Obituary: Celebrated Cameroonian Writer Kenjo wan Jumbam is Dead

On December 12, 2005, my brother, Kenjo Jumbam left this world for a much better place. I am at a loss to describe what I feel at this time. However, when the pain and anguish caused by my brother's untimely death subsides, I will pay him a befitting tribute. In the meantime, I will leave you with a beautiful eulogy written by Dr. Joyce Ashutangtang Abunaw.

Martin K Jumbam.

An Eulogy By Joyce Ashuntantang Abunaw

Today I am sad. I was tackling my usual daily routines when I was interrupted by a call from Amusa Jumbam informing me that his father, Mr. Kenjo wan Jumbam, a celebrated Cameroonian writer, a literary baobab, is dead. Mr Jumbam died in his sleep on 12/12/05 in Kumbo.  Due to my research on Anglophone Cameroon literature, I had been in touch with Kenjo Jumbam during the past couple of years. I called him a couple of times in kumbo and it was always with awe that I listened as he talked about his works and his recent literary activities.

He had promised sending me his recent unpublished manuscripts for possible publication in the USA and I was considering including one of them Limbe camp written in 2002, in one of my courses on African literature, which now showcases Linus Asong’s Crown of Thorns. According to Jumbam Limbe Camp surpasses The White Man Of God. I am now very anxious to read Limbe Camp to make my own assessmen, but I'll miss discussing this with him.

To situate Kenjo wan Jumbam within the Cameroonian literary pantheon, one would have to go back to Cameroon’s literary history, particularly that of Anglophone Cameroon. While Chinua Achebe launched contemporary Nigerian literature in London in 1958, Sankie Maimo, Achebe’s fellow schoolmate launched Anglophone Cameroon Literature in Nigeria in 1959. Taking advantage of the publishing structures and a shared colonial history, Maimo published I am Vindicated, a drama, with Ibadan University Press. I am vindicated dramatizes a conflict between modernity and tradition represented by Bola, a schoolboy and Baba Kasim the village fetish priest. However, modernity is made to triumph when Bola reveals the priest as a charlatan and the priest commits suicide.

In 1969, ten years later, Lagos African University Press (Which later became Pilgrim publishers) published the first novel by an Anglophone Cameroonian woman titled Promise.  It was authored by Jedida Asheri, the pen name of the late Prudencia He-ne Chila (I got this fact from the the baobab, Kenjo Jumbam). Set in Banso, Promise is a classic female bildungsroman that compares favorably with celebrated novels of this genre anywhere. In addition, Oxford University Press published Nsanda Eba’s The Good Foot in 1977, seven years after it was written.

However to earn money and fame as a writer one had to publish with multinationals like Heinemann, Fontana and Macmillan. Some aspiring Anglophone writers sent their writings abroad, but the chances of publication were very slim. The distance of the foreign publisher was not only cultural, it was physical. Also the fact that Heinemann publishers relied on the textbook market impacted on their editorial policies. In sum therefore, only few African writers actually published with the big multinational publishers, and amongst these where francophone Cameroonians, Mongo Beti, Ferdinand Oyono, and Mbella Sone Dipoko.

To sustain the budding African Writers Series, Heinemann shopped for African writers who were based in Paris and had produced well-written works in French. There was already a vibrant African community in Paris in the sixties, which had developed from the negritude tradition and was creating a dynamic black aesthetic. The works translated included Oyono’s Une Vie de Boy (Houseboy), and Mongo Beti’s Mission termine (Mission to Kala), which have erroneously been considered by some readers as written by English speaking Cameroonians. Heinemann also published Mbella Sone Dipoko’s A few Nights and Days in 1964 and Because of Women in 1968. Although a francophone Cameroonian by geographic origin, Mbella Sone Dipoko studied in English and wrote his novels originally in English. Consequently it has become customary for bibliographers to classify him as an Anglophone Cameroon writer instead of a Francophone Cameroon writer, who writes in English,

Technically therefore, Kenjo wan Jumbam is the first Anglophone Cameroon writer to publish with Heinemann’s African Writers Series. Jumbam was a postgraduate student at the University of Leeds when he sent his first manuscript, a love story to Heinemann. It was rejected but Jumbam continued writing. He had been writing for five years when Heinemann accepted Jumbam’s Lukong and the Leopard with The White Man of Cattle for young readers in 1975. Stephen Arnold, a renowned critic, describes this volume as “an unassuming pair of beautifully told tales …intended for secondary school students but a pleasure for all ages”.

Then in 1980 The white Man of God was published in the African Writers Series. The White man of God records the coming of age of Tansa, as he faces the complexities of Christianity especially the concept of a loving God (father) who can send his children to hell. For several years The White Man Of God was a required text in secondary school and was also studied frequently at the University of Yaounde. Above all, it attracted a lot of  critical attention amongst literary scholars. Jumbam’s talent as a writer is visible once you pick up any of his work. Again, Steve Arnold in 1978 predicted that, “Jumbam is a writer of international stature and will certainly be widely known before long”.

Unfortunately the reduced activities of Heinemann on the continent and difficulties of publishing in Cameroon left Kenjo Jumbam with many unpublished manuscripts and an aborted rise to international fame. Annie Gagiano also echoes these sentiments when she writes, “The Cameroonian novelist Kenjo Jumbam is not as well known as his work merits”. Bjornson equally refers to The White Man of God as “the best known post 1972 novel written by an anglophone Cameroonian” and to the two short stories as works that “invite readers to exercise their own independent judgement in drawing conclusions about the relevance of traditional and modern values to life in contemporary Africa.” 

A great man has fallen but the consoling fact remains: he lives on his stories! May Mr. Kenjo Jumbam’s soul find eternal rest. Amen.

Jumbam’s Works At A Glance

Drama
Lynda, a drama, Bamenda: Ngem Publishers 1990

Prose
Lukong and the Leopard with The White Man of Cattle. London: Heinemann, 1975
-Children’s verse and stories. Yaounde, Cameroon, privately published, 1979.
-The White man of God. London: Heinemann, 1980.

Prose (Self published)
-Gorrilars of Bambar.
-Do Me A Do You or revenge.

-Limbe Camp, unpublished. 2002

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Comments

[Dibussi Tande (Chicago)]

Dear Martin,

It is with shock and disbelief that I learned of your brother, Kenjo Jumbam's death. Another library has gone up in flames!!!

Please do accept my heartfelt sympathies during these trying times. As Dr. Abunaw has pointed out in her glowing eulogy, Kenjo Jumbam was a literary giant whose place in Cameroon's literary pantheon is assured for eternity. He never got the recognition and financial rewards that he deserved for his immense contribution to our national literature and identity, but he will always be remembered as one of the few who put Anglophone Cameroon on the world map.

I believe that the greatest honor that can be given to Kenjo from now hence is for a new generation of writers to pick up the mantle from where he left off and move resolutely forward - with the hope that tomorrow will be a much brighter day for national icons and literary pillars like him.

May his soul rest in peace.

Dibussi

[Ngalim Eugene]

This is really bad news! Kenjo Jumbam is one of those who enthusiastically contributed to the on going project on publishing a manual on the legacy of the Late Prof. Bernard Fonlon. Just a year ago, I had the opportunity of conducting an audio interview on the life of Fonlon with him and we intended to invite him to the launching of the Fonlon manual upon its publication.

There is no doubt that we have lost one of the greatest griots on the culture of Nso.

My condolences to Martin Jumbam.

May his soul rest in perfect peace.

NGALIM Eugine Nyuydine
Executive Diretor of CAMYOSFOP
Promoter of the Project on the Manual on the Legacy of Fonlon.

[Christmas Atem Ebini]

Martin,

Please accept the condolences of my family and the members of the CRYER Foundation to you and your family for the death of your brother Kenjo Jumbam. With the reactions we have read thus far in public, the time he spent on this earth, his active engagements, and his contributions to the shaping of our society will keep his spirit in us for now and posterity, both for those who knew him and those who did not, and those with whom he will always come to life through his works and footprints.

May the Lord Almighty grant his soul rest and comffort and peace to his family and friends.

Christmas Ebini/family
CRYER Foundation

[Ambe Johnson]

Great Eulogy by Dr. Abunaw. that said, there is an error that has crept into her narration on the history of Anglophone Cameroon literature. She writes: "Although a francophone Cameroonian by geographic origin, Mbella Sone Dipoko studied in English and wrote his novels originally in English."
Correction: Mbella Sone Dipoko is indeed an Anglophone by geographic origin and ethnicity. He is a native of Misaka village in Tiko sub division where, like his father before him, he is the current Chief. A few years ago, he was the mayor of Tiko town.

I believe Dr. Abunaw's confusion stems from the fact that Dipoko is of the Mongo ethnic group, the bulk of whose members are in the French speaking littoral province. What most people don't know is that Fako division is not just the home of the Bakweri but also of the Mongo who occupy the West bank of the River Mungo.

Another facinating facet of Cameroon's colonial history...

[Godfrey Tangwa aka "Rotcod Gobata"]

I am currently on a visit to the Netherlands, I've just arrived from the University of Groningen, where I gave
a lecture last night on "Western Research into non-Western Diseases" (During the ensuing discussion I related an incident from THE WHITE MAN OF GOD) to Leiden, where I'll be giving a lecture in a few minutes on "The Opinion of an African villager on the moral status of the Human Ëmbryo". While waiting for the lecture I took the opportunity to check my email and got shocked by news of the passing away of Kenjo
wan Jumbam. Many thanks, Joyce, for your hot tribute which for now can cover all of us.

[Elizabeth Cockburn (Toronto, Canada)]

I am so saddened to hear from Lynn that Kenjo has passed. He was such a fine man and I am sure that you will all miss him so very much. He made a truly major contribution to Cameroon in so many ways and he was really outstanding as a writer. He will be greatly missed by so many people.

[James Ernest Nformi]

Dear Martin:

It's with deep sorrow that I learnt of the death of your brother, Kenjo Jumbam. My students, who have enjoyed reading his book, The Whiteman of God, also express their regret.

Requiem aeterna donna eis domine.

James-Ernest Nformi
Collège Libermann, Douala.

[Don Sinsai]

Dear Martin: God gave Mr. Kenjo Jumbam and God called him back home. This is the
reality of our existence here in this valley of tears. Dr. Solomon Nfor
Gwei, who has also been called back home, had one phrase: there is nothing
as sure as death. There is nothing as sure as death; even birth is not so
sure.

I always imagined, when I read Kenjo's White Man of God, with characters
like Lavran, Feliy, Fada and the rest of the cast, how someone from
Charles Dickens' home-town must have felt on reading about Oliver Twist,
Fagin, Scrooge, John Jarndyce, etc., and identifying those characters in
the village. Kenjo Jumbam made me proud to be able to tell someone: I
think I know this Feliy person; I know the twins he is talking about; and
many other anecdotes like that. His memory lives on in his works.

Martin and family: we mourn this loss with you; but, as people of the resurrection, we must also rejoice because our elder brother lived a full life; and we hope to be reunited with him for eternity when God calls us back home too.

Don Sinsai & Family
The Hague, Holland

[Raymond Bannavti]

Martin:

I don't have the words and don't want to repeat what others have well-said. I am deeply saddened like the entire Nso community particularly the intellectual community by the passing away of a great soul: Wan Jumbam. May he rest in the hands of the Lord.

Please accept my sincere condolences to you and the entire Jumbam family.

Raymond Bannavti

[Yes-Merlin Noubissi Djiya]

Monsieur Martin,
je me joins a tous ceux qui vous sont chers pour vous adresser mes
sincères condoléances.

Que Dieu vous donne assez de courage pour surmonter cette douloureuse disparition en cette fin d'année.

God bless you...

Yves-Merlin Noubissi Djiya, Douala

[Hippolytus Nji]

On December 12, 2005, Cameroon lost one of its finest novelists, Kenjo Jumbam, someone who has contributed a lot to the literary upbringing and up-keep of many a Cameroonian, in particular, and African, in general. Among the country's best-known writers are the novelists Kenjo Jumbam and Mongo Beti, both of whom have written about Cameroon's relationship with its European colonizers.

Some of his novels like “The white man of God”, “Lukong and the leopard” have been in the secondary school first cycle English literature program for long.

I wonder if the vacuum left by his death will ever be filled someday. My he rest in peace.

Hippolytus Nji, Douala, Cameroon

[Numvi Wallace]

I feel very sad to hear the death of this famous writer. I remember with a lot of nostalgia his much acclaimed book "the white man of God" which i studied in secondary school(GBHS Bamenda).Infact the memories of Tansa as he struggles to understand the complexities of Christianity, especially the concept of a God,heaven and hell, comes flodding as i write this homage to somebody who greatly contributed to my literary upbringing.
Kenjo you are gone but your spirit lives on in your literary work, may the Lord God grant you eternal peace.

[Ali Buba]

Mr. Kenjo was a great teacher. He was our literature teacher in Mbengwi in the 1980s. Also he used to give us ride to go to Mankon. I can picture him driving his VW rabbit. One of the best teachers ever taught me. May his soul rest in peace.

[Stephan Kecha]

Kenjo Jumbam's passing away is a great loss. The White man of God is the best cameroonian novel I've read to date. I was so fond of it in secondary school... Lucy you let a white man into your jerusalem, but you don't want to let me in...
Let him rest!

[Emil Mondoa, M.D.]

Dear Martin:

I learned with great regret about your brother's passing. He was like a giant tree whose shadow is felt in the entire forest. I never knew him and I never met him, but I heard a lot about him.

Accept my sincere condolences.

Emil

[Atabong Christian]

A great man has gone to sleep. Kenjo Jumbam's contribution to African literature is enormous. A light hearted writer who often uses a light hearted manner in satirising the whiteman's use of christianity as a tool for brian-watching and exploiting Africa. The bible infront and the gun behind. The whiteman's egoistic nature is reflected in the conflict between big father and small father in the White man of God. The struggle for Africa. Lucy refuses her jerusalem from tansa but gave it to the whiteman. Yes our African leaders deprives us from what belongs to us but carry our money to save it in european banks. The whiteman of God is more than just a literature book. pa rest in peace

[Eric Tangumonken]

It is sad for us all. Peace to your family and al love ones. Your book the white man of God made me thinking and I still do.

[Henry Fon]

This is really sad news! A tear ran down my cheek yesterday when I walked past Pa Kenjo's former residence at Chapelle Elig Efa. I seemed to see him near his Volkswagon. If Pa Kenjo were to resurrect today and was asked if he thought he had succeeded in life, he would no doubt simply say that he had merely tried to follow the spiritual syllabus which God had given him. Pa was a man who loved the truth and served all mankind with a glowing zeal of love. He was a patient, simple and humble father, who cared for all. He knew why he came into this world.

Many of us want to have our heaven both in this lilfe and in the next, oscillating between good and evil, being full of good resolutions today and giving way to sin tomorrow because virtue seems to demand too many sacrifices of us.

Pa Kenjo's largesse was beyond compare. He was a fervent Christian and a powerful story-teller. I taught literature and English with him in the Unity Comprehensive College (UCC) in Nkar for six years. Today, he is no more! Those are the ways of God that we find difficult to justify.

On that day, when God shall command infinities of souls to go back to their scattered bodies, we may have the chance to see him again. Let us begin to canonize him by praying consistently for him even though he is already a saint! Pa, we too are coming soon!

[George N. Ngwanyia (California USA)]

Hi Martin and family,

God the Father was recruiting employees during Advent to prepare the way for the coming of His Baby Boy, our Lord Jesus Christ. For this mission he picked only the best and most talented of his servants here on earth. So your brother, our beloved, Mr. Kenjo wan Jumbam, was among the chosen. Mr. Kenjo and the others did a formidably job to present the child Jesus to us. Let us all draw strength from this Child and try, as much as we can, to heal our broken hearts.

Accept our deepest sympathy from my entire family.

[Ndzelen Tobias]

Pa Kenjo was a very simple unassuming, caring educationist of the highest calibre. He left his footprint every where he went and was a very good story teller. We will miss him forever.

[Prof. Patrick C. Fusi]

Kenjo Wan Jumbam Stanislaus, I have known you for 50 years as an open, self-less, creative person. Our jokes suddenly came to an end but I trust we'll meet(meet) again in Paradise. Safe journey and may you rest in peace.

Prof. Patrick Fusi
Bamenda

[Faay Sarbam]

How wonderfull it is that this family should think of me when my dearest friend suddenly dies. Is this devine intervention? Twenty three years ago we assembled here in this burial ground and wept together. Now I weep with the kids.

Faay Sarbam(Mengjo Kinga Pius)

[Woo Shu Bui]

I have lost a great sympathising, loving intelligent colleague and friend.

Wirba S. Thomas

[Dr. Francis Fai Mbuntum]

Kenjo Jumbam was a father, a humble man, very hospitable, led my way to Canada. He is in heaven with his FATHER.

Dr. Francis Mbuntum

[Hon Dr. Banadzem]

As a memeber of KRC, you have gone to meet Mbungwe. You guys have left an empty space in our research group. We will continue the legacy so rest in Perfect peace.

Dr. Banadzem.