Why a Manual on the Legacies of Prof. Bernard Fonlon?

By AKARA Ticha (ed). Manual on the Legacies of Prof. Bernard Fonlon (Forthcoming)

The other day I was listening to one of the world’s most venerated radio stations – The BBC - and it was a lengthy interview with Kenya’s best known man of letters – NGUGI WA THIONG’O! NGUGI received so much attention from around the globe for such a long time following the attack on his Nairobi apartment, where his wife was raped some weeks back. I felt jealous of the attention Kenya was receiving thanks to Mwalimu WA THIONG’O and imagined what kind of tribute he would have received if the worst befell him during that attack.

I tried to flash back to the days after August 26, 1986, when Prof. Bernard NSOKIKA FONLON died, racking all depths of my imagination to figure out if the society has done enough to immortalise a man who would have been a mentor to Kenya’s Wa THIONG’O, a sage whose vision was so profound, whose pen was so instructive, whose out look was so nationalist and whose thinking class comprised the Socrates, Shakespeare, Molière, Victor Hugo – interalia, and whose moral torch – beamed with the kinds of rays flashed by Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Thomas Becket, and the list goes on! Mr. NGALIM Eugene – who is the Director of Cameroon Youths Forum for Peace – CAMYOSFOP – met me to know if I could accept to edit a manual on the legacies of the late professor, not because he knew me to be any expert in the thought of Fonlon – or a Fonlonist. In fact, I have not even taken two sips from the pool of intellectual and moral wealth left behind by the venerated scholar, whose name, some of his contemporaries and admirers, swore would never fizzle out after his demise. I am talking about men of great intellectual fortune such as Professor Anomah Ngu, and Professor Daniel Lantum, who erected the Bernard Fonlon Society. These are the Fonlonists, whose wealth of Knowledge in Fonlonism, will enable each admirer of Prof Fonlon uncover the myths behind this baobab, not necessarily reading every piece of his own works but by looking through summary notes of the things the late politician and scholar said, taught and fought against. How many young African researchers have a hint that there is a website dedicated to Professor Fonlon – that is www.fonlon.org - designed by two of his admirers in Chicago, Mr. Dibussi Tande and Dr. Emil Mondoa, whose efforts we salute? Do Cameroonians know about the FONLON-NICHOLS AWARD, set up largely by scholars of the University of Alberta in Canada, with the support of the Provincial Government of Alberta, to recognise the works of the departed exotic intellectual? What have some of the winners of this award such as Wole Soyinka, Ken Saro Wiwa, Mungo Beti, Réne Philombe, Were Were Liking and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o had to say about the man in academic “Gown” who sat on the political “throne” as Professor Lantum puts it, in one of his writings on Fonlon? Why did Minister Fonlon lead an ascetic life, and where are the reviews of his works? Did he leave behind many unpublished works, and who could help bring some of these works to the limelight? These are the simple, yet intriguing questions seeking A-B-C answers, which a manual on the legacies of the late essayist, writer and poet would put at the disposal of the new generation. Please, Cameroonians and friends of the celebrated man of letters, let us immortalise the memory of one of the greatest thinkers of our time, more than ever before!

Comments

[UTPAL SAHA]

dear sir / madam
i wish to receive all the interviews with ngugi wa thiongo taken by anybody ,i shall be grateful if u can forward me those interviews
thanks
arun