Tazoacha Asonganyi

In 1949, God gave Cameroon and Africa a gift in the person of Prof. Tazoacha Asonganyi, and took him away last year. Today, July 3, marks the first anniversary of Prof. Asonganyi’s departure.  He accomplished his mission on earth, as a Biomedical Scientist and a constructive-social critic.  Family, friends, and foes, alike around the globe are impressed and thankful to God for his intellect, generosity, pursuit of truth, and struggle for cultural, national, African and international development. 

 

We worked closely with him on the publication of his memoir published in English and French:  Difficult Choices in a Failed Democracy and Choix Difficiles dans une democracie de facade. We are thankful to all those who helped to make sure the publications saw the light of day.  He pushed forward the project as if he knew the end was near and was thankful that he was able to launch bilingual versions of his memoir in Cameroon.

 

The memoir launching train started in Yaounde, early June and ended in Bamenda.  It never came to the States, Canada or to Europe but copies of both versions are available for everyone at home and abroad.

 

He passed away a day before the USA independence Day – a democratic country with checks and balances. One of his dying wishes was to make his views widely known in Cameroon and beyond.  He foresaw the impending strike in bilingual Cameroon.

 

These are some of his last words: “Make sure you fly high, make sure you fly fast; and make sure you fly safe!” … “Just do your best doing good, defending the truth, and being yourself.” Read his memoir for more of the great Statesman’s vision. Let the cost, $20 each, not deter you. There are free copies for those who cannot afford. In addition to reminiscence on the anniversary of his passing, we want to invite ALL to fulfill one of his cherished goals. Get a copy of his memoir

Dear Professor Asonganyi,

As you depart this world, we as Cameroonians are proud to say that In the time God gave you on this earth you delivered your mission; underlined by injecting intellectual political and medical values to serve all Cameroonians long after you have gone. You further captured all this value by your publication just before the bell rang.

While we regret your passing, there should be no mistake that the value you created to serve ALL Cameroonians will always remain intact.

My cry is not for the death of your body, but the death political wisdom in making Cameroon a better place for us all.

We are proud of you and thank God for our blessings in the wonderful things you created and left behind for us all. 

As an Asonganyi, you delivered the same high quality political judgement as shown by your great great great grand father Chief Asomghanghi (130 years earlier) when visited by German Explorer Gustav which ultimately resulted firstly in the international recognition of the BANGWA people and secondly in his re-enthronement after Gustav committed suicide while trying to escape from the Royal guards in Fontem.


i shall cry for your body, pray for your soul and the future for Cameroon, as your focus and desires were for CAMEROON to be a better place. 

Stay well and fare well with your ancestors and colleagues.

BE STRONG AS ALWAYS

DR AGBOR - LONDON

My condolences, as feelings of pain and bitterness become unbearable. It is my desire to convey a comforting thought based on the Holy Scriptures

Prof, it is very difficult to believe that henceforth we shall be referring to you as late Prof. Be that as it may, human life as we know has two inevitable points. Once born, the next stage is death. As humans, we hardly ever want to believe that it will happen to one as close to us as you were. We will miss you greatly especially during those difficult times climbing the hills of Lebialem in happiness or in sadness as you always did either to join a friend or family in burrying a beloved one or celebrating in one form or the other. Yes, you were an academician having attained the pinacle of academic learning but you were more than that. I do not imagine you ever missing an important village or Lebialem development meeting. Though you are gone, your  impact on the family and society at large will remain for decades and even centuries to come.
  Now we must take consolation in the fact that God took you away from us hopefully to be in a better place for the future. Afterall, Christ the almighty son of God lived barely for about 33 years. When he died we know and believe he had accomplished his earthly mission. Though we mourn your death, we also believe that you accomplished all what the Lord God assigned you to do on earth.
  I hope you will console the family you left behind through the spirit of the almighty.
Mbeseha

So it is all true! In fact, I had the longest night when I got the news that evening, that Prof. Tazoacha Asonganyi is no more. My response; please do not play with such a magnitude of information. Shouts, Cries, Tears were just coming with no control. Why now? What happened? I couldn't ask God; Why him? Because no one can question God!
Prof had done it all on earth, and the Lord said: Come Home my Son!
"Many will know your worth after loosing you - Prof Michael Tazoacha Asonganyi!"  Fear not those who kill the flesh, but not the soul. Go in Peace, Brother.

My deepest condolences to the woman of your life Sister Flo.; and your children. Be strong and pray for him too!
Bye Bye Brother Mike. We loved you, but God Loved you more.

Elizabeth Morfaw Ngwa.  

News of Professor Asonganyi’s death cut through the heavy air and filled Lebialem people with tears and acute pain. I found it hard to believe that Professor Asonganyi has gone to meet the Lord until credible sources confirmed after I called. As darkness hang over Lebialem in particular and Cameroon in general, I wonder what I can say at a sad time like this. I pondered over mourning in silence and revealing my heart to my beloved and bereaved Lebialem people. I then settled for the later while knowing it is hard to be coherent and comprehensive this early in tragedy, yet I must not hold back my thoughts and feelings over a titanic loss!

After visiting Professor Asonganyi not long ago, it quickly came to my full attention that his ears were ever ready to listen intently, his heart was perpetually set to feel for others, especially the down-trodden, the cheated, and the voiceless, and his hands were steadily stretched out to even the least among the group that were in his presence. I have read all his writings wherever I have found them, knowing the content, logic, ethics, and the lushness of his writing acumen would wow and mould me for a life of wisdom, integrity, and determination.

As a paragon of virtue, humility, sharp intellect, and steadfastness, Prof. challenged, championed, and changed the rocky, risky, rambunctious political landscape of Cameroon and further left footprints of enforcement of transparent elections beyond Cameroon. He did so without blowing his own trumpet.

He didn’t curry favour for immediate gratification as many do, thus serving as a bright ray of light to those who believe in integrity and democracy.  I concur with a 19th-century poet, Henry W. Longfellow, that “When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the paths of men.”

Fenced on all sides by a toxic political vicinity where his opponents sought war, he yearned for peace; where they bandied bitter words, he looped towards soft-spoken dialogue, and where they wrecked, he rebuilt bridges of friendship without compromising the principles to which he held fast. I will readily agree with Thomas Carlyle that “No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men” and, of course, will concur with Marcus Tulius Cicero (106-43 BC), a Roman writer, politician, and orator, that “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.” Therefore, as Lebialem people mourn the loss of an icon, they must pause to note that “a great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone” (Paul Valery), and must ask themselves how they will be remembered when the mighty, twisted, and blind death calls.

A TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR TAZOACHA ASONGANYI CALLED TO THE LORD ON SUNDAY, JULY 3, 2016.

Dear Prof. TA,

It is still like a joke, like a dream. On June 30, 2016 at exactly 6.30pm, I zoomed into your room at the Yaounde General Hospital together with Mrs Stella Amin. You jumped up from your bed and as usual said PG Emeritus welcome. I have come to see you as I was told you took ill some weeks ago.  You said that it started like worms, but when you got to the hospital, it became something else. There are plans to evacuate me abroad, you said. After chatting with you for sometimes, we left.  On the way, I wept at your appearance that to me was not too good.

On July 3, 2016, you passed on and another 1949 has left the scene to the world beyond. Another lebang Professor from Yaounde has bowed out, just so soon. The short journey has ended, but many things to your credit to remember you. We shared a lot on LECUDO matters, the constitution and the chairman of the Committee on Mbindia crisis, etc. I thank you. Come to think of it, TA, your exit, rather untimely, is painful and a terrible loss to Lebang, Lebialem, Cameroon and the world. You were a first class in everything.

Safe journey, Prof. TA. To Charles Asonganyi, a happy re-union forever. From your vantage position, pray for your family.  We thank God for your gift. Although too short, a life on earth, but mission accomplished. Adieu, Professor.

Paul N. Acha,

“He came, he saw and he reformed”.

The telephone message I received at 9.30 pm on July 4th 2016, breaking the news of your return to our ancestors and our creator, hit me like a time boom, sending waves of sorrow all over my body. How would it be so sudden,? When I visited you during the middle of that week in hospital I did not notice it coming?

They say “each new generation years to prove itself – and, in proving itself, to accomplish great things for humanity”. Yes, Prof, your first research project accelerated the near extinction of the tsetse fly in Lebialem, and other areas in Cameroon thus freeing your people from the devastation deaths of sleeping sickness.

Upon arrival in Centre Universitaire de des Sciences de la Santé (CUSS), you immediately transformed the science laboratories into modern laboratory class rooms for the transmission of knowledge which you dispensed with elaborate care diligence and precision. Those whom you taught, here in Cameroun, or at the University of Port Harcourt, as a visiting Professor are full of praises for you, they too will mess you.

Then came the birth of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in Bamenda with their magnetic Slogan of “Power to the People”, and the promise of reigning in Social Democracy in Cameroon.

Most intellectuals bought their ideas and joined the party. You rose through elections to become the Secretary General of the S.D.F, a position you occupied for close to a decade and a half.

Your dedication to grass root political education attracted a huge following into the party and drove them to the fur front of Cameroon politics gaining them many councils and parliamentary seats in the country.

While some of the politicians were gunning for personal gains, you preferred the general cause and served the people with selfless love. As you battled to maintain some form of equilibrium between the constitution of the party and their bylaws in order to avoid the potentially chaotic environment within the party which threatened to destroy the party, party Hawks descended on you like vampires. You did not give up.

You summed up your political philosophy in your book “Difficult choices in a failed Democracy”, when you wrote; if we can succeed to entrench the idea that every president, no matter who, no matter how good they are, no matter how popular they are, can only have a maximum of two five years terms, and enforce it would be a great achievement that would have a great impact on the future of Cameroon” cf. p. 6 (it would reassure the people that power emanates from them).

They say pioneers plant trees, but late comers rest in the shade. Yes, Prof. you were a real pioneer and you have planted the seeds of a social movement, may God send the rain to water them. As we mourn you, we seek comfort in the words of Henry Adams who wrote; “that fine teachers attain a kind of immortality because it is impossible to know when, or if their influence stops”. Farewell Prof TAZOACHE ASONGANYI, your influence will never stop.

In moments like these, many lose stability when the react. The demise of Professor Asonganyi Tazoacha came to some of us by surprise. Many including myself did not even learn of his illness. Death they say is always a strange or unwanted visitor.   Gradually however, we soon get used to the story. We are not learning to believe that we are henceforth going to miss Prof

    Prof was not only a wonderful academician and a savvy politician but also a development focused and cultural defender. For lack of words to properly describe him, I will say that he wore his academic robes over his cultural garments.  In spite of your busy professional and political schedules you were nearly always present in every development meeting held anywhere in the ills of Lebialem. You participated in nearly every solemn event to bid your kinsmen a final good bye even in the most hostile weather conditions. It is now time for us to pay you back in your own coins. We hope that when we next meet you in the world yonder you will in your usual manner have prepared a betting reception for your new guests.

The recent transition of Prof Asonganyi to eternity has hit the Lebialem community like a thunderbolt and evoked memories of other great sons and daughters of ours who preceded him to eternity. When we have had the time to digest the implications of the lost of this intellectual behemoth to us as a people, the next logical step should and must be how to built on his legacy and ensure his life work like of those who went before him does not go in vain.

In a dystopian society like our beloved Cameroon where the centre truly no longer holds, the falcon no longer hears the falconer and anarchy by thin-skinned leaders has been unleashed on the people in its  most vile albeit subtle form, In a nation like ours where political perfidy is rife; where the moral compass of the political, intellectual and traditional so called leaders has lost its true north and public gullibility has led these leaders to form a pact with the devil in exchange for a seat at the power baguette at the expense of the masses, Lebialem could until a few days ago boast of one of theirs who was different and whose moral compass indeed had a true north. Those who knew Prof Asonganyi closely are aware of the temptations he was faced with and thus can truly appreciate the personal sacrifices he made as well as the content of his character. A man like few others in Cameroon willing to speak for the voiceless and stand up for the meek at great personal cost. He was not just an intellectual giant but a moral icon. In a society like ours where facts have become an exotic collection only good for the museum rather than true ingredients of societal improvement recipe, honest brokers tend to offend both sides of the divide. Prof was indeed an equal-opportunity offender who was not only a fierce critique of the political debauchery of Yaoundé cabal but who equally vehemently opposed the treachery of the political party he led as the secretary general when it became clear that the leadership of that party had drank the 'Koo-Aid' from Yaoundé and had become mortally afflicted by the same virus of nepotism, tribalism, corruption, self-perpetration in power and immunity to the common man's tribulations. He was as critical of the pseudo-intellectuals obsequious to the political class as he was of the gullible traditional leaders who were willing to disregard all social norms in pursuit of political power and money.

I can no longer weep for the tears are all dry up.  I can no longer scream because my voice is hoarse, I can no longer stamp my feet in agony because they are tired. Growing up, I saw a class of Lebialem intellectuals who inspired me and I believe others like me. Some like Mr. Kitts Beboh, Mr. Mbelem, Prof, Theresa Ndonko, Prof  Martin Amin, Dr. Ekokobe, Dr. Formbin, Dr Asong and Dr Asonganyi like you Prof, Asonganyi have gone too soon. Prof, when you meet them, express our sincere thanks to them for what they did to us even if we were not able to say so when they were living; Tell them that notwithstanding their foibles we will continue to remember them and yourself. I am tempted to ask what Lebialem has done to deserve this but I know the sham medical system in Cameroon has contributed in no small measures to the early departure of some of you. For the people of Lebialem, yours was the generation of Moses and you might have led us to the vicinity of the promise land without entering it yourselves. Among those you led and inspired however, there will rise a Joshua who will lead us to the promise land proper. I still remember as a young man the fight some of you fought to get us first GSS Fontem which has produced many of the current crop of Lebialem intellectuals, the fight to get us a division with every modest benefit it has brought us and you personally prof above all else the fight to usher in true democracy and rule of law in Cameroon as well as the fight against adulteration of our proud Lebialem culture in favour of political expediency and self interest. Though I may not know why you people left too soon, I know how to remember you.

When a crisis of this magnitude hits us, our usual response is to plan for a "befitting burial”, which is a code name for lavish foods, drinks, new clothing for the moaners and in some cases a cap for the successor waiting in the wings. But you are no ordinary person; you are a giant hence we will dare to try something different in your name and that of all our famous sons and daughters.

To my fellow brethren who like me are left to grief with the immediate family, after shedding tears and consoling the immediate family, let us remember these words from President JFK “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honours, the men it remembers. Let us ensure these giants of ours including some I may have unintentionally not mentioned never get forgotten. We should ensure that future generation of Lebiamers and all those who set foot on Lebialem soil remember them and that the light they lit continues to shine ever so brighter. If only we can place a few other Lebialem academic neophytes on shoulders of these giants in their quest to be tomorrow's intellectuals and good community servants, then we would have succeeded.

We can start by taking the following simple steps in their honour ;

(i) Provision of scholarship for lebialem deserving children;

(ii) Award of prizes for academic and community service to lebialem children

(iii) Naming streets and some landmarks in Lebialem after them

(iv) Erecting monuments of them in Lebialem

Ultimately, I think the time is now to start thinking about establishing a Lebialem history museum where the biography of these and other illustrious lebialem denizens will be exhibited. One way forward may be to create a foundation with proceeds going into the above mentioned projects and other projects that lebialem people may think of in honour of our fallen heroes and why not of those who are still alive and have given much to Lebialem. Above all, let us pull together and work as a team rather than a collection of talented individuals. Then and only then will Lebialem be able to live its full creed achieve goals commensurate with its potentials.

 Edmund Folefac, MD, MSc.

ASS prof, of medicine (Hematology & oncology)

Professor Tazoacha Asonganyi, the warrior and the champion of Justice, FREEDOM (Liberty), Equality and Fraternity is gone but will NEVER be forgotten!

A man with a bright mind, a man of sharp intellect who, in his special and humble way, contributed toward World Peace, especially in places of political turbulence, including Cameroon, has been called home.  From his humble beginnings when he served in the 1960s as Secretary General of Bangwa Union of Students to his towering position and giant of the SDF Party as its Secretary General, Professor Asonganyi contributed immensely in shaping the landscape of Cameroon Politics and the advancement of knowledge; and in many respects to that of the world!

Professor Asonganyi: Cameroon, as a Nation, may not have appreciated your contributions to nation building and may not have awarded you any or enough accolades; but I belief and hope that your awards await you in the Heavenly Kingdom - awards inscribed in gold and studded in crystals and diamonds to last forever!

God speed, Professor Tazoacha Asonganyi!

My deepest condolences.  May these few words from the Holy Scriptures bring you comfort in your time of grief...

John 11:32-45

32 And so Mary, when she arrived where Jesus was and caught sight of him, fell at his feet, saying to him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping and the Jews that came with her weeping, groaned in the spirit and became troubled; 34 and he said: “Where have YOU laid him?” They said to him: “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus gave way to tears. 36 Therefore the Jews began to say: “See, what affection he used to have for him!” 37 But some of them said: “Was not this [man] that opened the eyes of the blind man able to prevent this one from dying?”

38 Hence Jesus, after groaning again within himself, came to the memorial tomb. It was, in fact, a cave, and a stone was lying against it.39 Jesus said: “TAKE the stone away.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him: “Lord, by now he must smell, for it is four days.”40 Jesus said to her: “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Therefore they took the stone away. Now Jesus raised his eyes heavenward and said: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 True, I knew that you always hear me; but on account of the crowd standing around I spoke, in order that they might believe that you sent me forth.” 43 And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice: “Laz´a·rus, come on out!” 44The [man] that had been dead came out with his feet and hands bound with wrappings, and his countenance was bound about with a cloth. Jesus said to them: “Loose him and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews that had come to Mary and that beheld what he did put faith in him;

Please go to the following link for more information regarding the Hope expressed in this passage

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/dead-live-again-tract/dead-live-again