Mbengwi Elements Development Association (MEDA) Goes Back Home

Mbengwi Elements Development Association (MEDA) Goes Back Home

For over five years now since the advent of the ongoing Anglophone Crisis in late 2016, nearly all Village Development Associations in the Meta clan have not been holding Annual General Meetings in their respective villages again.  A majority of such have either gone dormant or been active from Bamenda, Buea, Douala, Yaounde etc. In fact, the South West region has since become the safe haven for most Meta groupings. Even the umbrella development association of the entire clan known as MECUDA plus its youth and women wings including the Meta Student's Association are yet to hold any AGM or convention back home  since 2016.

The major setback to the holding of such meetings on homeland has been insecurity stemming from the crisis. However, there's been a gradual diminishing of this setback and consequently, a few are beginning to step foot back home though still with much caution. The Mbengwi Elements Development Association (MEDA) has recently set the pace for others to follow. After several years of holding their AGMs from town to town thus excluding the villagers back home who are the main beneficiaries of almost every developmental plan of the association, MEDA has this October 2022 returned home. 

Villagers in the Mbengwi Palace Hall. Photo Credit: Anoh Jerome

Meeting in the Mbengwi palace hall on Saturday October 22 2022, there wasn't even space to swing a cat as nearly all the villagers back home that constitute MEDA Home Branch rallied to talk about the way forward with regards to development in the village that had for a while been stagnant. In attendance were some heavy weights of the association that came in from the urban towns, the Mayor of the Mbengwi Council, Ndangsa Kennedy Akam and the highest traditional authority of the village, H.R.H Njokem A. Awah.

Deliberations during the enlarged MEDA Home Branch meeting centred on development, culture and education. It was resolved that come the next academic year, every measure will have to must be put in place to ensure Government Nursery and Primary School Wumtaw and Government Secondary School Mbengwi Rural fully go operational. It was also revealed that a Mukonge dance group has been formed in the village and shall in the month of January 2023 partake in its first ever competition against other Mukonge Dance groups drawn from Sang, Barakwe, Kai, Mbemi, Bome and Bossa during a cultural festival that will take place in the palace of Guneku organised by Germany based H.R.H Dr. Fomuki W. Ticha. 

Some Notables

MEDA National President & Fon of Mbengwi

One of the major highlights during the meeting was the reading of a Royal Decision in which six new members were appointed into the Mbengwi Village Traditional Council, some of whom shall in turn serve as Mbengwi Fon's Representative in their respective towns. They were Barrister Ndangoh Tah Calvin, MEDA National President, Emmanuel Asah, Njoh Roland Ndam, Yaya Francis Lacbane, Njoh Chrisantus Ticha, Baymoh Awara Benjamin and Tamunang Rudolf Njoh. 

The Decision further stipulated that they shall take part in deliberations of the traditional council and enjoy the same privileges as members of the said council and that the current members of the traditional council still remain in place. Attendees at the meeting returned home with cubes of soap and some salt in appreciation of their presence. The token was from the newly appointed members of the traditional council.

H.R.H Njokem A. Awah was caught and enthroned as new Fon of Mbengwi by the kingmakers after performing all the traditional rituals like climbing up and down the hill and dancing round on the palace esplanade. This was on Saturday 2nd September 2017 and he has since then not been officially presented to the public because of the crisis. The presentation ceremony day is now in the pipeline, soon to be made public and intensive underground preparations are ongoing. 

Newly Installed & Old Councillors

It will be a grand ceremony to finally wipe away the tears and delete the memories of that fateful Sunday July 9 2017, a day never to be remembered. It was at dawn that a  mighty storm blew pass, shattering the hearts of the Mbengwi villagers and those of Kai in particular and the entire Meta clan in general. The then Fon Mark Akam of Kai and Njokem Thaddeus of Mbengwi were being driven to Yaounde for a meeting and along the way, precisely at Bantoum, near Tonga in the West region, something unheard of happened, prohibiting them from continuing the journey. They had to make a u-turn and returned home through their willed successors that are today continuing to uphold the legacies of their father.