280. The Bakweri cultural chant: “i-nye na liiya nanu” (Let me be as I am).
“i-nye na liiya nanu” is a house-hold word. The chant has profound meanings. It warns or reminds people that it is being foolhardy to acquire wealth, fame, knowledge through dubious/dishonest means – stealing, embezzlement, extortion, assistance from secret sects.
Oral history has it that during the years 1800 to 1950 there lived in the village of Wonyavio (the home village of my maternal grandfather) a man whose name was Ngando. He was arrogant and seemed to live above his means, hanging his coat where he could not reach.
By 1925 Ngando re-settled in the sea port of Victoria where he picked up a job in one of the warehouses that were at that time situated on the north side of the street that stretches eastwards from the bridge close to Victoria~Limbe River estuary to the now abandoned wharf near the fish market.
Whenever he visited the village he arrived in a big way and informed his colleagues that he was arranging to import from England a large engine vessel that would be shuttling between Victoria~Limbe and Fernando Po in Equatorial Guinea. He became, more arrogant, more boisterous.
Ngando was indeed a wealthy man (“kpo-kpoo a moto”). He became so rich that that by 1935 his colleagues considered the value of his investments in Victoria and his cocoa farms in his village of Wonyavio, and in the villages of Woanda, Womaka, Wonymokumba, Mosaka and in the creek village of Ewonji was higher than an annual budget of the then Bakweri Native Authority (Bakweri N.A, presently know as Buea Municipal Council). However Ngando’s reputation was tarnished from time to time by gossips that he was a thief.
In 1937 Ngando was sentenced to 18 months in Buea Prison for being an accomplice in the frequent disappearance of cargo from warehouses in Victoria. Inhabitants of the village of Wonyavio and the neighbour were neither surprised nor sorry that Ngando was in Prison. In response to Ngando’s plight Mola Vefonge of the village of Wonyavio composed the chant:
“Yaya- yaya - na liiya nanu – ya-yaa;
o-litake na o-moname, inye Vefonge na liya nanu,
yaya-yaya, na liiya nanu ya-ya”.
Translation:
“Let me be as I am.
In poverty and in wealth, Vefonge let me be as I am.
I would rather lead a simple and honest life than to dishonestly acquire treasures of the world that may subsequently cause me embarrassment, humiliation, disgrace, stress and recurring regret.
Vefonge ! Let me be as I am, without any discomfort of fast heartbeat (na su nda ngenge) caused by fear that I am about to be arraigned in court on charges of impropriety”.
Oma nanu. i-mba Mbua Ndoko.
P.o Box 38 Buea, South West Province
Cameroon, West/Africa.
Email:Mndoko@Yahoo.com
Website: http://www.mbuandoko.com
Mola Ndoko and Christianity
Posted by: Namondo | April 28, 2010 at 07:17 AM