- Local Bakweri chiefs accuse royal family, elite of desecrating tradition
By Essan-Ekoninyam in Buea
 |
| HRH chiel SML Endeley was always jovial |
The date for the ‘royal burial’ was decided by the Endeley children, in concert with the Buea Traditional Council and some local elite, we learnt.
However, as the family members are concerting with some well meaning Buea elite, to fine-tune the funeral program with a view to giving the fallen paramount ruler a most befitting burial, some local chiefs of Buea have not stopped grumbling and complaining about the fact that tradition has not been respected as far as the burial of the paramount chief is concerned.
According to the chiefs of Buea, the paramount chief was suppose to have been buried long ago, and without any popular ceremonies.
The chiefs defend their claim by evoking a new custom that revises and supplements the old custom of the Bakweri people of Buea. By virtue of the new law, which the chiefs say was introduced by Paramount Chief SML Endeley himself and which was consensually endorsed by all the chiefs of Buea, bearing on the burial of chiefs, any chief who dies in the Buea area has to be buried immediately, by his peers. Also the burial of a chief is done in all secrecy, void of any public ceremonies.
The chiefs add that the immediate and secret burial of the chief does not mean that popular and befitting funeral ceremonies cannot be organized subsequently.
“The announcement of a chief’s passing is even supposed to be made only after the chief has been buried, by virtue of tradition,” noted one of the aggrieved chiefs, who remarked unfortunately that this custom that was introduced during the reign of the paramount ruler of Buea himself, has been violated only at his own death.
The Buea chiefs say as custodians of tradition they can not condone such manifest disrespect for the chieftaincy institution in Bakweri land. It is for this reason that some of the chiefs are threatening to boycott the burial of the paramount ruler.
It should be recalled that when the fallen paramount ruler was taken to the Buea hospital mortuary by family members immediately after he died on Tuesday 7 July 2015, a heated altercation ensued at the mortuary, with some local chiefs cursing the paramount ruler’s children for desecrating tradition by taking the paramount chief to a public mortuary.
The chiefs insisted that the paramount chief be taken back to his Palace and be buried immediately, as tradition demands.
Some of the chiefs who were present at the mortuary, argued strongly that the paramount chief’s children should respect the law that was made by their own father.
One of the chiefs recalled that when chief Mokossa of Bwitingi (a school principal) died he was buried immediately, without his wife and children even given the opportunity to see his corpse. The chief said this was done in strict respect of the law imposed by the Paramount Chief Endeley.
Despite the pressure from the local chiefs for the paramount ruler to be buried without further delay, Chief Endeley’s eldest son, Prince Charles Endeley, maintained that apart from his father’s royal crown, he had other capacities that cannot be undermined including the fact that he was first a lawyer, then a senior Judge of the Supreme Court among others. Prince Charles said his father’s burial must reflect all these robes.
A commentator whom we could not identify at the mortuary wondered aloud if the late chief of great Soppo, Chief Otto Monono, father of the current chief Etina Monono, was buried immediately when he died. He recalled that the late Chief Otto Monono was not only buried weeks after he died, he was also laid in state at his Great Soppo Palace for public viewing, It was the same case for the late Fegusson Manga Williams of Limbe.
It should however be stated that even as the confusion and controversies persists, the royal family and the elite of Buea are bent on burying the fallen Paramount ruler and Patriarch in the most befitting manner.
That is why a meeting of all well meaning Buea elitewas convened at the Buea council hall on Saturday to fine-tune the funeral program and also raise funds towards a befitting funeral for the paramount chief.
The Median also learnt on good authority that the eldest son of the paramount chief – Prince Charles Endeley, was in Yaounde last week to officially announce his father’s passing and present the tentative funeral program to the authorities.
The Prince accompanied by the secretary of the Buea traditional council, Sir Humphrey Monono, also attended a meeting of Bakweri elite, called by the former PM, the Rt. Hon. Senator Mafany Musonge, at his residence at Oyomabang, Yaounde.
Humphrey Monono goes horse-riding
Some Buea indigenes resident in Yaounde say they do not understand why it was Humphrey Ekema Monono and not Meoto Paul who had to accompany Prince Charles Endeley to the big offices in Yaounde. Many said as a former DICAB at the PM’s Office Meoto should have been the one to help Prince Charles do the rounds because he understands better how Yaounde functions.
Some commentators concluded that Humphrey Monono must have used his position as secretary of the Buea traditional council to convince Prince Endeley and accompany him to the Yaounde, just so that he (Humphrey Monono) can sell himself to the ‘political king-makers’, notably the PM and the DICAB at the Presidency, Martin Belinga Eboutou, towards a possible ministerial appointment.
Buea indigenes in Yaounde speculated that Hon. Meoto will certainly not be happy with Prince Charles Endeley, giving that it is he (Meoto) who is said to have been picking up most of the urgent bills for the paramount chief especially when he took ill.
We learnt that Prince Charles and Sir Humphrey Monono made stop-overs at the PM’s Office, the CPDM Party Scribe’s office, the office of the Minister of Justice, the Cabinet of the Presidency and at the Supreme Court.
We gathered also that the PM hailed the family for coming over to Yaounde to inform the authorities of the passing of one of the greatest and most respected Chiefs of Cameroon. Philemon Yang acknowledged that Chief Endeley was not an ordinary chief, that he commanded a lot of respect from the authorities. That is why the PM recommended that everything should be done to give the Paramount ruler of Buea a most befitting burial.
No comments:
Post a Comment