TRIBUTE TO HON. CHIEF FORTEH ATEGWA JOHN FROM
CHIEF FONKWETTA ATEM AMBROSE (LINKÖPING-SWEDEN)
This is a tribute of a son to a father, of a youth to an elder and of student to his mentor. This is the tribute of HRH Chief Fonkwetta Atem Ambrose to Hon. Chief Forteh Ategwa John
I went to the internet on the evening Wednesday 12 march 2008, after a very tiring laboratory session to check my mails as usual. I saw a mail from Ndungatet yahoo group and without reading the titled, I clicked opened the mail but remained like a man in coma for some time when I read the caption *HRH chief Forteh of Njeh 3 corners Alou Is no more!* words from Forji Slyvanus.
Who was Late Hon. Chief Forteh to me?
I grew up as a child and I did not know Hon Chief Forteh but had always heard people linked him to the then Grammar School Fontem. I remembered being told that when he was made the pioneer principal of Grammar School Fontem, he went round begging the indigents of the then Fontem Subdivision to send their children home for school. Some were admitted without first School and many are in well placed positions today. I remembered being told a story of how the entire village came out and lined the street from "Mami water" till three corners to receive him when he was returning from abroad in the eighties. Such an honoured is rare to find today except politically motivated. All these stories inspired me as a young Ndungatet secondary school student in CCAST Bambili and so my dreamt was to meet him one day.
I finally met him in his house in Dschang in 1991 when I went visiting with my uncle’s wife. The calm manner with which he received me, as a young school boy further gave me an idea of the man I had learned of. I saw in him a good leader as he capture people with a smile as did Bolingbroke in Shakespear`s King Richard II.
Bolingbroke's smile with the common man in
My first closed contact with Hon. Chief Forteh came on the 27th August 1995, when as a member of parliament he personally attended my enthronement ceremony in my palace in Njenabang presided over by Late Fon Foto Asongna I. He also played an important rule to ensure that I took my rightful position as the heir of the Njenabang Chiefdom. In October 1995, I got admission into the
While in Yaoundé as a parliamentarian, he continued to inspire me to study. He will even invite me to his office at Hotel de Depute. When he moved out of parliament in 1997 and was made director of commerce in the Ministry of Commercial and Industrial Development, he continued to receive me in his office. This honour accorded me inspired me to work harder as he had always made me to know that one’s education can take one anywhere. Some of the letters he wrote to me using the national assembly leader head are still lying in my box in Buea as testimony of his love and care for me.
When he retired in 2004 and took up permanent residence at home, he became very influential in the development of Ndungatet. As a true father and a traditional mentor he will always guide me on how to perform certain traditional issues as well as assisting me in many occasions. I have learned to be a good traditional ruler but regret he will not be there to see me put his lessons in practice.
Farewell Honourable Chief Forteh
Hon. Chief Forteh, you had always advised me to look for admission and study abroad but I told you that I am a traditional ruler and because I love my people and my country, I will live and serve my people. After obtaining my Master degree, I was jobless and so I decided against my wish to go abroad than to remain rejected in my own country. For this reason I left Cameroon for Europe without informing you and today you have left this world probably without knowing that I am no longer in Cameroon or may be angry with me for not informing you but as I am far off to achieve what you had always wanted me to do, I hope you will forgive me.
Hon. I am unable to attend your funeral but I will keep vigil in honour of your soul. I know that if you had the power to control your faith, you won’t have died now. As Einstein, a famous physicist puts it, “Everything is controlled by forces over which we have no control. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player”.
I take much solace from another statement, this time from St Thomas Aquinas who said: “quid movetur ab alio movetur – what is moved is moved by an unmoved mover”. I also remember the words of Augustine of Hippo who said “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.” Above all I remember the words of Jesus “come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt: 11:28).
Hon. Chief Forteh, it is normal that no one can live on earth forever, everyone will return to dust though not at the same time. This is your turn and today or tomorrow may be ours. I miss you a lot but you had to go to prepare a place for your fellow men
Hon. Chief Forteh, you have fought a good fight, you ran a good race, and may you now find rest in God’s mansion. I make my prayers through the blood of Jesus, that blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.
My Hero, go in peace
HRH Chief Fonkwetta Atem Ambrose
Division of Medical Biosciences
Done at Linköping
March 18th, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment