ForeverMissed
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His Life

Brief Biography of Papa Sylvester Ngu

June 14, 2011

 

101 Years of Service

Sylvester Ngu Che was born in 1910 in the Akum Fon’s (Chief’s) palace in the Northwest province of Cameroon. His parents; Chumba Crown Prince, Cheboh, and Bangang Princess, Mafor, were personally wedded by the Fon of Akum, Cheboh, who appointed Cheboh (the groom) Vassal, while Mafor enjoyed all the queenly privileges, living within the palace confines. Ngu was their third child, and the third son of a family of four children.

Ngu never had a formal education. Rather he learned English, reading, and writing by listening to his brothers and friends doing their home work. He pursued his education throughout his life by reading his own children’s books as they graduated from elementary to secondary school, often posing questions to test both his and their understanding of history and geography. “There goes a genius unnoticed,” said his brother, George Forbizhi to Ngu’s curious daughter, Aza.

More than a genius, Ngu must have been the very object of God’s miracle. Why? Instead of seeking admission into school, he accepted his brother’s advice to work and help sponsor his younger brother. This same brother, Barnabas, a professional tailor, rewarded him by having Ngu as his apprentice. He soon became renowned in the art. Yet, he gave up a promising career, judging from his multiple clients; gave up his shop in Bamenda and returned to Santa to take care of his aging mother. While in Santa, he did two jobs, farming and tailoring. That is where he met his wife, Justina Bih. 

Mama Justina Bih’s father was Fon Munga from Mbatu, and her mother was Ngwe from Akum. They got married in 1946. As if attracted to each other by the spirit of Baruch (Scribe of Jeremiah), both chose the education of their children as a top parental priority; and this at a time when poverty was rife, while tradition discouraged the education of the female child in particular. As God would have it, their first two children were girls, Aza and Mafor.

As soon as they started working following post-primary school training, they joined hands with their parents in a tacit agreement to help educate their younger siblings. He and his wife gave away every shilling from their meager coffee earnings to push up their children above their own shoulders. Ngu’s acumen, perspicuity, honesty, integrity, and high sense of responsibility, and his strong faith in God were highly respected. 

Ngu also became the official reader and interpreter of the letters of elders and even those of the Fon (chief). Indeed, he served as secretary and treasurer on several village boards. Meanwhile, he was an unofficial birth registrar of babies born to illiterate parents, prior to the official registration of live births in his rural community by the government.  

While he was still a child, he experienced hunger as famine hit Akum village. He personally witnessed the daily exasperation of his own mother who with other women invented numerous methods to increase crop yields on their subsistent farms, but to no avail. So, at the Jewish age of responsibility, 12, Ngu followed his ‘elder brothers,’ Boma and Tange on an exploratory mission, in search of fertile land. In 1922, he was among the first to settle in Santa (meaning “plateau”) as his new home and farmland, much like Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, as they worked hard, taming, toiling and tilling the long plateau.

Soon after building the first thatched-roof homes, next was a place of worship. As a devout Christian of the Roman Catholic Church, baptized on the 4th of March 1934, Ngu alongside eight others, including a woman, founded what is today the Our Lady of Assumption church of Santa. Their determination was unstoppable. They laid the foundation for a befitting temple in concrete. Ngu hammered rock after rock until escaping pieces of rock shrapnel hit his right eye. He spent months in a Douala hospital bed receiving treatment.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 encapsulates Ngu’s life’s drive: “whatever your hands find to do, do it . . . .”   His rare devotion to service turned his family home into a real life Canaan of abundant food, counseling, patience, solace, and a comfortable sanctuary for a sip at his delicious raffia palm wine. Yet, neither family nor neighbors understood his rare composure, as his kindness was often abused. Ngu simply lacked the ability to be upset. 

Staunchly, he pursued the good fight.  Apart from his own, he built the houses of practically every one of his brothers and those of their multiple wives. As a professional tailor, his fingers crafted suits, shirts, trousers, dresses, for the young and the old, for pay or for charity. His sewing machine ran 24/7, especially during Christmas, some dashing into his work-shop living room at the dying minute to measure their cut-to-size outfits, admired from his ‘village mirror’. 

Neatness was more than his middle name. A drinking glass would break in his hands for failing to sparkle while he is washing it. Who else could launder or iron his shirts and trousers any better, even in his old age? “His cleanliness got my attention,” says his God-given son, young Catholic Priest, Marcel Mary Oporaji, who rushed Papa to hospital on the 16th of September 2010, on emergency.  

Papa  Sylvester Ngu and his wife, Mama Justina Bih Ngu, had 10 children, but one passed away. Apart from his wife, he leaves behind 9 children, 22 grand children, and six great grand children. At age 101, on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 7:15 p.m., his face glowed with youthfulness in his bed at the Santa district hospital, with daughters Aza and Azunda watching his raised hand as he passed away peacefully. Meanwhile, he had told his wife the previous day that he was going away to heaven. “Nyanga boy has gone,” village women wept at the news of his passing into eternity. Indeed. Good night, Beloved Father! See you on resurrection morning.