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25.01.2010
UPC: Le président Ndeh Ntumazah est mort! The Passing of a Great Man!
C’est avec peine et consternation que les upécistes ont appris, le week-end dernier, la mort dans un hôpital londonien de Wilson Ndeh Ntumazah, le président d´honneur de l´Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC). Depuis la dernière présidentielle, on l’avait vraiment perdu de vue. Certains de ses compagnons le croyaient dégoûté à la fois de la politique que des divisions internes de son parti.
Ce qui est certain, c’est que le vieux combattant, affaibli par l’âge et miné par la maladie, n’avait plus les ressources nécessaires pour continuer le combat. Voilà pourquoi il était reparti pour l’Angleterre où il avait passé la majeure partie de sa vie d’exilé politique. Ndeh Ntumazah avait quitté clandestinement le Cameroun en 1962 en adoptant un pseudonyme de Mbarack Ben Ibrahim. Le président de « One Kamerun » avait vécu alors au Ghana, en Guinée, en Algérie et en Grande-Bretagne. Il était revenu au Cameroun en 1991. Ces dernières années, les nouvelles sur sa santé n’étaient pas du tout rassurantes, et plusieurs fois, sa mort avait été annoncée avant d’être démentie. Depuis jeudi 21 janvier 2010, le doute n’est plus permis. Le président de l’UPC est décédé dans un hôpital de Londres, des suites d´une longue maladie sans avoir réussi à réunifier son parti. Il était âgé de 84 ans. Ndeh Tumazah emporte dans la tombe certains secrets, notamment les circonstances exactes de l’assassinat de Ruben Um Nyobè dont il prétendait détenir des documents inédits. Mais aussi des secrets sur les raisons profondes de la division de l’UPC. Des raisons qu’il avait effleurées dans « Ntumazah´s Conversational Autobiography », son unique œuvre littéraire.
Peu après sa mort, le Secrétaire général de l’UPC, Augustin Frédéric Kodock, l’air grave, est apparu à la télévision nationale et lui a rendu un vibrant hommage, notamment pour le combat qu’il a mené pour la liberté au Cameroun. Entre 1990 et 1992, une querelle était née entre les deux hommes. Ndeh Ntumazah avait décidé de boycotter les élections législatives de mars 1992 en suivant le mot d’ordre de boycott lancé par la coordination des partis d’opposition, alors que son secrétaire général, Augustin Frédéric Kodock y avait participé, remportant même18 sièges au parlement, et rentrant au gouvernement avec quatre ministres après la présidentielle de 1992.
Selon des informations puisées à bonne source, la dépouille mortelle du président de l’UPC arrive dans notre pays dans un mois et demi. Ce sera peut-être l’occasion pour les diverses factions du parti du crabe de se parler, à défaut de se réconcilier. Après l’assassinat de Ruben Um Nyobè en septembre 1958, l’UPC a connu des divisions qui perdurent jusqu’à nos jours. Au grand dam de ce parti politique fondé en 1948 et que ses militants considèrent comme l’ « âme immortelle du peuple camerounais ».
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Il est décédé des suites de maladie à Londres à l’âge de 84 ans. Ndeh Ntumazah, ancien président de l’Union des populations du Cameroun (Upc) a quitté le Cameroun au début des années 2000 pour des raisons de santé. Hospitalisé à Londres à l’hôpital St Thomas, il a finalement rendu l’âme le 21 janvier 2010, à l’âge de 84 ans.
Originaire de Mankon, près de Bamenda, dans la région du Nord-Ouest, il y voit le jour en 1926. C’est dans cette partie du pays qu’il va passer l’essentiel de sa jeunesse. En 1950, il marque son entrée en politique par son adhésion à l’Upc où il va retrouver Ernest Ouandié et Um Nyobe, entre autres.
En 1955, le parti est interdit d’exercer des activités sur le territoire camerounais. Ndeh Ntumazah, crée alors un autre parti baptisé «One Kamerun Movement», en abrégé "Ok" dont-il assure la présidence. Son parti va se positionner dans le même esprit de combat dit « pour la libération du Cameroun » que l’Upc.
En 1962, il quitte le Cameroun pour un exil politique sous le nom de Mbarack Ben Ibrahim. Il séjourne tour à tour au Ghana, en Guinée, en Algérie et en Grande Bretagne. Son exil va durer de 1962 à 1991. À la faveur du retour du multipartisme en 1991, l’Upc est réhabilitée. Ndeh Ntumazah reprend sa carte de militant du parti d’Um Nyobe dès son retour. Il est d’ailleurs président du premier bureau exécutif en 1991 avec pour secrétaire général, Augustin Frédéric Kodock.
Entre 1990 et 1992, une grande divergence va naître entre les deux hommes. Alors que Ndeh Ntumazah décide de boycotter les élections législatives de mars 1992 en suivant le mot d’ordre de boycott lancé par la coordination des partis d’opposition, Augustin Frédéric Kodock y participe, remporte 18 sièges au parlement et rentre au gouvernement avec 4 ministres après la présidentielle d’octobre 1992. L’unité de l’Upc n’a jamais été véritablement retrouvée jusqu’à ce jour.
Tazoacha Asongagny, ancien secrétaire général du Sdf : « Il continuera de servir de modèle pour les générations futures »
J’ai quitté le Cameroun en 1975 pour le Royaume-Uni où je devais poursuivre des études de troisième cycle. J’ai appris qu’il vivait à Londres et j´ai décidé de lui rendre visite. C’est un personnage très chaleureux, attentionné et paternel que j’ai rencontré. Il était également très fier de rencontrer un jeune camerounais. Il m´a donné des tonnes de documents sur le Cameroun et comme il était un bon conteur, il n´a manqué aucune occasion de me raconter l’histoire du Cameroun et de me donner les raisons de la lutte de libération qu’il avait décidé de mener avec d’autres nationalistes.
Je suis reparti lui rendre visite à l´hôpital Saint-Thomas de Londres, le 2 Juin 2005, il était couché aveugle sur son lit d´hôpital. Il n´était plus l´homme bavard que je connaissais. Il a gardé un regard fixe sur moi, et j’ai compris qu´il était dans une profonde réflexion et nourrissait des regrets pour son pays. Nul doute que parmi ces regrets, il a pensé à son retour au Cameroun en 1991, où il s’est engagé dans la politique comme militant de l’Upc avec des gens comme Dika Akwa, Kodock, Mayi Matip, Hogbe Nlend, Wougly Massaga et d´autres dont-il a maintes fois décrié les activités anti-révolutionnaires. Il est mort, mais il vit sur parce que sa vie apparaît comme un point de mire. Tout au long de sa vie, il s´est efforcé de servir la nation et il continuera de servir de modèle pour nos enfants et les générations futures.
http://quotidienlejour.com
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Ndeh Ntumazah: The Passing of a Great Man!
Écrit par Tazoacha Asonganyi | Yaoundé
Samedi, 23 Janvier 2010
The death has been announced of Ndeh Ntumazah, President of the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC), in St. Thomas’s Hospital in London on January 21, 2010 at the age of 83.Pa Ntumazah was a political activist for nearly 60 years. Pa Ntumazah was UPC "army chief of staff" who lived in exile from 1962 to 1991; 30 years!Pa Ntumazah is dead, but he lives on because his life stands out as a point of focus. Throughout his life, he strove for more than individual goals; he will continue to be emulated as a role model by our children and future generations. After all, Cameroonian youths desperately need role models to guide them towards discovering and fulfilling their mission for Cameroon. There is no doubt that Pa Ntumazah is a truly great man. Long live Ndeh Ntumazah!
The death has been announced of Ndeh Ntumazah, President of the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC), in St. Thomas’s Hospital in London on January 21, 2010 at the age of 83. Pa Ntumazah was a political activist for nearly 60 years. He joined the UPC around 1950 and remained a militant of the party until his demise. When the UPC was banned in French Cameroon in 1955, he was advised by his comrades to create another party in the Southern Cameroons, which would be the UPC in disguise. The party was called "One Kamerun Movement - OK", with Ndeh Ntumsazah as its President. Following its banning, the UPC started a war of liberation in French Cameoon, so Ntumazah from the safety of Southern Cameroons, liaised with his comrades in French Cameroon to carry out their underground operations. Following the unification of the Republic of Cameroon and Southern Cameroons on 1st October 1961, the relative freedom and safety Ntumazah and his comrades enjoyed in Southern Cameroons evaporated. Since the regime in place sought to eliminate all the leaders of the movement, some, like Pa Ntumazah eventually went on exile while others like Um.
Nyobe and Earnest Ouandié remained in the bush to continue the liberation war on the spot.
Pa Ndeh Ntumazah left Cameroon to seek political asylum abroad in 1962. While abroad on exile, he adopted another name, Mbarack Ben Ibrahim which he went around with in the foreign passports he used. He stayed in Ghana, Guinea, Algeria and finally in Britain where he spent most of his time sensitising the world about the plight of Cameroon using various avenues like writing, conferences and deputations.
Before I left Cameroon in 1975 to the UK for postgraduate studies, the public trial of Bishop Ndongmo, Ernest Ouandié, Wambo le Courrant and some 160 others had taken place in Yaounde in December 1970, so I had been sensitised about the conflicts between the Ahidjo regime and the UPC. Thus, in spite of the efforts of the Ahidjo regime to sell the UPC to the population as "maquizards" whose only mission was to wage war on a peaceful population, I already knew by 1975 that the UPC was a very serious nationalist organisation with emblematic figures like Ndeh Ntumazah, Mongo Beti and others still alive.
When I got to London and heard that he lived there, I decided to visit him. My first successful visit brought me face to face with a very warm, caring, fatherly person, who seemed to be very excited to meet a young Cameroonian! None of the images of him that I had from fairy tales fitted the real man! He gave me tons of documents about Cameroon and I devoured them! Since he was a good raconteur, he missed no opportunity to feed me with the hows and whys of the liberation struggle they launched in Cameroon before he escaped to safety.
Although Pa Ntumazah was not a communist, he was certainly much influenced by communism because many of his speeches and writings were filled with communist rhetoric. In his conversational autobiography published in 1991 by Patron Publishing House, Bamenda, he stated that "Ouandié advised Mandela and he changed tactics". Indeed, Mandela changed tactics by starting a guerrilla war against the apartheid regime, like the one the UPC had started in Cameroon against the neo-colonial regime. Beyond merely changing tactics to engage in a liberation war, the ANC combined war, militant mass action and seduction to win power and is still governing South Africa today.
Although the UPC was at the origin of the creation of the OK of Ntumazah, it never went further – when it was banned - to create other surrogate organisations in Cameroon to channel the anger and frustrations of the people into militant mass action, like the ANC did when it was banned in South Africa. Further, the UPC never engaged in any seduction of the regime. The seduction effort started single-handedly by Bishop Albert Ndongmo did not seem to enjoy the blessings of the UPC because, when it went wrong, he was accused of "having betrayed Ouandié". Thus, in dying, Pa Ntumazah leaves behind in his biography, the impression that Ernest Ouadié was captured by the Ahidjo regime because Bishop Ndongmo betrayed him.
After reading Mongo Beti’s "Main basse sur le Cameroun" (Maspero, Paris, 1972), Bishop Ndongmo’s extensive interview in Jeune Afrique Economie (N° 148, 1991, pp 117 – 134), and what can best be described as a spin-doctoring effort by Frédéric Fenkam in his book "Les revelations de Jean Fochivé" (Ed. Mansi, 2003), it seems to me that Pa Ntumazah was misled by the partisan reports on the Ndongmo trial written in western newspapers by so-called international observers.
As a revolutionary, Pa Ntumazah knew very well that under certain circumstances, certain options like going on exile or making false confessions to remain alive become the best option. This is why, when N.N. Mbile in his biography blamed Pa Ntumazah for escaping into exile instead of staying in Cameroon to help in nation building, Pa retorted that Mbile did not understand what it meant to be wanted dead or alive. Which is why Pa would have understood why following the arrest of the Bishop, his physical and psychological torture by Ahidjo’s regime pushed him into despair, especially because the highest ecclesiastical authorities had delivered him to Ahidjo’s mercy; and the Cameroonian bishops had distanced themselves from him, nudged to that option by Bishop Jean Zoa who was thirsty for vengeance!
And so the defeated Ndongmo is said to have broken down in tears, weeping, obviously not in confession - because more than anybody else, he was aware of his innocence - but in fury and impotence. Pierre Biarnès in Le Monde Newspaper of 22 – 23 November 1970 claimed that the Bishop confessed that "I deceived everybody, the government, the Church and the UPC". Since he was completely cut-off by distance from the reality on the ground in Cameroon, Pa probably used such "declarations" to reach his conclusions on the Bishop!
It is probably in full understanding of this sorry state in which Bishop Ndongmo found himself that Cardinal Tumi in his recent book reports that he told Governor Ousman Mey who wanted to frighten him with the Ndongmo case the following: "I am not Mgr Ndongmo. I don’t know what his crime was. By the way, it would seem the Cameroon government has never proven his guilt. Perhaps he had the courage to say what he thought and that might have scared you, Mr. Governor". When Bishop Ndongmo’s efforts at reconciliation are viewed within the perspective of the power of seduction and charm in revolutionary politics, judgement of him would be more lenient than suggested by Pa Ntumazah.
Pa Ntumazah was UPC "army chief of staff" who lived in exile from 1962 to 1991; 30 years! He was born in Mankon, Bamenda in 1926. He spent the better part of his life suffering and sacrificing for the freedom of Cameroon. When I visited him in St. Thomas’s Hospital in London on June 2, 2005, he was lying blind on his hospital bed. He was no longer the talkative man I knew. He kept staring blankly at me, and I knew that he was in deep reflection with so many things rushing through his mind. No doubt one of them was the regret that upon returning to Cameroon in 1991, he still jumped into local UPC politics with people like Dika Akwa, Kodock, Mayi Matip, Hogbe Nlend, Wougly Massaga and others whose anti-revolutionary activities he repeatedly decried. A second regret would probably have been that his wish to have Moumié’s corpse given a dignified burial in Cameroon had not yet been fulfilled. And yet another would have been that he was lying helpless while "mercenaries" – his own word – were still ruling Cameroon.
Overall, one satisfaction would have overcrowded these regrets in his mind: the fact that he is one of the architects of the independence and reunification of Cameroon. Whatever has become of the reunification they fought for, he dies satisfied that whatever they did, they did in the best interest of Cameroon. Happily, even the "mercenaries" that are still ruling Cameroon now recognise that "the independence of our country was hard won by many worthy children of the land...through desperate struggles by the contending forces who used all means and strategies they could imagine. Their common denominator was the Cameroonian nationality..."
Pa Ntumazah is dead, but he lives on because his life stands out as a point of focus. Throughout his life, he strove for more than individual goals; he will continue to be emulated as a role model by our children and future generations. After all, Cameroonian youths desperately need role models to guide them towards discovering and fulfilling their mission for Cameroon.
www.icicemac.com
There is no doubt that Pa Ntumazah is a truly great man. Long live Ndeh Ntumazah!
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