Dr. Arnold Boh Yongbang joined his ancestors in heaven on May 24th, 2019 at 7:53 a.m. in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.A at the age of 85. He is survived by his wife, five children, eight grandchildren, five siblings, four sons-in-law, and many beloved relatives and friends.
Dr. Yongbang was born on March 12th, 1934 to a peasant family in Njinikom, British Southern Cameroons, known today as the NW Region. He attended St. Anthony's Primary School in Njinikom from 1939–1946 and graduated with a First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC). He worked as an elementary school teacher at the Catholic Mission in Njinikom from 1947– 1948 and later pursued his secondary education at St. Joseph's College Sasse, Buea, British Southern Cameroons from 1948–1954. He obtained his Cambridge Overseas School Certificate in 1954 and, thereafter, pursued his post-secondary education at St. Patrick's Higher School, Calabar, Nigeria from 1954–1956. He obtained his London Overseas Higher School Certificate in 1956 and returned to British Southern Cameroons that same year. He taught meritoriously at St. Joseph's College, Sasse, Buea from 1956-1957.
Dr. Yongbang's insatiable appetite for learning took him again to University College, Ibadan, Nigeria where he studied Pre-Med from 1957-1960. He completed his Clinical studies at the Nagpur Medical College, Maharashtra State, India from 1960–1964 and graduated with MB ChB degrees. He completed his internship at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, New Delhi, India from 1964-1965. He worked as the Medical Officer to the Massey Street Children's Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria from 1965-1967.
Dr. Yongbang
pursued his post-graduate training in Obstetrics & Gynaecology (OB/GYN) at
the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria from 1967–1969. He completed
further specialty training at the Victoria Infirmary and the Glasgow Royal
Maternity in Rottenrow, Scotland from 1969–1970. He also attended the London
Post-Graduate Medical School from 1970-1971 and was admitted
to Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists
(MRCOG) later that year.
Dr. Yongbang returned to his homeland, the Federal Republic of Cameroon (FRC), in 1971 and was immediately appointed the “Medecin Chef” (aka Chief Medical Officer) at “Maternite' Principale, Hopital Centrale”, Yaoundé, East Cameroun. He served as the Provincial Chief Medical Officer at Ministry of Public Health in NW Province from 1972-1976. He also served as the Provincial Delegate for Public Health in SW Province from 1976–1979. He was elected to the Fellowship of the West African College of Surgeons (FWACS) in 1978. He later served as the “Medecin Chef” in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Laquintinie Hospital, Douala, Littoral Province from 1979-1982. He was raised to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (FRCOG) in June 1993.
Dr. Yongbang was the first physician born and raised in Njinikom. As an erudite and expert medical practitioner, he always wanted to use his vast wealth of medical experience to serve the underpriviledged people in his homeland. He resigned from the Cameroon civil service in 1982 to set up a specialist hospital for women and children in Bamenda but was systematically strong-armed by the state to open the state-of-the-art clinic in Douala. His clinic was repeatedly targeted — retainerships with state corporations were rescinded and the business levied with exorbitant, unrealistic taxes — by the autocratic Biya regime because of his political activism for the cause of the inherent and inalienable rights of the English-speaking peoples of the former British Southern Cameroons to self-determination and independence. As an uncompromising freedom fighter, he never abandoned the struggle despite incessant threats and harassments from the Biya regime.
Dr. Yongbang was the co-founder of the Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM), now the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement (SCARM) - the vanguard movement championing the cause of self-determination and independence for the annexed and abused, brutalised and oppressed, state-terrorised and subjugated, dehumanised and exploited peoples of the former United Nations Trust Territory of the Southern Cameroons that was under British Administration. He was also the first National Treasurer of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the umbrella organization seeking the liberation and independence of the Anglophone Southern Cameroons. He crisscrossed the globe advocating the SCNC platform and ensured that all diplomatic efforts carried with them the incisive hard-line edge of CAM/SCARM.
Until his death, Dr. Yongbang exercised his political and human rights activism as a freedom fighter in the struggle to free Southern Cameroons and its people from oppression, subjugation and the annexationist stranglehold of la Republique du Cameroun (LRC) and France. He died a staunch believer of the zero option declared by CAM in December 1993.
Dr. Yongbang’s legacy lives on in his children, books and the many lives he affectionately touched. He will be fondly remembered as a humble, principled, morally upright, kind husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, friend, and a die-hard Southern Cameroons compatriot.
