| Marie Progres Njee and Ida Njee |
A TRIBUTE TO GRAND UNCLE
We will always remember you for your kindness, loving nature, gentle and soft ways of talking. We believe that you are not dead but resting in the bosom of the Almighty.
Grand Uncle up on till now, we cannot believe that you are absent.
We recall your many advices to us and your interest in our affairs.
Adieu Uncle,
Marie Progres Njee and Ida Njee
Grand daughters
| Solomon Azoh-Mbi |
Master of Verve and Vivacity
I am deeply saddened by the passing of the beloved Professor Martin Z. Njeuma and hereby convey my sincere condolences to Dr. Mrs. Dorothy L. Njeuma and the entire family.
Professor Martin Z. Njeuma taught history with a passion and flair all his own. To many, history is about a dead past. With him, history comes alive as the endless flow of little and large events that form the past inform the present and transform the future. He carried the art of deciphering the factors and forces shaping history to subtle and sublime heights, often delving into the deep dark alleys of the human soul and psychic to bring out anthropological and philosophical interpretations to historical developments.
He was an avid observer of detail, and his analyses of the human experience in history were always penetrating, perspicuous and persuasive. He exuded cool charisma and charm, was noted for his exuberance in good cheer, and seemed most comfortable in the soft shimmers of discretion. With all his eclectic knowledge and learning, he was unmistakably humble and meek in bearing, maintaining at all times a healing presence and personality. He was always polite and courteous towards his students whom he seemingly saw as seminal gems of the very history he taught.
Now that he has taken his place in history, may his life and example be a lighthouse on the shores of the turbulent sea of history, guiding and inspiring all who navigate through its creeks and shoals. Fare thee well, dear Professor; Fare thee well, O master of verve and vivacity!
Solomon AZOH-MBI (Former Student)
High Commissioner of
| Maryl Brown |
In Memory of Dr. Zach Njeuma.
It is extremely sad to learn about Brother Zach's death. The
Maryl Brown
| Marc Jason Gilbert |
Tribute from AHA Perspectives and World Hsitory Association Bulletin
Professor Martin Zachary Njeuma
CAPTION. At right, historian Martin Njeuma (1940-2010) talks with a farmer who is wearing a Chinese-made replica of an American souvenir Apollo XIII Mission Control jacket in a picture that first appeared in AHA Perspectives more than two decades ago illustrating the issue of globalization (author's photograph).
Among world historians of a certain age, hearing the name “Martin” is enough to trigger an immediate response, one of profound love and respect. That no last name is required to evoke such sentiments suggests the magnitude of his impact, both personal and professional, on his colleagues in the field of world history. That impact began with his substantive early scholarship on West African history, but it is owed chiefly to his influence on a small group of scholars who worked with him in the Republic of the Cameroon at the behest of the American Historical Association in 1982 and on his continuing influence on them and others until illness and his sudden passing on April 28, 2010 of this year prevented him from officially consulting on the selection of historical documents that were to be a part of the Republic of the Cameroon’s national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of its post-colonial reunification in October.
In the early 1980s, the American Historical Association hoped to address the difficulty of placing all of Africa within the most common macro-historical approaches by sending a delegation of 12 American scholars of diverse regional specializations (China, India, and the Atlantic World among them) to study for six weeks in the Republic of the Cameroon, which has long been reputed to be "Africa in miniature." Cameroon had come by this sobriquet honestly due to its varied geography (ranging from rainforest to savannah to desert), ethnography (from Fulbe/Fulani to Pygmy), languages (both French and English as well as traditional Central and West African languages) and religions (Christianity and Islam as well as indigenous belief systems). It also possesses an archetypical experience of indigenous state formation, of colonial conquest and administration, of the First World War, of the Mandate System, of Negritude, of Afro-Asian independence movements, of the Cold War, and of post-colonial society, economy and policy.
It was the AHA's hope that this delegation (which preferred to call itself the "Cameroon Study Group") would re-conceptualize the rich content of African history along broad themes that might be used to improve the teaching of Africa in the
The AHA chose Dr. Martin Njeuma, then Head of the History Department and Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at
Martin quickly demonstrated that his selection by the AHA as host of its
In retrospect, it was natural that during these experiences the group began to discuss amongst themselves the larger theoretical possibilities suggested by the evidence, comparative and otherwise, Martin had enabled them to collect. That evidence confirmed for some and suggested to others that a broader approach to all of human history, not merely that of
Shortly after discharging their AHA responsibilities, many of the Cameroon Study Group helped found the World History Association (WHA), an AHA affiliate. Group member Kevin Reilly was elected as its first president and the late Raymond Lorantas was selected as the first editor of the World History Bulletin; both benefited from the sage advice of fellow group-member, John Russell-Wood. Other members of the Cameroon Study Group, including Sarah Hughes and Lynda Noreen Shaffer, served on the WHA’s first Executive Council, as did this writer, who is currently WHA Vice-President/President-Elect.
Martin was more than a one-time mid-wife to a new field of history. Over the years, he did yeoman service as the WHA’s liaison to the African academic world, thereby helping to cement internationally the movement now called world or global history. He also continued to contribute of the field of African Studies, writing An Introduction to the History of the Cameroon: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1990), and numerous chapters in books, articles and essays. As a result, he was the recipient of Fulbright–Hays and Rockefeller grants (to name but two of the many he received internationally) and was in demand as a visiting professor in both Europe and the
Martin will always hold a special place within the world history community alongside a small group of distinguished world historians whose contributions are called to mind merely by mention of their first names. These include “Phil” [Philip Curtin, late and also deeply lamented] and “Bill” [William McNeill]. His family, which included his distinguished educator spouse of 42 years, Dr. Dorothy Limunga Njeuma, often called him Zac, but to those world historians who knew him, he will always be “Martin” and, so long as memory serves, there will be only one.
Marc Jason Gilbert
NEH Endowed Chair in World History
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
| Proffessor Beban Sammy Chumbow |
TRIBUTE TO PROF. MARTIN ZACHARY NJEUMA
The passing away of Professor Martin Njeuma is a great loss to African History, Cameroonian scholarship and the nation, for he was indeed an icon as a scholar of multiple international dimensions . He was above all, a senior brother and friend indeed.
On receiving the news, I sat down, going over memories of the life of the man, Martin Zachary Njeuma, as I knew and experienced him. My mind was flooded with myriads of images, too many to be fully apprehended and comprehended, especially with sorrow and emotions doing a lot of damage to lucid recollections. However, four dimensions of the multidimensional reality that is no more are compelling enough to be recorded here.
Martin Njeuma and Pan-Cameroonism
Martin Njeuma was a faithful, loyal nationalist, an engaged and committed scholar of the First Republic, even if apparently effaced by the coat of scholarship which he clung to so dearly. In fact, my first contact with the man was rather with his reputation.
At the dawn of reunification in1964, secondary school leavers in Victoria and Buea informally met and naturally discussed the impact of the new political order (reunification) they were immersed in. Some, like Roy Ndifang and Ndiva Kale would punctuate every sentence of their discourse with “as Martin Njeuma says in ‘The Origins of Pan-Cameroonism’…’’
This prompted the rest of us to find out who Martin Njeuma was and what he had to say about this reunification phenomenon in which we were swimming . With only one available copy (in those days before photocopy machines), this precious stencilled document (apparently curled out from the author’s Masters thesis at the University of Ghana, Legon), went from hand to hand, bearing the imprints of many hands and loosing pages in the process. In short, it was for many, a doctrinal document and some of us copied huge chunks of it presumably for self edification but ostensibly to enable us compete favourably at meetings with eloquent, well- read would- be historians and political scientists among us. Njeuma in this work expounded and analysed what irredentist militant re-unification pundits of the UPC had termed the ‘Kamerun idea’ or the dream of reconstituting the partitioned German protectorate into a modern democratic Federal Republic. Martin Njeuma however decided to talk rather of the ‘Cameroon idea’ often referring to it as the ‘Cameroon aspiration’.
In retrospect, this change of name reflected Martin’s ideological distance from the methods of the other nationalists of the UPC persuasion, more precisely, the fact that he was for reunification with a presumably different content and approach than those of the ‘Kamerun idea’ and One Kamerun!
Martin Njeuma: The prince of Yola
Having met Martin later and interacted with him for several years, I made an important and astonishing discovery in Yola (Nigeria) in 1992 at a conference on the Nigeria-Cameroon Border. The conference brought together participants from both countries to adopt new ways to manage the 1600kms common frontier with the understanding that what we have in common is more than what divides us. We the scholars were to provide administrators and government officials with the historical, geographical, economic and ethno- linguistic evidence of the natural ties between the two countries which make us brothers (divided by an artificial colonial boundary) and not foes.
We arrived the majestic court of the palace of the Emir (Lamido) of Yola and protocol ushered the Vice president of Nigeria, our Speaker of the National Assembly, ministers, governors and administrators (prefets) from both countries to bow and pay their respect to the Emir sited on the enormous throne of his ancestor, the great Adama, founder of the ADAMAWA empire that straddles Cameroon and Nigeria.
Then we the scholars came forward. As Martin Njeuma moved forward in company of Prof Asiwaju of Nigeria, his Majesty rose from his throne and walked majestically with excitement. I assumed he was going for his ‘country man’, Asiwaju, especially as he was the President of the Nigerian Boundary Commission. Surprise of surprises! His majesty wrapped his hands round our very own Martin Njeuma in a long warm embrace and they were lost in a ‘two man talk’ that defied all protocol!
Indeed Protcol stopped, confused, for after the Emir, it was the turn of some of the royal courtiers to move forward and hug the man of the day. We were surprised but it was quite obvious. Were he interested in political power, Martin Njeuma could win an election in Yola any day!
To cut a long story short, when we were alone, Martin explained to me that he was actually a prince of the Yola dynasty. He was adopted as son by the late Emir of Yola, father of the current Emir because of the wonderful services done for the people of Adama. He lived in the palace in the sixties doing research and the current Emir then prince, lived with him as his brother and they ‘did a lot of things together’. So, what looked like a bridge of protocol was actually a normal royal family reunion which is above all protocol or at least has a separate protocol order. It dawned on us that, surely, Martin Njeuma cannot be claimed by Cameroon alone.
Prof Martin Njeuma : Pillar of Ngaoundere Anthropos
Prof Martin Njeuma played a major and distinguished role in the creation, management and, functioning of the renown NGAOUNDERE Anthropos Research and Training Project between the University of Tromso in Northern Norway and the University of Ngaoundere in Northern Cameroon. The project with an annual budget of over one hundred million franc cfa had Prof. Martin Njeuma adopted by the university of Ngaoundere as the professorial counterpart of the Professors of our Tromso University partners even though he was not a full time staff of the university of Ngaoundere. All Rectors (Vice Chancellors) of the university of Ngaoundere before and after me respected this arrangement which gave Martin Njeuma responsibility for full involvement with the Post graduate programme as lecturer, theses supervisor and examiner both in Ngaoundere and Tromso (Norway) since1992. Thus, Martin Njeuma has been a pre-eminent pillar in the development of Post Graduate studies in Ngaoundere quite apart from his contributions to Yaounde and Buea. The research has distinguished itsself by the number of books, scientific journals and thesis published as a result of knowledge generated by teams supervised by Professor Njeuma and others.
Prof Martin Njeuma : The internationally Acclaimed Scholar.
Because of the immense volume and high quality of his work, Professor Njeuma was very much in demand as a keynote speaker at international conferences on African History or Social Sciences and as short term lecturer in various universities, He had an active involvement with the Council for Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) with headquarters in Dakar as editor of one of its Journals, AFRICA ZAMANI, a major journal of African History committed to re-writing African History from the African perspective not with the spectacles of a colonial visitor who would claim to have ‘discovered' rivers and mountains which existed and people who lived long before his arrival in Africa.
He was a regular academic visitor to major universities in Britain especially the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). In Germany, virtually all universities with a major African Studies Centre (Institut Afrikanistiche) took turns to host him, notably Frankfurt, Köln, Hamburg, Bayreuth, Berlin etc. As mentioned earlier, his trips took him to Norway (Bergen, Oslo and Tromso), Sweden, France, etc.
When I told Martin that even though we are in different fields, I have never been anywhere in Europe without some one coming up to ask me if I knew Martin Njeuma and that he seems to have been everywhere. He retorted ‘Send a thief to catch a thief!’ (If you were not going ‘everywhere’ yourself you would not have known that I have been going ‘everywhere’) This, however, gave him the opportunity to explain to me something we have never understood about him. Why did he take anticipated early retirement from the university?
One of the reasons (and there were probably others, he explained, was that voluntary early retirement was to allow him respond appropriately to the many demands and solicitations from the national and especially international community to share the fruits of his research and experience in African History.
His willingness to take this step which by no means guaranteed a better financial independence than that offered by a university salary (given the unpredictable nature of invitations), is a testimony of his commitment to scholarship as productivity in knowledge generation and dissemination.
Martin Njeuma has been honoured at the international level by many institutions, but perhaps the best international accolade, in my judgement, is the 1993 award; the American Historical Association (AHA) Award as ‘Honorary Foreign Member of the AHA, a unique distinction and honour reserved for non-US citizens with a “distinguished scholarship and assistance to American scholarship’. This honour to professor Njeuma is exceptional and distinguished in that, according to the AHA award table there have been only 100 recipients for the award from 1886 to 2009 (123 years) and ‘Martin Njeuma of Cameroon’ is listed as the 83rd recipient (in1993) and the only African scholar in the midst of a select fraternity of great historians of Europe (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Asia (Japan)
The departure of Professor Martin Njeuma to eternity is to us untimely, even if he has attained the biblical ‘three scores and ten’.
We loved him dearly and he still had much to offer. In fact, there must be manuscripts lying in his study that have to be published posthumously.
To Dorothy, Embelle, Christine and the family, Lucy and I send our heartfelt sympathy and condolences as we share your loss.
Nevertheless, let us take solace in the fact that Martin Zachary Njeuma has left an enduring legacy for posterity. May the Lord graciously and mercifully welcome Him to his kingdom. And to His name be glory and praise, Amen
Beban Sammy Chumbow
Professor Beban Sammy Chumbow
Vice President Cameroon Academy of Sciences
Former Rector/ Vice Chancellor University of Yaounde 1,
University of Ngaoundere, University of Dschang
Member of the Nucleus of the African Academy of languages
BP 8029 Yaounde, Cameroon
