Prof. Martin Zachary Njeuma

When we were transferred from Yaounde I to begin the Anglo-Saxon tradition with the creation of UB in 1993, some of us were lucky to land on his feet. He set the precedence which will forever remain embedded in our strides.
It is surely a loss but his legacy and work lives on. History folks will agree with me that to have taught Historical research methods at UB at inception, meant that precedence!

Gilbert Lo-oh Mbeng

MHP,University Of Maryland

Adieu Prof.

                    You will never die because you selflessly shared your knowledge worldwide and this knowledge planted will continue to sprout in different parts of the world.  Your humor and well-told stories will continue to induce a smile/laughter wherever your name is mentioned. You lived and will continue living. Sleep on and take your rest...

Adieu, mon Prof.

Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

TRIBUTE TO

LATE PROFESSOR MARTIN ZACHARY NJEUMA

The death of Professor Martin Zachary Njeuma on Wednesday, 28 April 2010 in Yaounde came as a shock to the University of Buea community.  This is so because of the immense contributions he made to this institution from its establishment in 1993 with him as one of the foundation pillars.  He served as the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1993 – at the trying moments of laying the foundation for the new university and gave that faculty intellectual and academic exposure to the rest of the world.  As Dean, he coordinated important seminars including one on the funding of the university.  He was elected into the Council of the University of Buea as a representative of Professors.  Besides, he headed the University of Buea Development Fund (UBDEF) team to Douala to source for contributions from the civil society to develop the University of Buea.  That trip yielded fruits and the UBDEF initiative paved the way for infrastructural development in the institution.  He did not only go out for funds to develop the University, but also made financial contributions towards developing the institution.

The Faculty of Arts through his intervention received assistance in the form of computers, scanners, a camera, beamer etc from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.  We gratefully recognize Professor Njeuma’s contribution to the development of the postgraduate programme and his involvement in capacity building in the Department of History many years after retirement.

Earlier on Professor Njeuma served as the Director of the National Archives Buea, West Cameroon in 1970 and gave this store-house of knowledge an outstanding organizational structure and a befitting image acknowledged by researchers both within Cameroon and from all over the world.  We laud his immense contributions as a member of the Cameroon team negotiating the rectification of the Cameroon/Nigeria boundary and especially to the return of the Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroon after the International Court of Justice ruling.

Professor Njeuma’s sterling scholarly contributions have left an indelible mark in academia in general and the historical science in particular.  He achieved this through publications and lectures in institutions of higher learning in Cameroon, Europe and America.  Among his publications, co-publications and edited works are his classic Fulani Hegemony in Yola (Old Adamawa) 1890-1902, St Joseph’s College Sasse Cameroon, Valiant Soldiers from Fako, Introduction to the History of Cameroon in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, The Power of Knowledge, Origins of Pan-Cameroonism, Studies on the Sokoto Caliphate, The Pan-Kamerun Movement, 1949-61, Extending and Expanding Historical Knowledge in Cameroon:  A Methodology for National History, The Fulbe Factor in Northern Cameroon among others.

He will be sorely missed by our Community and his many friends at home and abroad.

For and on behalf of the

University of Buea Community,

Professor Vincent P.K. Titanji

Vice-Chancellor

Tribute to Uncle Zac…

…Uncle Zee when I started living with you and Aunty Limunga after we lost our mom in 1990 you immediately embraced us like your children. Being the first father figure in my life I was completely amazed at how much you made it easy to talk to you.

You followed up on my academics, my achievements, continuously praising and encouraging every little step forward. I will always recall fondly my journey through University of Yaounde I;  visiting at Etoa Meki ; living in Governors street; driving to church every Sunday, all the funny things you would say, exclaiming in Hausa, Douala; all the advice you always gave, and asking my opinion or what I thought;  and the stories you shared about your younger days. You always advised never to assume but ask, never think for someone else and to always thank even if you were paying for the service. You were always ever so humble and people would always pick that first about you.

You were very funny, I remember one time on your birthday, we decided to surprise you and act out different sketches about you. Between all of us at G-street, there were so many humorous aspects. I remember you laughed so hard until you had tears in your eyes and almost on your knees sitting on your usual sofa.

Uncle Zee, I want to thank you for allowing me be part of your life, I want to thank you for the many phone calls we exchanged, even while you were ill, yet sounding so jovial and also all the chatting online! Thank you for the baby’s gift thru Uncle Sam… that was just you making me feel special like you always did for many others… and always calling me “my Judith”. I will always cherish that and all the fond memories you have left with us.

Knowing you, you must be watching everyone now from your heavenly corner smiling and seeing ‘the peculiar’ which only you saw in people. I will miss you, Uncle Zee, but I am glad you are safely home with your Father where there is no more pain and no medications.

May eternal peace be yours in God’s bosom until we meet again.

Judith                                                                     

REFLECTIONS

Remembering My Friend – Professor Martin Zac NJEUMA

Nwayi,

As one of your very close friends, it is in order for me to share with the world the sentiments in my soul aroused by your passing. 

We met at the beginning of 1954 when we both were seeking admission to Sasse College.  The 56 years following our meeting has seen our friendship grow from strength to strength and at the time of your passing we had become the closest of brothers. 

I remember our days in London.  Whenever we could afford the time, you and Limunga on the one hand and I and my spouse on the other hand competed fiercely at the game of monopoly.  It had to be “strictly by the rules”.

I remember very well when I had major surgery at MGH, Boston.  You were the first to call to wish me a speedy recovery.  You told me, it was not yet time for either of us to go.    

When my parents died, you were there to support all the way.  We were inseparable.

I admired your brilliance and strength of character.  When you felt strongly that the authorities at UB had failed to give you the due credit for didactic material you had helped engineer to UB, you respected the decision the authorities had taken though your conviction on the subject remained unchanged.  

Just a few weeks ago, you told me your daughters had arranged a holiday for you to visit Egypt with them.   This offer from your daughters brought out to the fore the tremendous love you had for your children and your spouse.  You fully well appreciated the effort, the expense and the affection the children had put together to make the plans for the holiday possible.  Even though your health showed signs of failing, you were determined to make the trip to Cairo to savour the affection the companionship with the children would have brought.

I remember the number of times you told me how much your children, your spouse, your family meant to you.  Perhaps more than most people, I know what they meant to you. 

You often said to me that we are victims of our success.  I shared with you the joys of some of the great triumphs of your life and felt your heartbeat when despair seemed to take hold of  you.  Today, I see clearly what you meant.  Victims truly we may be but I doubt that you would have wished it any other way.

Nwayi, my dear brother, our fraternal ties will remain for ever.  You were brave, intelligent and generous.  I have the confidence that your foresight and your reflections about the life hereafter must have been prepared for well in advance of today.

I know your generosity, your kindness, your love will all combine to lead you prepare a worthy place for us as we follow you into the grand beyond.

Once again, Nwayi, farewell

Sam EKONTANG ELAD

Chairman Cameroon OIC

Buea