No, Wait! Let Mama Speak… – When the Elders Speak…

Beschreibung

No, Wait! Let Mama Speak… : Testimonies of Eton and Manguissa patriarchs and matriarchs on colonisation in Cameroon: Mama Nga Ndongo Jeanne IV, Papa Ebode Émile, Papa Fouda Mathieu and three unknown informants

Editions AfricAvenir reveals the voices of Cameroonian patriarchs and matriarchs on German colonisation in Cameroon.
The Elders spoke in their own national languages. The interviews were recorded, transcribed in the respective Cameroonian languages, translated into French, German and English.
Let Begin in the Centre Region with interviews in Eton and Manguissa, translated into English
No, Wait! Let Mama Speak…
“They treated us very badly. You started working in the morning, only to stop at nightfall. And that’s how we were beaten up. We were working 12 months out of 12 and we were paid 5 shillings per month. The White man whom you worked for was the one who paid your taxes to the administrator. At that time, the Germans
hanged chiefs, with people sitting there watching how they kill you. No… Germans were such bad people… To call people on the way, the administrator sent soldiers. When they came to take you or your son, did you have nothing to say? What would you say? Others went and died. A lot. Just like in Israel, like those who died in the Bible. Illnesses and whipping. The Germans and the French were rowdy people, they did not want peace. People wanted to let the French come. Many people wanted the French people to come… They realised that Germans were not good people.
However, they didn’t know it was death itself that they were inviting, death.”
When the Elders Speak… We keep sailing from surprise to surprise. Thanks to these oral testimonies from beyond the grave, our knowledge of Cameroon colonial past regains its vitality. Each monograph comes out with its lot of information either to question what we considered as facts, or to supplement our knowledge of this hot period in our history. Dedicated exclusively to the Centre Region, this volume carries the voices of six old Betis: Mama
Nga Ndongo Jeanne IV, Papa Ebode Émile, Papa Fouda Mathieu and three unknown informants. These witnesses to history, recorded between 1981 and 1986, gave their own version of the facts in Eton and Manguissa languages so as to keep our collective memory lively. What do they have to tell us? What is their experience? It’s up to us to discover

Languages : ETON/MANGUISSA/ENGLISH
Éditions AfricAvenir 2020
Size : 160 x 240 mm – 126 pages
ISBN: 978-9956-693-74-0
Publishing director: Kum’a Ndumbe III

Responsibility: interviews conducted by Kum’a Ndumbe III & Mr. Kede ; transcription: Hubert Nkoumou ; English translation: Jessica Nkenne Tchinda.