Chief SML Endeley (1923-2015)

A most difficult funeral for a complex personality
-HRH SML Endeley was a statesman, a retired senior judge of special status, pharmacist, politician, churchman and custodian of tradition. Members of the Royal Family say their father has to be buried in a manner that reflects and satisfies all the caps that he wore during his long and very eventful life. However, some Bakweri chiefs also argue that it is against Bakweri traditions and customs to put the King in a public mortuary; the chiefs argue that the nakedness of a chief should not be seen by commoners. Commentators  at the mortuary said the debates were just a fore-taste of the succession battles that might ensue sequel to Chief Nakuve Endeley’s funeral
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem and Ajongakou Santos in Buea
A heated debate ensued at the Buea Hospital Mortuary when the remains of the Paramount Ruler of Buea, HRH Nakuve Samuel Moka Lifafa Endeley were rushed there in the evening hours of Tuesday 7 July 2015. Some local Chiefs, who had thronged at the mortuary, blamed the late chief’s family and the traditional council for taking the chief to a public mortuary. The chiefs insisted, albeit vexatiously, that HRM Endeley’s body be moved back to his Mokunda Palace for traditional rites to be performed, including even immediate burial, why not?
    Chief Njie Mandengue of Wondjia village for instance swore that if the royal family of Mokunda village prefer to treat the paramount patriarch like “a commoner” he would not be part of any burial ceremonies that would be organized subsequently.
    HRH Njei Mandengue and most of the other chiefs and even some of the local elite, mustered strong that the remains of the paramount chief should not be left in the hands of medical doctors because chiefs do not operate within the realm of ordinary men.
    “Tradition does not allow for the nakedness of chiefs to be seen by ordinary people; chiefs are not ordinary people,” fumed another chief, insinuating that the myth that surrounds the institution of chief is completely eroded when a chief is laid in a public mortuary, among ordinary people, when he dies.
    According to HRH Chief Ngomba Francis Meende of Bonduma village, “chiefs do not die in Bakwerri land; they only travel and never return”.

    Like his many colleagues, chief Ngomba said chiefs are supposed to be buried only under very secret and special ciecumstances and only after the performance of indispensable traditional rites. 
     However, family members and some prominent Fako elite who were present at the mortuary maintained that HRM SML Endeley was a civilized and highly educated chief; he had other social and profesional caps apart from his traditional attributes.
    “if it was a mistake to have brought the paramount chief to the mortuary then the mistake has been made; there is no turning back,” said a member of the royal family, whose name we are withholding for obvious reasons.
    Another member of the late paramount chief’s family whose name we are also withholding, argued that “there is no such thing as chiefs do not die, they only disappear.” He said “those 3rd class chiefs who are insisting that the paramount chief be carried back to the palace for performance of traditional rites and immediate burial are only borrowing from the NW culture; they do not master the Bakwerri tradition and customs.”
    The Prince added that land surrender chiefs should not and cannot dictate how the Paramount Chief should be buried.
     “Do these land surrender chiefs think that the Paramount Chief of Buea belonged to the same class like them? These chiefs need to be reminded that the paramount chief was a complex and multi-dimensional personality: Apart from his traditional robe, the Paramount Chief was also a senior judge of a special status, a pharmacist, politician, churchman, socio-political gadfly and statesman; his funeral must reflect all these capacities, it must portray the dignity and grace of the Great King that he was,” concluded the paramount Prince.
    Another family member simply questioned rhetorically: “Would it be proper for the Paramount Chief to be buried when the person who signed the decision making him the Paramount Ruler of Buea- President Paul Biya, has not been informed of his passing? 
    A senior elite of Fako who supported the fact that the paramount chief should be kept in the mortuary, said that if the local chiefs decide to abandon the funeral to the family, the Paramount chief can still be buried by his junior colleagues of the judiciary, or even by the church or even the government (chiefs are auxiliaries of government).
    Besides, the elite noted that chief Endeley is not the first chief to be put in the mortuary: He recalled among others that when the late all-powerful and dreaded chief of Ossing Village in Manyu Division, HRH Nfor Arrey alias Nkrumah, died, he was kept at the Buea Mortuary, and Chief SML Endeley even went down to the mortuary to pay his last respects to his fallen friend and colleague.
    Also, the late Paramount Ruler of the Bakossi people, HRH Chief Ntoko of Nyassoso was also kept in the mortuary; idem for the late chief Fegusson Manga Williams of Victoria and the late Chief Otto Monono of great Soppo Buea. The list can continue without end, the elite said. 
    In the wake of the confusion and arguments at the mortuary, the Mayor of Buea, Patrick Ekema, simply walked out of the mortuary in unconcealed disappointment and vexation.     
    “People are busy running their mouths now. But when they will be asked later to contribute financially towards a befitting funeral for the Paramount Chief they will all disappear,” Mayor Ekema said.
    For his part, the SDO for Fako, Zang 111, was visibly flabbergasted at the deafening altercation that he was witnessing at the mortuary and over the remains of a Supreme Ruler of Chief Endeley’s standing. Like the mayor, Zang 111 also walked out of the mortuary on to the terrace, allowing the chiefs and elite to do what they thought was correct.
    “Ca m’etonne ce que je vois ici; le Chef Superieure ne merite pas ca.’’ (I am surprised at what i’m witnessing here; a paramount chief does not merit this), the SDO said in discernible disappointment.
    Other curious mourners who had also rushed to the mortuary that evening all stood watching in utter disbelief, as elite and chiefs exchanged bitter words and curses.
    Because of the confusion and conflicting views expressed, The Median’s Buea Correspondent Ajongakou Santos confronted one of the chiefs of Buea and sought to know from him how chiefs are supposed to be buried in Bakwerri land and how chieftaincy succession is done. He spoke to HRH Chief Ngomba Francis Meende of Bunduma village and he had this to say. Find interview below.