In Memory of TAH PROTUS, the teacher I never met

In the expansive realm of literature, certain writers possess the unique ability to etch their stories into the fabric of our memories, creating lasting impressions that transcend the passage of time. TAH PROTUS, a literary luminary from Cameroon, was undeniably one such maestro whose words echoed in the hearts of readers, leaving an indelible mark on the literary landscape.

My first encounter with your work was within the hallowed halls of secondary school. As a wide-eyed Form One student at Lycée bilingue de Bonaberie Douala, I was introduced to the world of your creation through the captivating theater piece, "Aping the Apes." Little did I know then that this literary escapade would become a cornerstone of my literary journey.

The brilliance of your storytelling lay not only in the vivid characters crafted but also in the profound themes explored. "Aping the Apes" masterfully wove narratives that resonated with authenticity, urging us to contemplate, empathize, and introspect.

While the literary world mourns your physical departure, I hope your words endure, immortalized in the hearts and minds of those who have been touched by your literary alchemy. The beauty of your legacy lies not only in the tales told but also in the lives enriched with the gift of storytelling.

As I nostalgically reflect on the impact of "Aping the Apes" on my formative years, I am reminded that the true essence of a writer transcends the boundaries of time and space. TAH PROTUS, your legacy lives on in the echoes of your narratives, inspiring generations to come.

In bidding farewell to this literary maestro, let us not mourn the loss but celebrate the enduring gift he bestowed upon us—the gift of stories that stir the soul and illuminate the human experience. May TAH PROTUS's words continue to reverberate, reminding us that even in death, great writers never truly depart; they reside forever in the realms of their stories.

Rest in peace, TAH PROTUS. Your words remain our guiding constellations in the vast universe of literature.

Prof, it's Five years today since you departed.
I wonder what the tongue would have said
About the taste of the palm wine we'd have shared
In celebration of another year of wisdom garnered.
Continue to rest in peace, Prof.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Alhadji,
Today, we remember you and the painful day you left us, ensuring your memory will never be undone.
My mentor, Daddy friend and the times we shared together. You are missed like no one else and I hope you’re in heaven watching down on us. May your brightness always shine down from above.

Dear older brother, can't imagine it's already three years. The question, How is your friend Tah Protus, keeps coming up and you can imagine my embarrassment. It's always not just about Literature teaching, but the notes, the acting, the social animation, etc. Life at best is indeed so brief like the falling of a leaf. Yes, it is but a walking shadow. You played your role brilliantly and the applause echoes on. God knows best and we surrender all to Him. Continue to rest in peace and continue to intercede for your lovely family and us!

Those we hold most dear, never truly leave us. They live on in the kindness they showed, the comfort they shared, and the love they brought into our lives.
Those we love don’t go away. They walk beside us everyday unseen, unheard, but always near still loved, still missed and very dear.

Alhadji,
Merry Christmas in Heaven.
Always with love.

Daddy Prof "Alhadji",
Happy Birthday in Heaven!
I celebrate you today and every other day because you have been one the sweetest persons of my life and the memories of you shall forever dwell in my mind. Wishing you joy on your birthday in Heaven!

We were all together in Maryvale institute Archdiocese of Bamenda of St Luke batch, 2016 ,when you fail sick and God called you home . You ever remain fresh in my heart and your memory shall never fade for being a good professor of the Catholic Faith . May your soul rest in peace with Mary and all the saints ..Amen

Prof “Alhaji”,
I have come here to lay a flower for you!

It’s now two whole years gone by.
Still I haven’t forgotten that fateful day.
When that fateful text message dropped in
“It has happened. He’s no more!”

Two years now and the message is still seems new
The hurt of that day is still the same and fresh,
You were like a rock, strong, faithful and true.
In your heavenly abbot, I know you still hear us.

Yes, sadly we have missed you along life’s way
But quietly you are remembered every day
No longer in our lives to share the laughter and sighs
Losing you wasn’t the hard part, its learning to live without you.

Yes, goodbyes hurt when the story is not finished
But the book has been closed forever, so it seems.
We have missed you in so many ways
We have missed the many things you used to say
Recalling the old times is when we tend to miss you most.

I hope you are living well in the world of the creator.
The RIFIT family loves you and misses you so much.

Dear Prof. (Alhadji),
Days have passed, months have come and gone.
Now it is plus one year and a new year is opening its arms.
Thoughts of you linger strongly and keep lingering
As I wonder the achievements that will never be.
Had you not majestically crossed the bridge, ignoring the ripples
We would have had much laughter, and so often too
The respect of intelligent people we’d have kept under our belts
The best appreciations of honest critics we’d be swimming in now
While false friends’ betrayal, you’d mastered the endurance.
You were a great master, nurtured the best in others, with rippling effects.
Coming to terms with reality still needs some convincing that you’re gone
We all miss your smile, the one you'd always wear with cheer
And your laughter and the open arms you always shared.
Don't you worry, ripple films will continue to share your love.
We will continue to tell the world all about you and the rippling footprints you left.
Though you're gone, your love won't ever depart from us.
We trust you will intercede for us always, until we meet again to ripple forever.
Rest well and in peace with our maker, Boss.

"O My Father"
Just like a joke it's been a year -
How can one forget the times
When your life-long lessons we hear
Speaking in our hearts daily?
Even when we came to say Farewell,
I knew you were not going anywhere.
I know when you are with us, it is well -
Your body is in Njindom but you are here.
You are living in our hearts
The good things you taught us
Are multiplying as the days go by -
One thing I am sure, we'll meet bye and bye.
The literary spirit you left is radiating in our brains
The creative spirit you planted is revolting in our blood
the radical spirit you left is radiating in our systems -
My Daddy, you are not gone, you are here in our blood.
Obstacles are seeing us and fleeing
As they used to see you and flee.
Challenges see us and change strategy
As you taught us all tricks to handle them.
As I visit you today to tell your story
I know you are telling ours before God -
Just give him this one message Daddy -
That he should give us grace to complete. 
Awah Oliver N. Kevnojev

Hello Daddy-Prof,
Per the books, today is your birthday. I am therefore sending across my best birthday wishes to the best Godfather I know. You may not be here now, but you are forever in my heart.
It hurts me to think that you are no longer with us. Although I cannot help but smile with tears, thinking of the great meaning to every moment we had together while you were full of life. Only that everything just gets different each day as we all struggle to adjust to your leaving us so soon.
This envelope in which I seal these birthday wishes for you is filled with great love and respect, with hope that it reaches you in heaven.
Death may have succeeded to take you away from us, but in actual fact, it has only succeeded to bring us closer.
A blissful birthday in the bosom of the Lord, is all I wish for you, my darling Godfather, Mr. Tah Protus.
Rest in Perfect Peace.

My dear Godfather, I light this candle in remembrance of who you were and what you stood for. Today makes one month since you were laid to rest. Yes, we can't have our old days back when we were all together. Our thoughts will always be with you. Though you are gone from this life, the people who loved you dearly will always think of you. You maybe gone but we believe that you have not gone away, for I still have this strong feeling that I will meet you soon. When someone as dear as you, becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure. Thank you for loving and sharing, for giving and for caring. God bless you and keep you, until we meet again.
Rest in perfect peace.

When Does A Man live forever?

When the harvest season is over
And the remains in the farm are fit to feed a family
Then the farmers name is remembered.
When the next planting season ends
And the immortal seed is just along root
Then a man's live is long who nutured that seed

When a stream of academia
Brave the angry looks of the military
Cross curfewed streams and barriers
And all roads that 23rd of March
Lead down to little known. Jindom
It was not to see a man burried
It was to see good life immortalised

When smiles were embellished with streams from our eyes
Why?
The tears only cleaned our eyes!
Then we saw a man rise above men
And take his throne in the throne room
There he dwells forever?

What of the planting?
Why?
An immortal seed is planted else it has no use
He will grow
He will live forever
That is how a man lives for ever

The escape was from our sight
His dwelling in our memories
For such memories he crafted
And chisselled every moment in our hearts
And there they rest forever
As he Lord of sweet talks and crackling joy
Now reigns over these memories
That is how a man lives forever

Ah, father!
We gather at the village square for the dance
But hear you took the drum away
Oursong has turned to sighs
Our dance steps to stumbling!
Our cheeks are furrowed and eroded
By the flood streaming from our sockets

Strangers visit the chicken coop
And carry hens with their unhatched eggs
The cocks can't crow the alarm
For they too lost their voices I sighs

I see toddlers call themselves elders now
And go to test green corn Cobs
Love g before the harvest season is near
I see the latch to the gate hanging asceew
Because even your hammer
I cannot find

The goat you gave me to tether
Just gave birth to triplets
To whom shall I run with the news?
To whom shall tell of how agile the kids are?

Now the toddler elders meet at your Mban
They try to pour the libations
But the words are all wrong
And the gods don't listen.
I hear a rumour
That you are with them
And have taught them new things
That you are now with the gods
That you are now god

If this be true
Then tell them
Tell Bole
Tell Bate
Tell Shakespeare
Tell Milton
Tell Sophocles
That you gods ha e wrong us.

Did we not offer our libations
As dutiful descendants?
Did we not give due adorations?
Tell the God's, we still don't question, you gods
But our sorrows make us
Refuse their decision.
For, Father, you left at the wrongest time

The tilled farm lies brown and fresh and unseeded
And they tell me "accept the will of the gods"?

Ha, Father, I refuse to accept the will of the gods
I prefer.to bear only this pain
Because you left at the wrongest time
On the wrongest day
In the wrongest season
In the wrongy year!
So I will disgree with the gods
I will disagree with reason
And mourn forever
Because I Know but refuse to accept
You are gone forever

Life at best, they say, is very brief, like the falling of a leaf. How indeed enigmatic is this thing called death. I first met you on the pages of The Mould. A few years later I joined you in the chalk and board profession. Then our writing and acting talents clicked and before long, Tah and Tangyie became study aid titles. I just had a glance of your undefended Ph.D thesis and behold, what goose pimples! You're gone too soon, big brother. March on to victory for you are more than conquerous! Good old Ngangnetong!!

MY GREAT MENTOR,
Great loss for me to hear you have passed on, however to greater glory.
When I remember your writings, they will always stimutate, and they stimulated me, to put my nose to my pen and my face on my scroll and tr out my own wrtie-ups. I remember vividly your roles when our Palace Productions Association was booming in the late eightiws. Now in our circle in the Anglophone Cameroon Writers Association, your vibrant corner will go dormant, meaning we miss you dearly.
My Brother, you live!! you live!! you live!! for living is not only physical; it is metaphysical, cosmic, spiritual and that which we also cannot understand. As you have said, you live still.
I can only now say in a LOUD VOICE, lead the light on Great Writer as we wade behind you, very sure to reach where you are now.
ADIEU GREAT WRITER and GREAT FRIEND.

TRIBUTE TO BELOVED TAH PROTUS
The Scripture offers us the assurance of Faith, hope and consolation, that Christ, the hope of all who have faith, calls those who leave this world, not the dead but those who are asleep. “He says, Lazarus, our friend is asleep. Though Jesus put it plainly. Lazarus is dead. Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that, even now whatever you ask of God. He will grant you. “Your brother, said Jesus to her, will rise again. “Martha said, ‘ I known he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day”, Jesus said: I am the resuration. If anyone believes in me, even though is dies he will live, and whoever believe and believes in me will never dies. Do you believe this?.Lk.11:11-26). Yes, we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who died in Jesus; God will bring them with him. 1 These.4:14).
  Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God “face to face” as he is. So faith is the beginning of eternal life.(CCC 163)
Beloved Tah Protus, these Hope has been our aims and objectives of joining the Maryvale Institute: High Institute of Religious Science, for formation of a solid foundation in Catholic faith; personal growth in faith and Spiritual life, prayer and Catechesis. You have been a good formator,a teacher and a humble devout servant and outstanding messenger of the faith in action. We love you and miss you. Death is an inevitable disease that cannot be healed but leads us to the glorious transition of our home land. And that is the reason we must say with Job: The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Farewell !! Protus. Eternal rest grant to him o Lord and let the perpetual light shine on upon him (3*)
Rev. Br. Cyprian Uche Idoko. On behalf of St. Luke 14 Batch: Maryvale Institute of the Archdiocese of Bamenda.   22And March 2018

My dear friend and brother, I came in contact with your books even before I knew you in person. When I knew you, I discovered that we had many things in common. Like you, I was born in 1956,you in September and I in January. Like you I was orphaned at an early age, you your mom and I,my dad. Like you, I served in Andek, you the Principal and I the Vice Principal. We became friends which is often unusual. You trained me to be the successful Principal that I became. We shared a lot of humour especially because as students of Letters we took a lot of interest in words and expressions in English and French. When I travelled abroad you passed often to check on my family. When I returned you drove down to Douala to pick me up. We kept in touch on a regular basis and then you became sick. What happened? It is normal to be sick, it is also normal to die. My worry is the timing. As retired people we planned to travel and discover other places and enjoy the freedom that accompanies the end of our career, but God planned things differently. I miss you and I am sure you miss me too. You impacted very many lives in Cameroon and beyond. Your name was a household name and many students used to ask, "have you seen my Tah Protus? " when referring to one or the other of your books. You worked so hard that you did not even have time to socialize. You were able to combine School Administration, farming, producing school magazines, writing books for slow learners and for the Cameroon GCE program, and still found time to work for a Masters and a PHD. That was really over bearing but you left a legacy that in modern times and for long will be unrivalled. You are dead, I am still to die,so what's the difference if you leave on Monday and I on Friday? You are having a perfect rest since February 23rd but many times I do not have enough sleep. I still need to work and eat in order to live. Since we are still friends, reserve a good seat for me or is it a bench or a bed? I shall discover when I join you. That is what gives me courage and hope. Adieu dear friend and brother. Acha Aghem Daniel

Hey daddy
My heart is hurting can't still believe. Didn't even see you go. You that used to comfort me by your simple presence. I remember you at my fathers burial... You didn't have to say a word just your presence made me know I had to wipe my tears cos I had another dad. Now that you too are gone. Gone without seeing your namesake. You said you wanted to recover before meeting him... Oh daddy. Where are you??? God knows best. Rest well daddy. Now you feel no more pain, nor sorrow. You will remain forever in our hearts daddy.
Love you forever

Recollection by Tah Protus

One thing I know will be true is that after I die, my spirit shall be able to see all who know about my death and come or do not come to my funeral. I shall see with pity those who shall be lamenting for sincerely missing me. I shall see those who celebrate that at last their rival is gone. I shall see my debtors or creditors celebrating or regretting my demise. My spirit shall be able hear all that these people say about me. My spirit shall be able to know all that goes on in people’s minds while they are around me or away from me. In all this I shall judge no one for I shall not have the power to, having returned, I pray, to my creator’s bosom.

Its really feels like an "Ordeal Of The Eighth Day" 


You were not only my teacher, my mentor, and my inspiration as a stage actor,
but above all you were my friend.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Adios ---FARE WELL,

My dear uncle, thank you for being a brilliant artist, a smart writer, an excellent teacher and a wonderful father. How you influenced the academic success of many of us is extraordinary.

You leave us with so much to reflect about but we thank God for the time you spent with us. Travel well and extend our regards especially to Grand Frere and Lolo!

Adios

"Don't spend your life dealing with issues which are irrelevant and unimportant. Stop making life unnecessarily complicated ... the time to go home is always around the corner..." unknown

The sun has set, but there's still hope for another new day.
Goodbye!! Goodbye Daddy!!.
You've gone to rest in the blossom of the Lord, but from the East to the West, from the North to the South the stars are dancing because you will live forever.
An Oracle of Success, a mighty wing of knowledge and of supernatural wisdom, you still live.
You live in every print you've dropped on a sheet of paper, you live in books and in literature.
You will live forever in our smiles, laughter and in our success.
You will live each time we pass an examination, get a promotion, learn a new word and write a beautiful story.
You will live forever.
Rest well!! Rest well Daddy!!
. Rest in Perfect Peace

Its so Sad to talk about you in past tense. I never loved litreature bc it was so broad but i came to know you because you made it so easy for people like us. All the summaries you made and simplified tenses used made me excell. You are gone but you leave a mark I life hearts. Love you Sir but God loves you more.

Words alone can't explain how I feel inside, you were my teacher, principal, mentor, adviser, rebucker, my supervisor.you were a filmmaker,(Beyond Repair) After shooting( Beyond Repair ), you've gone beyond repair, beyond the rivers, seas and oceans, beyond the stars the moon and the sky, you broke the triangular relationship between man. Nature and God and you're sited among the Angel of God. You've left this world of pains, agorny, corruption, jeloursy, hâte to thé world void of these ills.

   Daddy we deeply miss you. Who will write and tell us short stories about the falk tail, "The Cat and the Rat," "It's Right Here" "Akwi and Bih"etc. However works and Memories still live in us. You're were a home builders, a career builder a Nation builder. You didn't give people fish but rather taught them how to cash it. You pushed people to the top via hard work. You were multi-talented with a great sense of humour.you made me who I am today through hard work and advices. Once again thank you Daddy.
    I will not say RIP because I know you're only sleeping. We love you dearly.

Your life was a blessing, your memory a treasure, you are loved beyond words and missed beyond . In life we know that none of us will live forever. Someday our loved ones & friends will pass. No matter how hard we may try, it is never easy to say goodbye. In heaven you are looking down on all of us, keeping us safe and guiding us through life, we will always miss you. Because someone we love is in heaven...we feel a bit of heaven in our home. Rest In Peace Daddy.

You've earned your place in heaven,
After all that you've been through
I wish I could have helped you
But there was nothing I could do
Peacefully sleeping now out of pain.
No one will wake you up to suffer again.

Alhadji,
You and I will meet again when we’re least expecting it.
One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face.
I won’t say goodbye Daddy, for you and I will meet again.
Life and destiny can steal my best people away from me
but nothing can take away the precious memories.
Let me try to make this easier than saying goodbye
Alhadji, HELLO in advance, as I await our next meeting.
Journey well.