun

[Raymond Bannavti]

Hi Tav,
You are an outstanding example of the few cameroonians these day who can stand in the pulpit of truth and talk without reproach. You are so independent-minded and a vehicle of truth and development that, only a free environment like the web would allow you express your mind, share your thoughts, educate the masses and liberate them from bondage(economic and political).

Posterity should give you the right title and let your example inspire other Nso intellectuals to put their names in marble of development. Tav, this is a great read and inspiration!!
Raymond