The heads of the five families that make up Manyemen village, Upper Balong in Nguti Subdivision have rejected the dubious selection of a non-native of their village Mr Williams Mbue Bisong, as traditional ruler of Manyemen a year ago by the Senior Divisional Officer for Kupe-Muanenguba.

On November 2nd, they or their representatives, led a delegation of villagers to meet the DO of Nguti, Etengeneng Kevin Oben and express their disapproval of the malicious shortcut procedure followed by the Kupe-Muanenguba SDO, Ekema William Mungambo to choose Bisong as chief of Manyemen following the death in 2022 of Chief Jacob Eben.

“As far as we are concerned, our village does not yet have a new chief,” said Manyemen family heads in a petition to the SDO of Kupe-Muanenguba dated October 7th.

The family heads explained: “(1.) No family designated Mr Williams Mbue Bisong for the throne. By the practice under our customs and traditions, the family designates a son as chief and presents him to village kingmakers for vetting before he is presented to the administration. Those steps were bypassed. (2.) Those you admitted as Kingmakers to enable the selection of Mr Williams Mbue Bisong as chief of Manyemen are not the kingmakers we chose to represent our families. Kingmakers cannot be self-declared nor chosen in any haphazard manner by whosoever except by us. (3.) Conducting the selection of the chief of Manyemen in your office in far away Bangem, outside our village was a traditional sacrilege as we can only choose our chief in the sacred forest which we call “Ntem”. (4.) Mr Williams Mbue Bisong is not a native of Manyemen. He is the son of a known man from another village, whose parents — duly married — were both not natives of our village. His father’s father was from a neighbouring village. He, therefore, cannot, under whatever condition, be the chief of Manyemen. (5.) The questionable process followed in selecting Mr Williams Mbue Bisong as chief of Manyemen has left a bitter taste in the mouth of our people and triggered widespread anger among villagers and elites. (6.) Your recognition of Mr Williams Mbue Bisong has apparently emboldened him to disregard both our tradition and even administrative orders, apparently sure that even you can do nothing to stop him, as if he is above the law. On Sunday, 11th August 2024, in violation of an order by the Divisional Officer of Nguti postponing all public manifestations, including Mr Williams Mbue Bisong’s announced coronation, Mr Williams Mbue Bisong went ahead and staged a so-called coronation, filmed by a TV crew and broadcast over television viewed all over Cameroon and the world. To do so, he again violated our traditional practices by causing the village patriarch (the oldest man in the village or Tanyie) to crown him, a highly sacred act reserved only for the village Chief of Tiger.”

In the petition signed by the family heads of Bafene, Nsuk ô Mbi, Njet, Ndong and a representative of Ntimbuk, the Manyemen family heads tell the Kupe-Muanenguba SDO, “Manyemen is a renowned and respected village with worthy sons we can place on our throne through our established traditional procedures. We shall not accept any process that disregards, violates and mocks our customs and traditions.”

They call on the SDO “to review your decision of 23rd November 2023 and allow us to choose our traditional ruler in accordance with our established traditional procedure.”

The delegation of the five families at the meeting with the DO of Nguti was led by Francis Ebenson for Ntimbuk, Stephen Chu Tabi for Bafene, Franklin Sone Bayen for Nsuk ô Mbi, Lawrence Diffang Tabi for Njet and Ashu Moses Mcmoi Ndi for Ndong.