CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ORIGINAL MBUM MARRIAGE

CHOICE OF PARTNER

PARENTAL CONCERN AND GUIDANCE

            In view of the importance attached to marriage, parents brought up their children to the age of maturity with this concept in mind. They taught them lessons of self–control, endurance, honesty, faithfulness, respect for elders, and obedience to parental instructions, sense of cooperation, etc. Besides verbal instructions given to their children on these virtues, their own life–style was a shining example. Children on their part responded with strict obedience and respect to parental instruction, education and guidance. Young men prepared themselves for marriage by building their own houses, no matter how small they were, because you could not get married, still living with your parents. Their own houses too, were small (usually only one or two rooms) girls remained faithful, hardworking, courteous, involved in child care, farming and cooking activities, etc.

            When the time for the choice of a life partner came, parental guidance and approval had to be sought. Parents were very concerned about the families to which their sons and daughters had to be married. They would accept their son or daughter to be engaged to somebody in a family whose members lacked comportment and good behaviour.

            Some times too, a certain parent would voluntarily give his daughter to a young man of another family for marriage either because of his own good behaviour or because of that family’s comportment. The word “Give” here does not in any case imply that marriage formalities and transactions would be omitted. It simply meant that love and good will had been demonstrated between the two families through this act. Marriage transactions on the man’s side and the beneficiaries on the woman’s side were the concern of every member of those two families (not even limited only to the nuclear family but to the extended family at large.)

            This was a great controlling factor to the partners from the time of their engagement up to their married life as any misbehaviour by any of them would invite the intervention and sanction of the entire family (families).

OUR TRADITIONAL REGALIA IN DANGER

Any ethnic group which only seeks to preserve without asserting its cultural values and practices risks loosing its cultural identity altogether. Here, I will be talking about the gradual and steady prostitution of our traditional gowns and caps. Change is part of human life and in fashion too, we live its evolution through the years. Change can be intolerant e.g. with the wearing of mini–skirts, while a British Minister could admire his female secretary’s legs, (each time she streamed into the office), many people were against the attire. Good enough, magistrate Savge in Victoria (today Limbe) once ordered the arrest of women shabbily dressed, with their thighs exposed. I congratulate him for that. In the North West Region of Cameroon, the wearing of traditional gowns and caps, follow specific patterns as prescribed by specific traditions. The colour and design of each traditional regalia help to identify the position held by each person who uses any of them. The designs vary the traditions of ethnic groups. The “Nfuh” society in Nso and Mbum, the Kwifor society in Ngemba have their types. The black small fibre caps “Lantong” which are highly respected in the West Region too and which the Littoral traditional rulers are adapting with ease are the free–for–all type. Until recently, special traditional regalia were never sold in the common market. They were acquired on special orders and circulated strictly within the traditional society. Today the untameable quest for money has prostituted our tradition. The caps and gowns are sold and used anyhow. This common use can no longer easily identify a traditional ruler on sight in any part of the Region as was the case with Foncha who distinguished himself (as a Bamenda chief at the UN) in a well embroidered traditional gown, a specially designed cap and a walking stick. The hair saloons do a marvellous job to our girls and women, giving a finishing touch to the crown the Almighty gave them. I love their hair–do–styles which change almost daily. It is evolution. But imagine a beautiful girl or woman dressed in a “Wifa’s” gown and a “Nformi’s” red–feathered-cap. It’s intolerable. During the Pope’s visit to Cameroon, our women dressed in heavy traditional attire dancing as if they were going to a “Nfuh” house. Even in the North West, you find young girls parading in front of traditional rulers in traditional regalia. How protected is our culture! What I mean here is that these women have come too near into the men’s “eighteen.” I hate to wear the Scottish skirt or the Kaba Ngondo. Men tolerate their wearing of trousers, shirts, cowboy’s hat, Hausa gowns and Senegalese suits. I wish to warn here that they have gone to far. As soon as women start wearing the two aprons that go with the traditional gown and cap, we shall explode. Fortunately, animal horns are too heavy for them to carry. We must start addressing this issue seriously in order to preserve our rich and time–tested tradition. So women, leave the wearing of traditional gowns and caps to the men. Do not help to degenerate a tradition which identifies itself with our very being.

GCE Fraud Allegations

Cameroon Journal, September 16, Yaounde -Besides growing denunciations of Humphrey Monono for withholding to this day, payment to teachers who corrected the GCE examination in July because they accepted a banquet offered by SDF chairman, John Fru Ndi, the GCE board chair is at the centre of another incident – one that may actually take his head. This one is related to examination fraud and mal practice.

The Cameroon Journal was informed by a source that opted for anonymity how Humphrey got entangled in this case. Narrating the story, our source said, one Florence Forchu was appointed chief invigilator of the 2013 /2014 GCE examination in a Yaoundé centre. Forchu, who is current Vice Principal of Government Bilingual High School Etoug-Egbe, Yaoundé, was superintendent of the GCE Centre where students of renowned La Gaite College sat for the examination.

During the exam exercise, some students of the college got to the centre about 1hour, 30 minutes late for Mathematics Paper III. In her capacity as Centre Superintendent, our source said, Forchu called the liaison officer for the GCE Board and spoke with an official whose name we got only as Lekundze, to inquire whether or not the students should be allowed to join the rest who were already taking the exam for over one hour, given that the regulations stipulate that students shall not be let into the examination hall, 30 minutes after start time for any subject.

La Gaite College, owned and run by the family of former Communication Minister, Augustine Kontchou Komeni, is the lone school in Central Africa that offers international baccalaureate in English. School fee for an academic year is about 2million FCFA. It is among the most expensive schools in Cameroon, with nursery, primary and secondary schools integrated. It is compared only to few other schools including the American school where school fee is about 800.000FCFA for an academic year.

According to our source, Forchu got the consent of Lekunze to send the students away. When Humphrey Monono the Registrar, learned about the incident, he allegedly grilled Forchu who justified her action on the grounds that her direct boss, the GCE liaison officer – Lekunze, was aware of the situation. Humphrey allegedly told the lady that she wasn’t a politician, to which she retorted that politics had nothing to do with the decision she took.

While participating in the marking of the GCE in Bamenda later on, Forchu was suspended by Humphrey. But surprisingly, when the final results came out, the students who did not at all sit for Mathematics, scored passed grades.

How did it come about? Going by our source, Konchou Komeni, Board Chairman of the University of Douala who is also the proprietor of College la Gaite called Monono and negotiated with him to give the students a pass in Mathematics.

“This is a scandal of the first order. You should call her and get the real facts before publishing the story. I will like to know the outcome of the interview with her. Thanks,” our source intimated.

When we got Florence Forchu on phone, she was belligerent that the issue was being brought up. “I am simply a victim in what happened. I don’t want to talk about the issue. It is in the past and I have put it behind me.” She stated angrily; adding that “I am a civil servant and an administrator; I am not giving information about this matter.”

Forchu stated further to the Cameroon Journal that she does not have power to take certain decisions on her own. Quizzed on whether she actually kept the students out of the examination hall and they got passed marks, she said, “those types of instructions only come from above. You journalist have a way of treating information to suite what you want to say. I don’t take decisions on behalf of the GCE board. I am not talking about this issue again, let’s call it a day. Thank you!”

Enter Sir Humphrey Monono

Responding to the allegations of fraud against him, Humphrey Monono, told the Cameroon Journal in an interview, September 14, that it was the students’ fault that they came late to the centre. He revealed that

the 8 students involved were not in possession of their personal time tables. “Teachers are not supposed to keep students’ individual time tables. Maybe the teachers were keeping them to make money out of them. I don’t know, but I learned that the individuals have been sanctioned by the administration of La Gaite.”

Asked why he clampdown on Forchu, Monono said that though she implemented the regulations of the board, there was also another option which she could have exploited.

“Given the gravity of the situation and that the students did not have their time table, they could have been quarantined.” He said they could have been kept away from the other students so that they could write the exams without knowing the questions from those who had already written.

The Monono also stated that he had nothing to do with the fact that students who did not write an examination came out with passed grades. “Getting a pass mark in an exam is not only about sitting for the examination. An examiner can look at a student and give him a mark” Monono stated. He also said that the Ministry of Secondary Education intervened in the matter and that the ministry equally forwarded to him a complaint letter which was written by the parents of the students from the school.

He, however, stated that the students were responsible for their lateness to a degree because they seemed to have kept themselves in their small group when writing mathematics paper I, and avoided mingling with other students who could have informed them about the time the next subject was to be written.

As if suggesting that he was under pressure from secondary education ministry, Monono said the decision was not his to make. “If these students did not sit for the exam and yet, passed, it was not by my influence. There are processes involved in the examination process which I cannot be explaining to you over the phone. But know that the decision was made by a whole council.” He said.

Meanwhile, a Vice Principal of a government secondary school in the NW Region confirmed to the Journal yesterday that they are yet to be paid their bonuses for marking the GCE this year. “Fru Ndi offered us an encouragement banquet; we went there and took part. It was great, with a music band performing live. We went there in groups. I was part of the first group of 1500 markers” the Vice Principal said.

The source said they were taken aback when the chief examiners told us that the registrar was not happy about the banquet and will not pay them for the job they did. The VP told CJ that they are waiting for the next examinations to come up, “that is when we will have our pound of flesh. We are like barbers, we are always needed” the source said.

According to the Vice Principal, it is outrageous that an administrator will bring in politics into something that has nothing to do with politicking. “Have sitting ministers who are big wigs of the CPDM not visited Fru Ndi and wined and dined with him? Are they not still in government? By the way we are not politicians.”

Computer Basics

The Computer: Generally, a computer is not a single device. A computer is made up of several devices that function together as a system. Examples of such devices that make up the computer include; monitor, motherboard, CPU, Main memory, expansion cards, power supply unit, optical discs drives, hard disk drive, keyboard, microphone, muse, printer, scanner, speakers, digital camera, webcam, CD burner, DVD writer etc.To start working on a computer one should learn about it various devices and how they function. The diagram below shows various hardware devices of the computer.

Computer

What is a computer? A Computer is a fast and accurate electronic device functioning under the control of instructions stored in its own memory, can accept data and process the data into useful information that is displayed before the user and can be stored for future use or reference.

QWERTY KEYBOARD

 The Keyboard: The main input device used for sending data to the computer. The keyboard pattern on the diagram is “QWERTY”. The name “Qwerty” comes from the first six letters in the top left alphabet row (below the number keys). Christopher Sholes, the inventor of the typewriter, designed this arrangement of charactes on a “QWERTY” keyboard in 1868.

GCE QUESTIONS: HINTS TO CANDIDATES

The examination candidate, if he/she is to be successful, must:-

(a)    Obey the rubrics (b) understand the questions asked (c) arrange his material satisfactorily and avoid irrelevancy.

The rubric means the instruction at the beginning of the examination paper. These instructions should be read very carefully and fully understood. Frequently an examination paper is divided into sections and the candidate is required to answer one question from each section. If this is stated then the candidate should answer what is asked; no more, no less. It is pointless answering two questions from a section if only one is asked for: no matter how well answered the extra question is, it will gain the student nothing since it is a superfluous; he has ignored the rubric. If the instructions say four questions must be attempted, this means four not five. Neither does it means three; it may happen that a candidate can answer only three of the questions, but sometimes candidates think that if they answer three well instead of tackling four they will be able to make up the deficiency of the fourth by a good three. This seldom happens: If each question has a minimum of 25 marks, the candidate is scoring out of 75 not 100. Again, if the instructions say that sketches or diagrams should be drawn to illustrate answers wherever possible, the student should observe this direction, first because the examiner is looking out for such illustrations and will give credit for them and, secondly, it may happen that a certain proportion of the marks for any given question is reserved for sketches and diagrams

            The student should read the question paper through very very carefully and spend a few minutes thinking about the questions before beginning to answer them. Do not rush into answering the first question you spot which you think you can answer. It is a wise plan to read the question though, tick off the ones you feels capable of answering and then re-read and select the four or five that you decide you will answer. Before answering a particular question make sure you understand the examiners demands in the question; it is good idea to read the question through and underline the salient or key points requiring attention. Take, for example, the following question:

             “Describe very briefly the origin of petroleum. Name the principal producing areas in the world. Indicate the chief method by which oil is transported and the chief movement of oil.”

              The crucial points here are: (1) briefly – (2) origin of petroleum – (3) principal producing areas – (4) methods of transport – (5) movement of oil.

The examiner requires a brief account – a paragraph or so, not a page or more – of the origin of petroleum; he wants named the brief area – not countries (through these may be named in addition with the areas) – of oil production; he ask for methods of transport (i.e. pipelines and tanker); and the wants to know the routes by which the oil is moved from the centre of production to the consuming centers.

              If a question asked for the “Industrial geography” of a country, this means industry not agriculture; if a question asks a “either/ or” this means one of the other, not both; if a question asks for two “two of the following,” it means two, not three; and so on. It is surprising how many candidates trip up on small points of this nature. Avoid superfluous and irrelevant “padding”; by padding, the student is not fooling the examiner, only himself. Obeying the injunction: “answer the question, the whole question, and nothing but the question.”

               Organize the material of your answer in an orderly, systematic and logical way. Be precise; give figures, if possible; give examples. Avoid such meaningless phases as a fertile soil,” the right type of soil,” a good climate”, “cheap labour,” in many other areas,” which at this level just cannot be tolerated. In discussing rainfall and temperature figures required for the growth of a particular crop, give approximate inches of rainfall and degree of temperature; not plentiful rainfall and high temperatures, for these can have different meanings under different circumstances. Likewise, in quoting cropping areas give precise locations; cocoa on brazil, jute in India, wheat in the United States, sugar-cane in Australia, coal in the soviet union, etc, are almost valueless. The student should pay particular attention to those questions which ask him to deal with special; areas of production of a commodity; in such cases he/she must refer to what the conditions are and not to what the commodity requires.

              A commodity type of question is that which ask for description of a geographical condition of production of a commodity. Answers to this kind of question should, generally speaking, deal with (a) the geographical conditions of production (i.e. those of climate, soil, labour, transport facilities; (b) the method of preparation or processing involved; (c) the word distribution of a commodity and the precise located areas of production; and perhaps (d) the markets to which the commodity goes to the consumed. World distributions can be shown on sample sketch – maps.

             Another common type of question involves the analysis of the factor which has assisted the growth of particular industry, e.g. the Lancashire cotton industry, the German chemical industry, the United States motor- car industry. In answering such questions base your account upon the following factors: (a) the supplies of raw materials; (b) the availability of power supplies; (c) labour supplies, quantity and quality; (d) markets; (e) transportation facilities. But do not forget, either to use the knowledge you have learned in you history, economics, or comers classes; it is often applicable to geographical questions. Students are all too prone to keep their subjects knowledge into watertight compartments; let one subject fertilize the other.

             Sometimes a question is set which involves comparison and contrast, perhaps of countries, regions, crops, or towns. In such cases, take a point at a time and consider the similarity or dissimilarity. Two quite separate and distinct descriptions do not necessarily certitude a comparison or a contrast. Moreover, if the questions specifically ask for the comparison, the candidate may be penalized if they do not fulfill the instruction.

              “Write a geographical assay upon such and such a country” or “Give a systematic account of the economic geography of such and such a country” are fairly common type of question. Systematic simply means orderly and logical and in answering question of this kind the student should consider (a) the natural conditions, i.e. geographical position, relief and drainage, structure and minerals, climates, vegetation, and soils, which have influence man and his activities; (b) the people, their numbers, characters, culture, and stage of development, and their economic activities, especially in relation to the use which they have made of the available natural resources; and (c) the communications, towns, ports, foreign trade, and trading relationships.

               Illustrate your answers with maps and diagrams. But remember, these should add to your written work and they should be used in lieu of a page of written matter (in other word maps should save time – Precious time). There is no much point in drawing a map which merely repeats in practorial for what you have said in written word. Keep maps clear, simple, and as accurate as possible; there is no need to embellish them with blue -shaded seas, etc. And do not forget that if an outline map of the world is provided, this can be used to help you get the shapes and size of countries reasonably correct.

               Finally, and this should not need emphasizing, write legibly and neatly and use good English, paying some respect to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Avoid using slang, abbreviations, and un-geographical expressions. Exemplify and amplify statements. The quality, not quantity, of you answers matters to the examiner. Allot your time carefully so that you do not over write on any particular question.

               The good student and the one who scores heavily in examinations is the one who can give that little bit extra, which place him above the run of general candidates. Examiner purr with delight when they come across some (relevant) fact, illustration, idea, or approach which is different and unexpected. The best way to widen, deepen, and particularize, ones geographical knowledge is to read books. You may not have much time to do this, but at least you can read your daily paper intelligently, and from this you can gain much.

CONI T. T.