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~ 1 ~ CHAPTER ONE INTERVIEW WITH PROF. DR. G.B. TANGWA [This interview, conducted by Geert van der Velde in April 2006, for the Students Magazine of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, was a follow-up to a symposium lecture delivered by me, at the invitation of the Medical Students of Groningen University, in December 2005, under the theme: „Western Research into Non-Western Diseases”] It is interesting to see how philosophers of different cultures and backgrounds challenge the same problems in a different way. Professor Dr. Tangwa lives in Cameroon and finds himself in a country which fights against famine, AIDS, exploitation by western countries and companies, to mention but a few of the recurring themes in his everyday life. As a philosopher Dr. Tangwa challenges these problems, and specifically Cameroon’s, and while doing so he draws upon African culture - his own Nso heritage in particular - to find answers for many of these urgent questions. Question: In many of your articles you start from problems that are directly related to Africa or Africa’s fate. You also draw on African (Nso) culture in your attempts to come up with solutions to these problems. Could you tell us a little about your own background and the culture you draw so much inspiration from? Tangwa: I was born into an extended family in a large African compound called ‘Lum’, in the village of Ndzenshwai-Shisong, in the Fondom (Kingdom) of Nso’, in the Northwestern (Bamenda) highlands of Cameroon. My biological parents were among the Christian converts of the lineage, so I was baptised at birth and had the privilege in my early upbringing of both traditional (pagan, if you like) and Christian influences. The first Christian (Catholic) mission in the whole of the Bamenda region had been established in Shisong in 1912 by two German priests, Lennartz and Emontz, of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, sent by their mother house, Sittard in Holland. Ndzenswhai was one of about six quarters or sub-villages of Shisong, being the most densely populated and the only one with ~ 2 ~ many traditional families. The other quarters of Shisong were inhabited mostly by Christian converts, many of whom had migrated from other villages of the Nso’ Fondom, to live close to the Church and sometimes to escape from the religious persecution of their ‘pagan’ kith and kin. Ndzenswhai is nicely separated from the rest of the other quarters of Shisong by the River Shwai. Around the early nineteen hundreds, when the Fon (King) of Nso’, Nga’-Bihfon I, gave Shisong to the Catholic missionaries for settlement, Nzdenswhai comprised about half a dozen family lineages (Kilam, Wang, Kigom, Lum, Mbiim and Lavkishwang); the last-mentioned of which is no longer in existence today, having completely relocated to another part of the Fondom, while all the others have suffered a diminution in population strength, physical appurtenances and general visibility, owing to rural-urban migration, erosion of the traditional fabric of life, general impoverishment and the devastating effects of modern epidemics. I am basically a villager in my dispositions, attitudes and innate expectations/reactions and, in spite of having widely travelled the world, Ndzenshwai-Shisong remains the only place on planet Earth where I feel completely at home and at peace with myself. And yet, as of today (2006), Ndzenshwai has neither electricity nor a paved road, our collective efforts, entreaties and expectations, in this regard, having been consistently frustrated by the governmental people of Cameroon. We do, however, have a small pipe-borne water scheme which resulted from an initiative of one of my European friends, Sue Willdig, who helped us arrange initial funding for the project from the German NGO, Missereor. The pioneer Catholic missionaries established two Westernstyle primary schools in Shisong, one for boys and the other for girls. I went to primary school at the age of 3 and, upon completion, decided to follow the path of the Catholic priesthood, following the encouragement particularly of many Reverend sisters (Shisong also had a convent) and also that of my parents. At the seminary, I suffered a crisis of conscience which convinced me that I was more of a pagan than a Christian in the depths of my heart, and (doctrinally) a potential heretic, as a future priest. In spite of being rated a brilliant student and exemplary candidate for the priesthood, I voluntarily decided to quit the path to the priesthood, to the disappointment, if not consternation, of many including my family...

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