Ba Gomia Kungwe's Journey
October 23, 2021
by Victor Gomia
On October 1, 1930, Ba Nkom Gomia Kungwe Gwannugbia and Na
Monica Nubia were blessed with a baby boy named George Babila Gomia Kungwe.
Bali Nyonga Fondom had become the epicenter of Christian Missionary
evangelization a couple of decades before. At that time in the fondom, formal
education was not considered important. Sending kids to school was largely
considered a form of punitive action visited on kids with poor behavioral
patterns at home and in the community. Well-behaved kids were therefore
kept away from school. Nonetheless, few parents in Bali at the time sent
their kids to school either because they valued formal education or due to the
fascination associated with British life-style and taste, easily gleaned with
mounting curiosity and fascination in activities like reading and writing in
English Language.
Ba Nkom Gwanugbia was among those who saw value in education. He enrolled his then only son in Basel Mission Primary School Njenka, Bali Nyonga in 1944 where he joined, among other students, Pa Longla and Pa Ntang. His son did very well in school up to Standard 4. He was successful in promotion exam to Standard 5. He however succumbed to the lure of adventure and quest for what most of them at the time believed was the yearning for one's place as a man. Of course, this was a chronically male chauvinistic setting. At the age of 20 when he was expected to begin Standard Five, he left school and Bali against his father's wish for Victoria where he met his uncle Ba Ntangntang with whom he lived for a year. He returned to Bali during the Bali-Widikum crisis. He later left again this time for Mamfe where he worked as a public transportation associate. He later left Mamfe for Enugu with the intention of joining the army. While in Zaria, he was successful in all the physical assessment steps but could not afford 5 Pounds required for the last phase of enlistment into the Nigerian/colonial army. Disappointed, he returned to Enugu where he found on a billboard an advertisement for positions to work on a farm in Santa Isabel. He met the agents and signed a contract that would take him to Santa Isabel in 1951.
While at Santa Isabel he got married and had two children with Comfort Sunday, who was herself an immigrant in that country from Nigeria. They had two boys named Friday Gomia and Dieudonne Gomia in 1962 and 1965, respectively. During all these years he never communicated with his parents, who at some point gave up on the expectation of seeing him again. He took his family back to Bali, Cameroon, in 1966. Comfort was never comfortable in Bali which (unlike Santa Isabel) had limited pipe-borne water and electricity. She eventually asked that the family return to Santa Isabel. Her husband never wanted to return to Santa Isabel. The Commissioner of Police in Bamenda at the time (Superintendent Doh) advised him to allow her to return with the children since they were still too young. He then took the family to Tiko where Comfort and the children boarded a banana ship back to Santa Isabel. Comfort, Friday and Dieudonne would later travel to Spain thereby severing ties with him and his family.
Ba Gomia Kungwe then began a new phase of life in Bali. He served as a truck driver for a Nigerian freight company, transporting goods from Nigeria to Cameroon between 1966 and 1969. In 1969 he joined PV Boyo's Bamenda gas distribution franchise, Texaco, and served as the lead driver transporting petrol/gas from Limbe to Douala and Bamenda. He served in this position for a decade, retiring in 1979 and establishing as an independent transporter with a truck of his own. Between 1967 and 1979, he married four wives making a polygamous family of 13 additional children (3 girls and 10 boys).
Ba Gomia Kungwe made a foray into politics in the second coming of multiparty politics in Cameroon in the early 1990s. He joined the Movement for Democracy and Progress (MDP), the Samuel Eboa slice of the United Democratic Party (UNDP) that had emerged out of a controversial UNDP convention that held in Maroua in 1991. Ba Gomia Kungwe made progress in the ranks of MPD, becoming the party's North West provincial Chairman. Among the key functions he played in that position was planning and organizing the party's provincial rally in December 1991. During that rally he delivered a welcome speech at the Bamenda stadium, welcoming the party chairman, guests and delegates.
In 1993 he succeeded his father becoming Ba Gomia Kungwe and later retired and moved to Naka, Bali Nyonga where he maintained a physical presence as the family head of the wider Kungwe lineage until his demise on October 10, 2021.
This is a synopsis of the life journey and story of Ba Kungwe Gomia whose life we are celebrating. To many of us children, wife, extended Kungwe family and friends, we mourn his passing but in the same breath celebrate a life began in the 1930s in humility, poise and determination, a life with numerous turns dictated by circumstances often not of his choosing but often embraced with uncanny stoicism and determination.
Profound gratitude to Ni Walters Mbotiji who took time to conduct an interview with the deceased. The story on this page has been heavily informed and corroborated by that interview.
Ba Nkom Gwanugbia was among those who saw value in education. He enrolled his then only son in Basel Mission Primary School Njenka, Bali Nyonga in 1944 where he joined, among other students, Pa Longla and Pa Ntang. His son did very well in school up to Standard 4. He was successful in promotion exam to Standard 5. He however succumbed to the lure of adventure and quest for what most of them at the time believed was the yearning for one's place as a man. Of course, this was a chronically male chauvinistic setting. At the age of 20 when he was expected to begin Standard Five, he left school and Bali against his father's wish for Victoria where he met his uncle Ba Ntangntang with whom he lived for a year. He returned to Bali during the Bali-Widikum crisis. He later left again this time for Mamfe where he worked as a public transportation associate. He later left Mamfe for Enugu with the intention of joining the army. While in Zaria, he was successful in all the physical assessment steps but could not afford 5 Pounds required for the last phase of enlistment into the Nigerian/colonial army. Disappointed, he returned to Enugu where he found on a billboard an advertisement for positions to work on a farm in Santa Isabel. He met the agents and signed a contract that would take him to Santa Isabel in 1951.
While at Santa Isabel he got married and had two children with Comfort Sunday, who was herself an immigrant in that country from Nigeria. They had two boys named Friday Gomia and Dieudonne Gomia in 1962 and 1965, respectively. During all these years he never communicated with his parents, who at some point gave up on the expectation of seeing him again. He took his family back to Bali, Cameroon, in 1966. Comfort was never comfortable in Bali which (unlike Santa Isabel) had limited pipe-borne water and electricity. She eventually asked that the family return to Santa Isabel. Her husband never wanted to return to Santa Isabel. The Commissioner of Police in Bamenda at the time (Superintendent Doh) advised him to allow her to return with the children since they were still too young. He then took the family to Tiko where Comfort and the children boarded a banana ship back to Santa Isabel. Comfort, Friday and Dieudonne would later travel to Spain thereby severing ties with him and his family.
Ba Gomia Kungwe then began a new phase of life in Bali. He served as a truck driver for a Nigerian freight company, transporting goods from Nigeria to Cameroon between 1966 and 1969. In 1969 he joined PV Boyo's Bamenda gas distribution franchise, Texaco, and served as the lead driver transporting petrol/gas from Limbe to Douala and Bamenda. He served in this position for a decade, retiring in 1979 and establishing as an independent transporter with a truck of his own. Between 1967 and 1979, he married four wives making a polygamous family of 13 additional children (3 girls and 10 boys).
Ba Gomia Kungwe made a foray into politics in the second coming of multiparty politics in Cameroon in the early 1990s. He joined the Movement for Democracy and Progress (MDP), the Samuel Eboa slice of the United Democratic Party (UNDP) that had emerged out of a controversial UNDP convention that held in Maroua in 1991. Ba Gomia Kungwe made progress in the ranks of MPD, becoming the party's North West provincial Chairman. Among the key functions he played in that position was planning and organizing the party's provincial rally in December 1991. During that rally he delivered a welcome speech at the Bamenda stadium, welcoming the party chairman, guests and delegates.
In 1993 he succeeded his father becoming Ba Gomia Kungwe and later retired and moved to Naka, Bali Nyonga where he maintained a physical presence as the family head of the wider Kungwe lineage until his demise on October 10, 2021.
This is a synopsis of the life journey and story of Ba Kungwe Gomia whose life we are celebrating. To many of us children, wife, extended Kungwe family and friends, we mourn his passing but in the same breath celebrate a life began in the 1930s in humility, poise and determination, a life with numerous turns dictated by circumstances often not of his choosing but often embraced with uncanny stoicism and determination.
Profound gratitude to Ni Walters Mbotiji who took time to conduct an interview with the deceased. The story on this page has been heavily informed and corroborated by that interview.