Balue discovered Ewombo not Ekondo-Nene.

Dr. Aja Oro is a Balondo Scholar, USA

Dear reader, please be informed that the Balue never set foot in Ekondo-Nene as discoverers.

Moving forward, the Balue people, a tribe of the Oroko and descendants of Ngoe, inhabit Rumpi Hill in the Ndian Division, at an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet above sea level.



Due to the harsh living conditions, many have relocated to Cameroonian plantations, where they live in small camp buildings shared by large families. 

They primarily work as laborers in palm, banana, and rubber plantations, earning very little despite their hard work. However, some have acquired basic education, leading to the emergence of budding writers with the Ewombo perspective.

The Ewombo perspective stems from a legendary old woman in the Dikome-Balue forest, renowned for her protective charms, healing powers, and remedies for enhancing male sexual prowess and acquiring wealth. 

Despite skepticism about her treatment, many sought her assistance. To the Balue people, she symbolized a place of opportunity, akin to El Dorado.

Historically, prior to the arrival of the plantation economy, the Balue worked for their Balondo overlords, who treated them kindly and leased them land for farming. 

They were content and praised the Balondo homeland, especially Ekondo-Enene, the wealthiest Balondo town. This admiration continues today, with young Balue-Oroko writers fascinated by the Balondo people and civilization, even with limited knowledge.

For example, Winnyawoko Motale, in his romanticized "History of Balue," imagines the Balue discovering seven out of fifteen Balondo towns, including Ekondo-Nene, while interacting with the Calabar people in Nigeria, Balondo’s first primordial homeland in west Africa.

Realistically, his accounts are flawed, fake, and impudent. This is intellectual dishonesty, distorting the history of the Balondo-ba-konja people. 

In Balondo, he would be called an "Ewombo" historian, meaning a delusional historian of questionable integrity, whose people likely discovered the legendary Ewombo woman, not Ekondo-Nene, since there were never any Balue legacies—such as culture, food, fables, naming systems, and dialect—in Ekondo-Nene. 

This great Balondo hometown is naturally endowed with resources and great warriors, as brave as King Nambuli Nwa Ndem, the hero of the Itoki War in the 1800s. 

Therefore, assuming the Balue ever ventured into Ekondo-Nene, why would they abandon it to settle atop the barren and uninhabitable Rumpi Hills, 8,000 feet above sea level, in contrast to Ekondo-Nene and other Balondo hometowns situated less than 100 feet above sea level? 

This scenario is illogical, as even in his book, there are no substantial reasons provided for the Balue to forsake a resource-rich Ekondo-Nene, where there is still no evidence of their presence, either in antiquity or currently.

 

By Dr. Aja Oro is a Balondo Scholar, USA

Obanandongo 1 of Ekondo-Enene

+1 240 714 9912

ajaoro200@yahoo.com

 

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