“Remembering Bernard Fonlon”

By G. D. Killam, University of GuelphDr Bernard Fonlon’s contribution to Cameroonian life in politics and education is salutary and will remain so. He held important ministries and built for Cameroon an airlines and telecommunications network, a public transport service, a health and welfare system - all of which make a proud legacy. His tireless effort in securing the reputation of the Department of African Literature, the only such Department in the world, adds to the uniqueness of Dr. Fonlon’s career and further establishes his vision.

He had an impressive number of “firsts”: he was the first Cameroonian to receive a Ph.D., and he directed the first Ph.D. thesis within Cameroon. He was the first Cameroonian to receive national honours in Nigeria, Germany and Tunisia and he was proud of the fact that the D.Litt. bestowed upon him by the University of Guelph in 1986 was the first received by a Cameroonian, and was the one he most cherished. All these achievements are well documented. Dr. Fonlon’s spirit will move through Cameroon after his death as it did when he was alive - he was “doctor”, “professor” and his voice rang with the humanity of his soul throughout Cameroon. But it is the personal loss that one feels that possesses one at this time. He was a close, personal friend and colleague and our collaboration on various ventures over the past five years not only brought us close together but revealed a common sympathy of purpose and understanding. We travelled together in Cameroon and found our time comfortably spent in the discussion of a wide range of literary and cultural matters and I found myself, as it were, a learner at his feet. It was not for nothing that he was described as “the Socrates of Africa”. His hopes for the country, revealed in his untiring work on its behalf, reflect his faith in the Socratic method. More than that, it is at a time like this when he is dead - too young at sixty-one years - that the little unremembered acts of kindness and consideration and courtesy are once again remembered. These provide both a strong sense of loss and grief and at the same time promise a consolation for the future in remembering him and his affection.

Comments

[TAKWI Derrick]

Dear Father,
It's toughtful reading about you. I will like that "reincarnetionly", more of your inspiring text be made available. I and many other young minds like digesting them.
May His Spirit be with you and help us live your days here on earth.
REST IN HIM!!.

[edward bello]

Hello Members,
Bernard Fonlon is a great living soul in our organisation.