Exclusive interview: Prince Ndoki Mukete unearths genesis of Bafaw-Bakundu ‘fracas’.

Prince Ndoki Mukete, Adviser to the Nfon of Kumba and Paramout ruler of the Bafaw, Nfon Mukete IV Ekoko, has unveiled what he describes as provocative circumstances that pushed the Bafaw to carry out a street protest against what they termed “overbearing domination” by the Bakundu tribe. 

In an exclusive interview granted The Guardian Post, Prince Ndoki Mukete, who once served as Chairman of the Bafaw Traditional Council, stated categorically that their action was against “an action” and not the people of Bakundu, with whom they have been co-habiting peacefully for years.

He, among other things, gave insights into the genesis of the brewing ‘fracas’ between the two tribes and warned those trying to brew problems within the community by minimising the people of Bafaw, to steer clear.

He was interviewed by Doh Bertrand & Solomon Tembang. Excerpts

What pushed the Bafaw in Kumba to stage a protest against the Bakundus, last weekend? 

Before that fateful day, there had been a recording that spread on the social media where someone who claimed to be an expert on boundaries, indicated provocatively that the boundaries of Kake people are at the Kumba City Council. This by all indication means that the stool of the Paramount ruler of Kumba is under Kake. Since no crime is perfect, rumours had leaked that there was going to be an occasion where a non-native of this council area was going to be installed Paramount Chief of the Bakundus. So, this had to be stopped because it doesn’t work like that.

For people to know, when they generalise Bakundu, it is being offensive and being dishonest. We share a boundary and we have enjoyed very wonderful relationship with the Bakundu people of Kake, those are our neighbours.

Kake is the lone Bakundu village that is a neighbouring village to Kumba. For clarification, people should understand that Kumba may be the divisional capital but it happens to be a town with specific indigenes.

There are four tribes under the City Council each having its own village. We have the Balongs of Mukonje and Malende, we have the Bafaws of Mambanda, the Barombis of Mbo and Kang, the Bakundus of Kake I and II and then the Bafaw of Kumba.

But when people say nobody owns Kumba, and this has been going on for a very long time, then there is a problem. Kumba happens to be one of those towns in the republic that has had strangers and they have lived in peace with them all this while and it can be testified.

Now, nobody is against anyone becoming Chief of whatever village. But out of respect and because of the disturbances that you think that you cannot do this in your area, your host Chief of the town where you want to do what you want to do should be informed.

This is because you are going to carry out libation. You don’t come here disturbing our ancestors. Your ancestors are not buried here. So, it was not against settlers in Kumba, it was against an action.

For your information, Bakundu Chiefs have been holding their monthly meetings here for the past years and they have never been disturbed. But what they were planning to do had a part two where they were going to take deliberations to the City Council.

They are saying that their meeting was disturbed, but now information is coming out on social media how somebody has been crowned the Paramount Chief and that it was a grand event. This is a man who was virtually pushed out of Kumba. So we don’t have any problems with our neighbours.

During the protest, the Head of the Bafaw Traditional Council called on government to review the boundaries of Kumba to make it regain some lost territories. What are some of the territories that have been lost so far?     

Sometimes, when people make certain statements, they make them out of facts but I live with realities. Boundaries are boundaries, the maps are there. The Bafaw Kumba tribe happens to be a well-documented tribe. They are documents.

When they did the disenclavement where they removed people from the hinterlands and fitted them between Bafaw villages, we have co-habitated with them. Originally, and this can be confirmed by the Ekombe people, we did not share a boundary with any of the Bakundu villages, be it on the Victoria Road, or Mbonge Road.

We shared a boundary with the Ekombe people. If you take any Ekombe young man, they will show the pillars that were planted by the Germans. If you go along the Victoria Road, it is after Mabunji before Ediki, that we share a boundary with the Ekombe.

Ekombe is a tribe and not a Bakundu village. Our forefathers were complacent to letting people stay here and establishing Chiefdoms. In addition, we have even tried to maintain the small one which is left. You have a stream they called Nkondambo, from Frankharkurt College, before you get to Kake I. We have maintained that. Chief Elangwe respected that one. If you go up to the Barombis, you take the old road, there is a bridge there and the stream is there. You go up to Mambanda, you go up to Bokom, you go down to Malande. The thing has gone beyond that but the Bafaw man has been so quiet that they think nobody owns Kumba. So enough is enough.

Prince, in concrete terms, are you saying that the Bafaw do not share any boundaries with the Bakundus?

I am saying so with all the agreements and documents. After the complacent attitude of our forefathers in allowing these settlers to have Chiefdoms, boundaries were redefined. My father reacted with the people of Kake, he showed me where the original boundaries were, but he never told me to redeem Kake. He died at the age of 105. By then I had already been mature and didn’t get that information. Besides, the Bafaw have never reclaimed or threatened anybody in Kake. Pa Benjamin Mutanga Itoe is someone I respect so much. He is my senior brother. He is now called Chief Itoe. His junior brother, Mambo Itoe, bought land from Sam Mukwele, a Bafaw man. Chief Elangwe, the Chief of Kake, bought land from Ndeme, where he is resident, but he never claimed that that was part of his Chiefdom.

Pa Benjamin Itoe, yes, they settled in Bombe and later moved to Kake. But the only thing that would have even given him a right to belonging to the Subdivision, he destroyed it himself. He came and exhumed the corpses of his parents and took them to their base in Bombe. Pa Benjamin Itoe’s headquarters is in Mbonge not in Kumba. His own Bakundu has its headquarters in Mbonge not Kumba.

How provocative was the supposed holding of a meeting by the Bakundu Chiefs to crown a Paramount ruler?

They claimed that Kumba belongs to nobody. It has been said often and if you listen to some of his own utterances, he claims the Bafaw have only about seven or eight villages. When you start minimising the people and you think it is a game of numbers… I want to tell you that if you take just one quarter in Kumba like Kosala, you’ll create several Bakundu villages out of that. Whether there are three people in Kumba, this is their Chiefdom. Let somebody, because of his ambition, not come and create some ambiguity in a peaceful place.

Prince, you have complained that the Bafaw hospitality has been misunderstood by their neighbours. What more should we expect in future as far as this issue is concerned?         

Since people do not know their boundaries, I think it will be an administrative thing to avoid embarrassment tomorrow. It is administrative, it is not a war. While we are even talking about the Bakundus, there are the Northern Bakundus who are in Konye Subdivision. If they have a Paramount Chief of the Bakundus, the person who took over from Chief Elangwe inherited a paramountcy.

Chief Elangwe was the Paramount Chief of the Bakundus. I am not quarrelling with their judgement, because maybe their paramountcy rotates. That is up to them but why do you not install in your own Subdivision? Why should a Chief be installed in another village? If they had a Bakundu cultural title and they wanted to give it to him [Benjamin Itoe], they should have done it in a Bakundu village. I don’t see how a man from Nkwen can go to Mankon and install a Chief, it cannot work. I don’t see how somebody can leave Mvog-Ada and go to Nkoldongo and say because they are all Eton people, they can still install there. Why do people think that the Bafaw people are toothless?

Many people now claim that the Bafaw protest against the Bakundu people jeopardises the living together that government has been preaching?

Why should we only pinpoint on the Bakundus? We have been living with the Bamilekes and Metas and they even have a quarter here for centuries but nothing has happened. Is it today that the Bakundus came to Kumba? They [Bakundu Chiefs] have been holding their meetings in Kumba and they have never been disturbed but this one had a hidden agenda so we had to nip it in the bud.

Many people are also claiming that the protest has a political undertone?

What is political about that? Nobody is voting. If elections are coming, Biya does not ask the opinion of people before making appointments. Sometimes, if you are a vote hunter and you already have killed an elephant, carrying it and trying to pick a cricket, you stand the risk of losing all.

As a senior notable of the Bafaw, is there any message you would like to send across to the Bafaw community?

I have been quietly calling on the youths to avoid hate speech. I have insisted on social media and in writings. What people do not know is that, in every Bafaw household, you will find a Bakundu child. Likewise, in every Bakundu home, you will find a Bafaw child.

We inter-marry. So, how can we afford to carry out a fight where we are going to kill ourselves? We have not fought with the Metas, we have not fought with the Bamilekes, and we have not also fought with the Mbos who have been living in Kumba for several years. We have a quarter for the Bangwas and we have not fought with them. We have our lineage but somebody should not come and inject poisonous thoughts in the minds of the peaceful people of Kumba. Let them fight their fight but should not bring it to Kumba. They said somebody was ready for confrontation because the way they fortified Chief Benjamin Itoe when he entered Kumba, it was enough for him to take that to Mbonge and be installed there. He came with four armoured cars to Kumba and was being guarded- a Paramount Chief who is a 3^rd Class Chief for that matter.

Any last word prince?

The situation here is that since the name of a very senior citizen is being mentioned, a great legal mind, the man who is an in-law to the Bafaw, he should not be the one to be seen as trying to create problems between the Bafaw and the Bakundus.

One thing which should have given legitimacy to Kumba I, was the presence of the parents’ corpses buried in Kake II under Kumba I Subdivision. But he denied himself that right when he exhumed their corpses after several years to go bury in Bombe.

If he wanted that attachment to Kumba I Subdivision, what gave him legitimacy was that his parents lived in Kake II which is in Kumba I Subdivision and were buried there but he decided to select his residence by exhuming their corpses to go and bury in Bombe. So if he has anything to do, his headquarters is in Mbonge, not Kumba. Kumba is for Kumba I Subdivision.

Kumba is the name of a town like Konye which is a town inhabited by the Bakundus but you have Bafaw people around Konye too. Kumba is a town which is headquarter to something too.