The Life and Times of a Cameroonian Icon: Tribute to Lapiro De Mbanga Ngata Man

Chapter 7 - Eulogies and Obituaries for the fallen Hero

107 Chapter 7 Eulogies and Obituaries for the fallen Hero The first of these panegyrics is Herbert Boh’s stellar write-up captioned “My Tribute to Cameroon’s Best Political Activist Ever” published in the AFOaKOM forum: My Tribute to Cameroon’s Best Political Activist Ever By Boh Herbert. It was a Sunday in the early 1990s. It was one of only two days every week for six months when Cameroon pretended to be a normal country. Citizens did brisk business on Saturday and Sunday. Monday through Friday, Cameroon sank into the civil disobedience campaign code-named “ghost town.” Excluding the pre- and post-independence armed struggle, this was unprecedented political revolt for a country that advertises the docile nature of its citizens as proof it is an island of peace. In a small hall on a campus owned by the Presbyterian Church in Bamenda, about three dozen leaders of political dissidents—the coalition later named the Union for Change—the group that had engineered the revolt, were gathered to take stock, refine strategies as they did frequently… switching towns each time. The firebrand leader of the Students’ Parliament reiterated the commitment of students to bring about the country of their dreams, decrying “the monster at Etoudi” who he said was preventing that dream from becoming reality. A Douala-based lawyer laid out what the law provides and what it forbids, cautioning the leaders gathered to seek a cunning path by finding and taking the many legal cracks on 108 the books. Another Douala-based computer expert spoke of how the cause could win support from the West now that it had mobilized the people, and of the promise that new information technology held for helping spread liberty and transform countries across Africa. Then a musician spotting smart low-heel white relax shoes, a pair of wrangler jeans, a white T-shirt and a sleeveless jeans jacket rose to speak. You could hear a pin drop as Sandjo Lambo Pierre Roger (Lapiro) prepared to speak. Also known affectionately by millions of his fans as “Ndinga Man” for his immense talent as a guitarist, Lapiro died last March 16 in Buffalo, New York. He was 56. While it can be said that the “ghost towns” were begotten, not made by yet another hero from the grassroots, Mboua Massock, it was Lapiro de Mbanga who became its undisputed spiritual leader and community organizer. At that Presbyterian Church Center meeting, hosted by the then relatively unknown and timid-to-a-fault SDF leader, Ni John Fru Ndi, it was Lapiro who played king and/or king- maker. It was clear to everyone at this meeting or others before and after it, that Lapiro was way up in the pecking order within the fast-growing squadron of opposition leaders. Speaking in that trade mark mixture of French, English and Pidgin “Made in Ndinga Man’s Head,” he called for unity among leaders who must, he stressed, remember to serve the people –the poor –”et non se server”… as they work to initiate swift, decisive action needed to oust the dictatorship in the capital, Yaounde. “Na Etoudi be we destination,” he said in that impeccable Franglais he coined. I had known Lapiro, the musician. Just a few months earlier, I believe, I had taken my spouse – at the time my fiancée – to a music concert at Cinema Abbia, where Makossa legend Ben Decca was scheduled to play for the 109 very last time on one of those his many, many retirement concerts that were always followed by a comeback and then another retirement gig. It was a Ben Decca event, so to speak, but the only reason we (my spouse and I) had gone was to see Lapiro bring down the house. At Cinema Abbia that night, it was Lapiro, the musician and Boh Herbert, one of Lapiro’s fans. At the Presbyterian Church Center, Boh Herbert the journalist was still adjusting to Lapiro, the very savvy political animal. In a career that saw him rub shoulders with musical immortals and saints like Jimmy Cliff and Fela Ransom Kuti, Lapiro used his art as a weapon to win freedom, foster democracy, denounce abuse, advance the cause of the poor, decry injustice, lend his voice to the voiceless and defy the tyrant in power to resign or be forced, by the will of the people, to accept an overdue change of guard at...