In northwest Cameroon, the Mankon indigenes king whom they refer to as “Fon” or “fo” allegedly never does, instead, the king just disappears.
Barrister Joseph Fri Amah, who hails from Mankon has said that the Fon is their custodian of all the Mankon lands and is also the source of their cultural spring. He further disclosed that the Font is the fountain of their spirituality and the bridge between their yesteryears, the today, and forevermore.
The above description could be the reason indigenes of Mankon became incensed when the regional governor, Adolphe Lele committed an “abomination” when he announced the death of 97-year-old Mankon monarch, Fon Angwafor III last month.
Fon Angwafor III ascended the throne in the year 1959 and became the first king to have a Western education at the time, as in that period, no royal child was allowed to join commoners in going to school. Consequently, Angwafor III studied to become an Agrotechnician in his country where farming was a major part of people’s lives. Just like his predecessors before him, he was a polygamist, with his wives suspected to have been more than 12. Angwafor III has been likened to King Solomon the wise in the Bible by his subjects.
Mankon is one of the biggest kingdoms in English-speaking Cameroon, with about 100 thousand people calling it their hometown. So it comes as no surprise that the late monarch would have enemies, especially when Independence came in the 1960s for Cameroon and Angwafor III was among the leaders canvassing for the unification of the English and the French-controlled territory to turn into present-day Cameroon.
Most of the loyalists to the secession of the English-speaking part of Cameroon have never forgiven the monarch for his role in supporting the unification.
It took the Kwifor, the supreme council of Makon kingmakers, three weeks to formally announce the ‘disappearance’ of the king. Until this announcement is made, the indigenes would make roundabout statements like, “there’s a smoke in the palace” and refuse to admit that the king has ‘disappeared’, even if he has been ‘inhumed’ in a sacred place, unknown to the public.
The Mankon People consider it taboo to say that their king has been buried.
