Chapter 0002

Chapter One

The death of Chief Fidelis and power struggle.

Zhoa is a small chiefdom in Menchum Division of the

Northwest Region of Cameroon. It comprises a cluster of villages; the main ones being Whefit, WheNyo, Wenenge and Whetguier. Whefit and WheNyo unlike the other villages have produced

leaders for all these villages. All four villages lived in mutual coexistence for so long that a dispute seemed impossible. It was the death of Chief Fidelis, the last Chief who came from WheNyo, that plunged the village into a lethal struggle for succession by

contenders from all the other villages. Going by the late chief 's will, he was to be succeeded by his all time adviser and patriot of the village, Sam. Unfortunately, this will was not respected as the

Whefit Elders meddled with it and chosed one of their own, Samuel, as the potential head of the entire chiefdom. Samuel knew that for him to be acclaimed by all, he had to win the favor of all the elite in all the villages. Hence he made available money and property to the willing and crushed the recalcitrant

ones. He also asked his friend, Surrandi who was the richest businessman in the village and had a lot of cows to support him financially. Although Samuel was still occupying an interim position, he was already winning the hearts of many and making himself popular. In order to consolidate his position, he invited the local army, which was already divided, each protecting the interests of its respective village. He warned the army not to interfere in the mess happening in the village and compelled them to obey

the chief and the elders by doing everything they were told to do. In addition, Samuel knew he needed the support of the church which was very influential in his chiefdom. And, since he was a catholic Christian, he gave land and alms to the Catholic Church and made friends with the Priest. With the support of the priest, he was recognized by all as the chief thus he

began tightening his grip on the entire chiefdom. He arrested elders who opposed him from among his enemies in WheNyo. Sam for instance was arrested and jailed. Several protests were staged by some WheNyo youths, but these were contained by the

local army. All these negative acts strained his relationship with the Priest. He started allying with a prophet, Isaac who was not also in good terms with the priest. According to the Priest, the prophet had completely destroyed the image of his church and deceived most Christians with his prophesies and miracles. And according to Prophet Isaac, the Priest was not spirit filled. He had vowed to convince or confuse all Christians to join him.

Franco, a WheNyo warrior, who was in the army, denounced the actions of his village folks and managed to cold their flaring tempers. He advised them to document their grievances which he promised to personally submit them to the chief.

At the end, Franco brought the letter to the chief but was denied entry by the two palace guards on duty. He insisted on seeing the chief but their annoying refusal nudged him into a fight with the palace guards whom he got well beaten. Then, he found himself

surrendered by ten more palace guards who were ready to molest him, but were stopped by Valentine, their commander who asked the guards to remand him in custody inside a fenced room. Valentine himself took the letter to the chief and it was read by the chief, his second-in-command Teboh and the prophet. The letter demanded the immediate release of Sam and the refund of the WheNyo secret traditional, which had been seized by Teboh of Whefit. Elites from Whenenge, who had been corrupted by Chief Samuel, immediately opposed these. Teboh told the chief that if WheNyo regained their position as the centre of traditional events as before, they might use tradition against the chief. The prophet had little or nothing more to say because he knew nothing about

their tradition but spoke prophetically; "He, who shall controls sacred tradition, shall control the village".

Having felt the weight of this prophesy, the Chief ordered that Franco be brought before him. He admired Franco's bravery and courage and in his mind he thought it was better for such a person to be his ally. He therefore, burnt the letter in front of Franco and said he had more important things to discuss with him. He said, he was impressed with his courage and faithfulness reasons why he was going to appoint him commander in-chief of his local army. Franco could not deny this offer because he saw it as an opportunity for him to redress his village problems. On the other hand Chief Samuel hoped to use Franco in order to calm the flaring tempers in WheNyo village where he came from and the entire Zhoa chiefdom.

Franco's introduction into the army helped to stabilize the chiefdom since he suppressed all the resistance in the entire chiefdom. He recruited more men into the army especially from the Whetguier village because they were neutral in the conflicts in the chiefdom. He opened army camps in all the villages and appointed loyal commanders to their heads. He maintained his headquarters in WheNyo. He periodically regrouped his army for a counter offensive against any aggressive neighbour. Quite often they came back victorious. All these battles that were won made

him feared and popular even more than the chief. Surrandi who was given enough land and privileges in the village as compensation for his loyalty to the Chief thought that he had being given

immunity powers. His cows moved into people's farmlands and destroyed their crops. The numerous complaints brought before the Chief and el-

ders against him fell on deaf ears and nothing was done to compensate the farmers. The Priest who had received many reports from his Christians on the same issue wrote to the chief and the elders but was ignored.

Tara, a young farmer whose crops had been completely damaged by Surrandi's cows went into a bloody fight with one of Surrand's "Nganakog". He was assisted by his wife and children. They bundled him as a log of wood and took to the palace for the chief and elders to pass royal judgement and hopefully re-

ceive some compensation. Surrandi got the news and dashed into the palace just as Tara and his family lowered the almost dead man. He ordered that Tara should be arrested and detained. His orders were immediately respected by the palace guards even

without the chief 's approval. Disturbed by the state of affairs, Franco took charge of the case. He wrote to Surrandi to keep his cows out of the village or pay compensations in case of any further destruction. But Surrandi, sure of himself, took no action. Two weeks later, the same report came to Franco, and he ordered that the cows be seized and placed under the army. As soon as this was done, Surrandi immediately reported the case to the chief ordering that Franco be dismissed and humiliated. The chief sent some of his palace guards to Franco to recover the cows. When they reached Franco's camp, he sent them back with instructions that Surrandi must pay for the destruction caused by his cows before getting them back. The chief was furious when he heard Franco's reply, but could do nothing. He however, asked Surrandi

to keep his calm till he had decided on what to do next. The chief said so because he did not want people to know his orders

could be challenged. But when the matter took too long, Surrandi realized he had no option except to try and bribe Franco, but when he approached Franco for a deal, he threatened to jail him. Left with no option, he paid all the compensation requested by the people. This act made Surrandi's relation with the chief to de-

teriorate until he was no longer on good terms with the chief. The prophet on his part was not satisfied with the growth of other churches copying his examples in the chiefdom. His fear was that if it persisted, he would lose or share most of his follow-

ers in the chiefdom. He then mounted pressure on the chief to disband the other religious sects. Consequently, the chief spoke to some elders and convinced them. The elders agreed because they knew they were the ones to benefit. They went on to pass an important injunction disbanding all other religious sects except that of the Senior prophet Isaac. The other churches affected by

this act wrote against the royal edict and advised their followers to protest and fight for their faith.

Franco only heard about it when he was summoned by the Chief in the presence the elders and the prophet and ordered to arrest, jail or kill all those who protested against the chief 's injunction. But Franco on his honour, told them he could not do such a thing. He said: "The task of the army is there to maintain peace and order and defend the chiefdom against truants, but I am surprised to note that these truants are the important people in this same village. This chiefdom has a written constitution and as a patriotic citizen, I will fight against anyone trying to disrupt

the peace and order that reigns in this chiefdom. I do not care who you are and where you come from "Mbe" I give you 24 hours to rescind the injunction or I will act against it".

After making this pronouncement, he took his spear and left. The hall was quiet as if an evil spirit had passed by. Never in the history of the village had the chief and his elders been challenged upfront. The chief was bubbling with rage and fear at the same

time. Teboh broke the silence and shouted, "This is an unpardonable insolence; it is an abomination. We must stop him and teach him a lesson of his life." Before taking his seat, another elder Pa Kum concurred: "Yes, you are right. He must be stopped at once. We have to get him before he gets us". The prophet called for the chief in a private room for them to talk. He said "this young man is becoming uncontrollable. If you don't get rid of him now

even your elders will start doubting your orders and the villagers will start disobeying you and that will be the beginning of your end". Feeling the weight of the prophet's warning, The chief asked the prophet:

"What can I do now? I cannot remove him from his post be- cause the villagers will riot even more and the army may throw in their support for him. The only option I see is for him to be killed, but the problem now is, how?" "We shall talk about this in a very private place, but that will be later" said the prophet.

The chief asked the elders to give him time to think and asked them to come the next day for further talks on the matter. Franco on his part forestalled all the movements taking place and said he would speak with the village elders and the villagers who were very glad that he was with them and had personally helped them regain their homes. The next day during the

gathering with the elders, chief Samuel had no choice but to an- nul the decision he had taken. The news was passed round the village and there was greater joy all over the village. Teboh was not happy with this idea. He liked the disorder that was taking place because his greatest desire was to have the throne for himself and his faction. He then decided to make friends with Franco so as to create tension which he would exploit to ascend the throne

QUESTIONS

Select the correct answer from the list.

1) Chief Fidelis came from ——————-village

A) Whifit B) whenyo

C) Wenenge

D) Whetguier

2) Any body who refused money to support Samuel's am-

bition was—————————-

A) Given more money

B) Crushed

C) Crown as king

D) Driven from the village

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3) A proclaimed decision passed by a chief is called ——

———-——————-—————————-————

A) Patriotism

B) chief's decision

C) royal edict

D) Leadership

Provide answers to the following questions:

4) Give the recommendations found in the letter Franco

took to the palace?———————————————— ————————————————-—-———-——

5) Surandi thought that because of his money he had ——

—————————powers

5) List three changes Franco brought to the army as the ar-

my commander?—————————————————

————————————————————-———

————————————————-——-——-—

6) Franco protested against the chief's——-——-———

7) Give words close in meaning to each of the following:

- appoint ——————————-————————-

- humiliate ————————————-——————

- Bravery ————————————-——————

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