Part Two:Towards a Disintegration of the OROKO Tribe

The OROKO are a Divided People....I pondered hard over this issue for a longtime and with lots of tears in my eyes as many sad events came to mind, both past and present like the Balondo claiming not to be Oroko pushing the Lower Balue people to request for their own subdivision, the Bakundu People fighting with the Mbonge and pushing the Bakundu people to request for their own subdivision with headquarters in Bombe, the pipe-borne water supply debacle between Big Nganjo,Small Nganjo and Mabonji Bakundu or the Pondo Balue people refusing bulldozers from digging the road to Bisoro Balue.

I entered into deep thought while thinking about the damage that this reality does to our progress and for some reason I remembered a story.

I was boasting to a colleague about the grandeur of the Oroko and our Unity.This i supported with pictures of our cohesion taken during the Bana ba Oroko meeting of 2012 in Kumba and that was the beginning of a moment I will never forget. She burst into fiery laughter and clapped her hands with teary eyes. “Do you know how many pressure groups, chieftaincy diputes, boundary wars and backbiting are within the Oroko as we speak? Do you know how many Oroko children are not in school? What unity do you people have?Is Kumba an Oroko town?Why do you always hold Oroko meetings in Kumba?Can't you hold Oroko meetings in Konye, Mbonge, Bole, Isangele or Toko?Don't these towns have the same facilities as offered by Kumba?If they don't, what have you the Orokos done to avert the situation?Nonsense!” She fired these questions at me and not being able to contain herself after having heard what seemed like the most absurd thing I had ever said or pictures i have ever taken, she continued “Abeg, let me go home before we fight but remember you are not more Oroko than i am'.

What she asked me is what has since plagued me and it is what I ask you today. “Why are we the Oroko so divided?What has become of the loving fraternity we enjoyed in yester-years as battoh ba oroko?

I vividly remember those days as students of GSS (grammar school) Ekondo Titi when we danced to the GLORY of the Oroko every 11th February and how we admired the Oroko Students Association (OSA).I recall the rural council pickups and tippers as we crammed into them just to be part of either the December AGM or July/August cultural weeks, the emotions, the fun, culture and sagesse of the host villages.The swimming in the local village streams,the gala nites, the traditional dances, the clean-up campaigns, the football matches OSA versus the host village and the excursions to a selected neighbouring village.

But as other schools came,the monopoly of GHS and SAR Mundemba, GSS Ekondo Titi were lost and with it the Oroko cohesion, fraternity and congruence.We all had been used to converging on one spot and were able to define and broker our identity but with educational, administrative and political dichotomy, came our divergence, incongruity and division of the mighty Orokos. This instability has been in one way triggered by political barons and baronesses in their quest for representative positions or our so called 'intellectual lot' who see themselves as the liberators and messiahs or historical Oroko pathway/lineage libraries.

Consequentially, the Mbonge parliamentarian or Senator, doesn't defend the interests of the Oroko but that of the Mbonge clan especially the Lower Mbonge he hails from;Chief Justice doesn't defend the interest of the Oroko people but that of his native Balue, Barombi or Balondo; Another amazing example is when a sango Oroko DO could not see any reason to pacify a boundary dispute between a Balue Chief and a Mbonge village until he was taken to court; that an Oroko Manager doesn't see the importance of defending his fellow kinsmen apart from those of his native Batanga; that an Oroko principal of an Oroko high school refuses to attend an Oroko students association meeting but attends and is even a matron of her native Mbonge all students association dubbed Mboasa are very severe cases portraying the magnitude of our Oroko new found or contemporary incongruity. Many instances can also be cited where preferential treatment is given to a clan member to the detriment of a tribal member but i rest my case.

My question is,what has become of the Oroko virtue?Where are we heading to?Are we heading towards the disintegration of the Oroko or can we still catch up?Because looking back at when we used to have solely the Oroko meetings or Oroko students association OSA, there was harmony,joy and the sense of belonging.Now adays, the field scenarios are different with factions from each clan, village factions and pressure groups. There exists little or no Oroko meetings within and without Cameroon.What we do have are Mbonge, Balondo, Ngolo, Bakundu, Balue, Ekombe, Barombi etc etc and such student groups as MBOASA, BYDA, BASA,NUBASA, NASU, BAYA and you name the rest. These all began as small factions from mighty OSA and have grown into mother branches within our college campuses and overseas even threatening the very existence of the Oroko cohesion dynamics.

It is time,we regretted the setbacks these dichotomous appendages have caused us, the retardation and backwardness.We occupy the entire NDIAN Division and 90% of MEME Division, endowed with all complex brains, talents and natural resources but where are we,what are we,who are we,how are we and where are we going to?We have a painful past,a doubtful presence and an uncertain or unknown future.So let's stand up as one man for the interests of BANA BA OROKO.

Oroko Tribe,What is in this Chieftaincy Title?

Maybe i worry a lot about trivial things or i just seem to have a different view to happenings within the OROKO tribe.
I don't know but i always find myself wondering about what's in this Chieftaincy Title,such that it continues to divide and rule the Oroko Man.Is it the "Pa Chief"; "Goats"; Women or the power to sell village land that causes this frenzy, commotion and uproar with daggers-drawn everlasting disputes?
Within the past twenty-five years, the Oroko people have witnessed an unprecedented upsurge in Chieftaincy disputes.From the Bakundus to the Mbonges, Balues to the Bimas,Ngolos to the Batangas, the chieftaincy title war game, witch hunting, fighting and killings are not new to all of us.Many illustrious Oroko children have lost their lands, homes, positions and lives as a result of these disputes.Countless people have either been duped or misled into chieftaincy disputes only to come out more impoverished than before diving into this duel.As far as i know, the Oroko people don't have this inheritance roadmap but that doesn't mean that,we should fight, divide and kill each other because of a mere TITLE".
As mush as i try, i still cannot understand, the reasons for this in-house gambit and how far people can go just to be come a village chief within the Oroko.Until three months ago, i had never known that Bole Bakundu had two chiefs and two villages in one.

Take a look at Bafaka Balue chieftaincy dispute that claimed many lives and where blood brothers were tussling for this title.What about the war between late Mr Ottobanje and the current Chief Mbotake of Ekwe Balue?What about the events leading to the enthronement and coronation of the Iboko Chief?What about the Somalia of the Oroko Land (Bekatokor Balue)?Years after the demise of its former chief, Bekatakor Balue still lingers without a chief?The issue here is that, the majority of the villagers migrated from Bafaka Balue.So a Bafaka Balue elite whose blood brother is also the chief of Bafaka Balue,wants to be the chief of Bekatakor Balue.From all my journeys around the world, i have never seen such a thing were two brothers rule over two separate villages,or maybe it's another Bonaparte Hegemony being enacted.
Take a look at Nganjo Titi or Small Nganjo,were the villagers had chosen their chief after their chief was struck by river blindness.Then,a letter arrived from the DO ushering in another person and even informing them of a coronation date without a prior consultation.

And what of Bekora Barombi after the death of chief Ndengi!It was a do or die for the Bagdad of Oroko to get a new chief. I vividly recall the days leading to the consultation, voting and installation of their new chief.Bravo to you Bekora Barombi, despite all the bombs and bullets,you peacefully have a new chief.How come Bekora Barombi of all could democratically select a new chief and places like Mbonge Marumba still have two chiefs?The situation of Mbonge Marumba beats my imagination because Oroko People don't have inheritance,therefore, it is the will of the people to select their chief.What is in this chieftaincy,please tell me.

The same goes for Big Nganjo where the current chief like Obiang Ngema of Equatorial Guinea had to dethrone,detain and eventually cause the death of his maternal uncle, just to take up the chieftaincy title.What of Dikome Balue?Ibemi Bakundu?Dibonya Bakundu?Mbongo?Toko?Pondo Balue?And what of Mabonji Bakundu whose chief after winning the chieftaincy title, has abandoned his Mabonji Palace to live with his wife in Ngongo Bakundu?

The complicity of local DOs and SDOs in these chieftaincy disputes have caused and continue to steer Oroko villages into a downward poverty and underdevelopment trap.It has caused and still causing a drop in our living conditions, fall in village revenues, internal and external elite conflicts and social strife hence a break in social cohesion.Great and promising Oroko villages plus their projects have come into a standstill because of poor leadership, wrong chiefs and his councilors. Much of our village lands have been sold out to companies or private individuals by these unscrupulous individuals whose aim is financially stocking their potbellies, waving brooms, trending red winter-caps, driving plush cars, building luxurious homes and feasting with bandwagons of council of elders while hundreds of villagers go without lands to farm on, build on, roads to pass or water to drink.

It is time for the Oroko to turn the tides, select and get the right chiefs to rule them,instruct the local ENAM boys to back-off and let peace reign within our villages.
Maybe am wrong again but i know that,for every ten Oroko villages just one will be happy with their chief and that, most villagers happen not to greet their chiefs because their opinions didn't count during his selection.But,do we really have chiefs and do they incarnate the typical OROKO Man?Do they live up to the task or are they competent enough or just band boys?Maybe,we should give women too the possibility!
Thank you for your comment especially with a different viewpoint and let's make the debate great.