They worship the unholy trinity of bad roads, scarce water and erratic electricity. Food is ready by 7 am. There are no taxis but hundreds of bendskins (commercial motorcycle taxis). There is no proper market, only one modern filling station and dozens of roadside petrol kiosks. And a commanding cathedral looming over the town.
By Azore Opio
Mamfe. Manyu Division. South West Region.
Those who do not know Manyu have been mourning ceaselessly and yet Manyu is not even a half dead.
Fast rewind when Prof. Peter Agbor Tabi said the road leading to Mamfe from Kumba would be tarred in 18 months. It was never to be. Rewind. See Manyuans gurgling with expectations. See the hopes of safe, comfortable travel between Mamfe and Kumba and beyond rise like a tide, then ebb. Rewind, see the castles of a boomtown along the banks of Manyu River built in the air. Keep rewinding two, five, 10, 15, 20 years and stop somewhere in the year 2000. Fast forward to 2004; to 2011 on the eve of elections…and Manyu is dizzy with retarded development; whirling in agony.
Manyu is on its own and its worst enemy, it is whispered, is the Manyu man.
“During the last elections in 2011 we were told work would start on the road in May. Can you build a road in the South West in during the rainy season?” asked Takang Stephen, a palm oil trader.
“So many years ago, Prof. Agbor Tabi, now Assistant Secretary General at the Presidency, told us that the Kumba-Mamfe road would be tarred in 18 months. It was not to be. The Chinese came, pegged the road as it is being done now. They stayed a while and went, leaving behind only babies. Until we see tar on the road, we will not believe anything,” Takang said.
When electric power goes off, sometimes for as long as three weeks, potable water also disappears. It is then that noisy, fuming generator sets brewing oily smoke take over power generation.
“Whenever there is power outage, we cannot watch the national TV although they say the transmission station has a standby generator,” said Tambe Dickson Ashu, one-time CPDM councillor for Etoko, Upper Banyang Subdivision, now a farmer. “What is wrong in rehabilitating Yoke dam?”
For all the talk of Manyu politicians of development, Manyu still makes its citizens know their place on the Cameroonian map, and wishing that things were a little different strikes one as a pastime like trying to write your name on beach sand.
Most Manyuans know that their politicians run shady politics but both parties choose to look the other way. One word may explain this: Greed. The rhetoric on Manyu follows the usual script. Manyu politicians or the Mamfeiosi, if you like, have often pandered to the Mamfe road for votes, the marvel for voting for the ruling party, the heroism of the party and a video clip of uniformed party militants dancing for the eye of the camera. Even then, it is obvious that Manyu is not fine although it is often run as a circus act.
Underdevelopment Madness
When it comes to underdevelopment, Mamfe, and its mother Manyu, are probably much less backward than other Divisional headquarters in the South West. Yet much of Manyu’s induced poverty and backwardness can be traced to the underdevelopment of road networks, stunted agricultural production, retarded industry and commerce.
Sixteen abandoned bridges adorn the Kumba-Mamfe road from Kumba up to Nguti midway to Mamfe. Other bridges left to gather grass stretch all the way to Mamfe from Nguti.
As government continuously turned its attention and care away from Manyu, restless Manyuans started looking westward to Nigeria. Manyuans have had to sever the umbilical cord that connected them physically, politically, socially and economically to the rest of Cameroon and turn to Nigeria since spreading economic opportunities for the Manyuans does not seem to be government’s strong suits.
Travelling along the Kumba-Mamfe road is already depressing enough, a trauma voyagers have willed themselves not to resent. Yet, the numerous checkpoints seem to rub in the pains deeper. It only makes sense then, that in a neglected Division like Manyu immensely endowed with natural resources such as thick forests and their products, the people would befriend their closest neighbour.
“Agricultural production is stagnant in Manyu. What little produce comes out of the Division goes to Nigeria. It is better that way,” Tambe lamented.
He said Manyu is a subject of awful neglect.
“Recently, the National Chemical Commission carried out training on chemical and fertiliser handling throughout the South West Region except in Manyu. They just by-passed us,” Tambe said.
“The only group of people who benefit from the bad road are government agents, extorting money from road users,” said Ayuketah Tambe said.
Doubting Manyuans
Among Manyu’s vast hectares of rainforest are wild game, bush mango [mbulu or Irvingia gabonensis], eru, njangsa, cocoa, oil palm, chewing stick [wombolu kapkpu]….
“If Kumba exports 50% of South West cocoa, then much of it comes from Manyu. But there are no statistics of cocoa production in Manyu. We sell our cocoa in Nigerian and some is sold in Douala by local buying agents (LBAs),” said Tambe Dickson.
Manyuans have lost interest in the Kumba-Mamfe road. And politicians’ promises. And we may add to this innumerable other promises, surveys and peggings. The shortest route to their kith and kin inside the country is too dilapidated to use; so why would Manyuans not do business with Nigerians in Nigeria? Over time, many shock absorbers of the road lost their springs. Today, as we scribble this article, travellers along the Kumba-Mamfe route have resorted to the ‘Timber Road’ from Nugti to Mamfe.
“We won’t be surprised if the road is not constructed at all. After all, so many years ago, Chinese engineers came and pegged the road, as it is being done now. They stayed a while and left. The road was not constructed but the Chinese left behind bastard children,” Abgor Divine Ayuk told The Green Vision. “Until we see tar on the road, we won’t believe a thing.”
It takes more than nine hours to cover a distance of about 150 km from Mamfe to Kumba, given the calamitous road conditions.
“We have been fooled too many times. Until we see tar on the Kumba-Mamfe road, there is no believing,” Bessem Margaret told The Green Vision.
There are no taxis in Manyu. Bendskins have overtaken the yellow cab business and illicit petrol, oranges and other goods still enter Manyu from Nigeria. In return, timber from Manyu is sawn, nailed into rafts and floated to Nigeria along the Manyu River.
“The Nigerian smugglers build rafts, cook and sleep on them and float all the way to Nigeria,” said Tambe Dickson.
Perhaps it is needless to mourn for Manyu, or Mamfe, for they are not yet dead. ‘Mami 12’, probably the best cook there is in Mamfe town, opens up her restaurant at noon exactly. She sells the most delicious eru and fufu, ogbono soup and the rest of other mouth-watering dishes. Then again, Manyu is rich in everything thinkable – fresh water bodies, forests and their products. The Division is a bio-diversity hot spot. It is replete with protected areas. It hosts Takamanda National Park and partly the Korup National Park and the Bayang-Mbo’o Wildlife Sanctuary – all tourist destinations and research locations.
Manyu has butterflies, birds, wild flowers and awe-inspiring sceneries, all found in this forgotten Treasure Island.
