Bernard Nsokika Fonlon: Glowing Memories of the Master

By Martin Jumbam

Revised and reproduced from Cameroon Life, Vol. II, N° 7, October 1992, pp.41-43 where it was originally published under the title "Bernard Nsokika Fonlon: Six Years After"

It's a rainy and soggy morning in the city of Douala. The day is the 26th; the month is August; the year is 1992. For several days now, endless garlands of words have been winding their way through my mind as I reflect on a fitting tribute to pay my Master, the Yaounde University Professor Emeritus, Doctor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, of glorious memory. But, somehow those words have failed to deflower the virgin sheet of paper before me.

Had the Muse been more generous to me this past week, I would no doubt have come up with a poem, a veritable hymn of praise to Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, who, on this day, six years ago, slept, never to wake up again. That was in Canada. May the Lord Almighty wrap Bernard’s feet with fur! Last Memories Since my Muse has taken leave of me, I’ll merely lift up a few memories of Dr. Fonlon from the shelves of my mind and reflect on them for a while. My last memories of him? Well, that was either in late 1984 or early 1985 at Dr Joseph’s Ngongwikuo’s residence in Yaounde. I was among a group of friends Dr Ngongwikuo had invited to his residence for a dinner in Dr Fonlon’s honour. I don’t remember exactly what the occasion was, but I recall Dr Ngongwikuo expressing his appreciation to Dr Fonlon for all that he had done for him and his family over the years. If my memory still serves me right, Dr Ngongwikuo’s wife had then just returned from studies abroad and her husband wanted to publicly acknowledge Dr. Fonlon’s role in fostering her studies, or something along those lines. Responding to the toast in his honour, ‘Prof.’, as many of his colleagues called him, said he was flattered by all the good things Dr Ngongwikuo had said about him. He then lauded Dr. Ngongwikuo’s novel, Taboo Love, which, he said, he had drawn a wealth of information about the Kom culture. Click here to print or download complete article in PDF format

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[MISS JOY UNONGO]

FROM THE DESK OF MISS JOY UNONGO
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
FOREIGN REMMITTANCE DEPT.
BANQUE INTERNATIONALE DU ABIDJAN
ABIDJAN, COTE D,IVOIRE

Attn: Dr Bernard Nsokika Fonlon,

With due respect and huminity, I write to you this
information.I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of Banque Internationale du Abidjan . I am writing following the impressive information about you through one of my friends who run a consultancy firm in your country. He assured me of your capability and reliability to utilise this businees opportunity.

In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of
U.S $17m US dollars (seventeen millionUS dollars) . In
an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers
who died along with his entire family in november 1999
in a plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been
expecting his next of kin to come forward and claim his
money because we cannot release it unless somebody
applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and
policies but unfortunately we learnt that his
supposed next of kin or relation died along with
him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the
claims. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this businness known to you so that you will aply as the relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement and releaseof the money to you since nobody is coming forth and I don't want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

According to our Banking policies and guideline here
which stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed
after five years, the money will automatically be
transfered into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund.
The request of a foreigner as a relation of the deseased in this business is due to the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an IVOIREAN cannot stand as a relation of a foreignerI have taught it wise to give you 25 % of this money as your own share in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 5% will be for re-embursement of any expenses incured during the curse of the transaction and 70% would be for me.There after I will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated.

Therefore to enable the immediate trnansfer of this
fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the
bank as relation of the deceased indicating your private telephone and fax number for easier and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted .

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax
or email the text of the application. I will not fail
to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and you should not entertain any atom of fear as all the required documents the bank will need from you,I will send them to you and do not fail to get back to me first before answering any question from the bank and I assure you that I will use my possition in the bank to actualise this dream but please,do not implicate me by letting people know about this business until our aim is acheived because I stand the rik of loosing my job without benefit if our bank gets to hear any news about my involvement in this information.You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.Trusting to hear from you
immediately.

Your's faithfully,
FROM THE DESK OF MISS JOY UNONGO
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
FOREIGN REMMITTANCE DEPT.