By Olive Ejang Tebug
Sylvester Sona Ndih, a 60-year-old man of Malende in Kumba, recently accused of conniving with his mother-in-law, Catherine Ngunde, to kill his daughter, Regina Maloba Ndih, is dead.
Sona Ndih when he was about to be buried alive
Sona died on Wednesday, January 30 after taking an oath that if he was responsible for his daughter's death, he should die within seven days. He died six days later.It would be recalled that Maloba died mysteriously after suffering from a headache for just a few hours.
During Maloba's burial, the villagers had wanted to bury Sona alive but for the intervention of some people. The villagers proceeded to banish Ngunde and her daughter, Ogah Ndih, second wife of Sona, from Malende village.
But prior to that, they had been locked up with Maloba's corpse in a room for two days. Later on, they were fed on kola nut smeared with saliva from the corpse to wrest a confession from them.
Sona is believed to have bewitched many people in the village. Meanwhile Ngunde had been banished by Bombe Bakundu villagers for allegedly killing her nine children through witchcraft.When Sona died suddenly, family members told The Post it was a clear sign that he killed Maloba.
They added that the man could not escape the death because it concerned his immediate family.For Ngunde, who is still alive, the relatives suspect that she might have transformed into an animal before eating the kola nut reason why she is still alive.
A certain Dr. Gilbert Nzume of Ejed Medical Foundation, however, said it was medically wrong for the villagers to give a deceased's saliva to people to eat.According to him, the body fluid of a corpse is poisonous to human beings; talk less of not knowing the cause of Maloba's death.
Nevertheless, the doctor argued that if the saliva from the corpse killed Sona, the other two would have been affected too.
I am surprised all these things are happening without the intervention of the administration. This man must have been poisoned. The other two vitims may eventually die from the body fluid of the corpse.
This is chaos and shows how backward our country still finds herself.
Posted by: Fon | Monday, 05 February 2007 at 05:27 PM
A crisis of superstition. Our lawless society is now off the hook.
Posted by: Ma Mary | Monday, 05 February 2007 at 05:27 PM
what a backward society? A corpse saliva (poisonous) forced into a living humanbeing? Jungle justice in CAMEROON. May God help Cameroon.
Posted by: Abesong John | Monday, 05 February 2007 at 08:10 PM
L'ETAT DU SAUVE QUI PEUX
IN THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND.......
IN THE THICK OF THE JUNGLE THE LION IS.....
YES THATS WHAT IS HAPPENING..ARNACHY..CHAOS
WHILE THE ADMINISTRATORS SIT IN DUNGEONED OFFICES
SIPPING SOPHORIFIC BREWS OF DOUBTFUL ORIGINS
THE CRY OF THE ORDINARY MAN BECOMES MUSIC TO THEIR EARS
THESE CRIES BECOME THE KOLANUTS WITH WHICH THEY RELISH THEIR WINE
AND NOW,
THE CITIZEN IN WANTON ABANDON
TAKES UPON HIMSELF THE RIGHT TO JUDGE AND EXECUTE
THOSE WHOM HE CONSIDERS EVIL
WHY EXECUTE A MAN FOR SOMETHING YOU ARENT SURE?
WHY CARRY OUT JUNGLE "INJUSTICE" ON THE DEFENCELESS ?
WHY NOT MATCH TO STATE CAPITOL AND BRING DOWN THE MONSTER
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS CHAOS?
BUT YOU WOULD BE BRAVE AGAINST ANOTHER IN YOUR STATION
THEN WAG YOUR "NGONG" TAIL BETWEEN YOUR HINDS
WHEN FACE TO FACE WITH THE PEOPLE YOU SHOULD CALL TO BOOK..
SHAME TO THIS GENERATION DEVOID OF MORALS
SHAME TO THIS OVER-MANIPULATED GENARATION
IF YOU HAVE EYES TO SEE MA NGUNE AND SONA AS WITCH AND WIZARD
THEN IT MEANS YOU TOO ARE WITCHES AND WIZARDS
IF NOT HOW DARE YOU CONCLUDE THEY ARE SUCH
AND SUFFER THEM GO THROUGH SUCH INHUMAN PRACTICES LIKE KOLA COATED SALIVA OF THE DEAD?
YOUR GREATEST ENEMY IS YOUR BROTHER!!!!
ARENT YOU ASHAMED TO TALK OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION WHEN A FEW POLICE CHASTICE YOU FOR GOOD REASON, LETTING YOU GO DAYS WITHOUT FOOD, AND YET YOU TURN ROUND TO VIOLATE THE SAME RIGHTS YOU CLAIM SHOULD BE ACCOREDED YOU?
GIVE HONOUR TO HIM THAT IS DUE..AND YOU..YOU DO NOT DESERVE ANY HONOUR AT ALL..
YOU DESERVE TO ROT IN JAIL
YOU DESERVE A TRIAL AT ARUSHA
YOU DESERVE TO SUFFER LIKE ANY TYRANT
YES, TIME SHALL SOON CATCH UP WITH YOU
Posted by: katakata | Monday, 05 February 2007 at 09:04 PM
Cameroonians are still very uncivilised. How can you give a man poison and not expect him to die even if he is innocent of any allegation? What a pity!!!!!
Posted by: TabiSweden | Tuesday, 06 February 2007 at 03:44 AM
lol,
I am surprised that some of us are not satisfied with "our" [African] ingenuity
You see, the kolanut has prooved that he killed his grand daughter.Yes! Who said there is no witchcraft or that African tradition does not work?
With this I suppose we can have the most advanced judicial system in the world.We should just shut down the existing judicial system-courts, police and so on and resort to black juju.Amadou Ali should start hiring these witch doctors to replace the court system.After all there are many corpses from which saliva can be extracted to perform more swearing.
"Ngunde is still alife because she transformed into an animal before eating the kolanut"
Seems to me that our African judicial system is aimed at finding all suspects guilty once they have been accused. I thought that if the man's guilt is based on the fact that he died from the kolanut then the wwoman should be declared innocent because she is still alife. Ohhh... I forgot that she has already been banished from the village (which means they knew before hand that she was guilty).
Wow.We have the most superior judicial system in the world.
I am sure the above doctor who was consulted is a typical example of the types who were recommended to go to CUSS by Prof. Fame Ndongo and Prof. Ndomo. Just look at his brilliant inductive reasoning about poisoning. If the old man died from poisoning the others shouldn't have been alife today.
Even my uncle who is a bensikin driver knows much to understand that people are not the same and as such would react differently to similar exposures.
Well is Cameroon.
Posted by: Tita Mofaw | Tuesday, 06 February 2007 at 05:58 AM
This story first surfaced on this forum on the 29th of January, to those who may not be aware. It is terrible that things have come to this with the family losing another. Some like Vito, who commented then, had forseen this happening. He said and I quote," I hope the exiled lady does'nt die from botulinium poisoning". It is not the old lady, but the father, who like the old lady was forced to eat these poisoned colanuts who is dead. Maybe the old lady and the third person will follow suite, it is but a question of time. Even if these remaining two do not die, the death of this man does not prove that he killed his daughter. Those who believe in witchcraft must not and should not take this as some proof to the world that witchcraft exists. The probability that this man died from poisoning is quite high.
As for the authorities stepping in, that is wholly unlikely as some of them believe in witchcraft anyways. It will take but a brave citizen of Malende to campaign against such atrocities. Only he/she can get the villagers to agree to certain codes of practice governing all in Malende. When these are established, the long arm of the law can be called in when anyone defaults.
This is the route we took to banish illegal post-mortems being conducted on our deceased in my area. These post-mortems were not being carried out to find the causes of death, but to find out if the deceased was a witch, wizard etc,etc! This practice finally stopped after a few die-hards were locked up, however briefly.
We are quite civilised. Our problem is we do not yet have the checks and balances in such a liberal society.
Had this man died six days after going on oath, without having been administered what we know is poisoned cola, then people would start taking the swearing on oath seriously, be it on the Bible, Koran or any symbol. Now we are left to ponder. It is a wonderful world.
Posted by: Danny Boy | Tuesday, 06 February 2007 at 08:52 AM
The blame for all these mess go to the lawlessness in our society instituted by colonial agents.
Posted by: rexon | Tuesday, 06 February 2007 at 09:43 AM
"inpuit no guilt until guilt is proven" I'm not saying this man did or did not kill his daughter. My questions are where are the "chalk lines",DNA tests, finger prints,witnesses and other traces that link all these people to the dead person?
Living human beings being forced to eat of a corpse.........oh my. This is 2007 Cameroonians not 1917.
Posted by: Roki of Shanghai | Tuesday, 06 February 2007 at 12:20 PM
point of correction "imput" not "inpuit".
Posted by: Roki of Shanghai | Tuesday, 06 February 2007 at 12:22 PM
This is just plain ludicrous. And what is this about forcing someone to swallow corpses saliva eewww! As for that medical doctor, he's just plain confused, contradicting himself in that manner. Wonders shall never end truly.
Posted by: nahjela | Thursday, 08 February 2007 at 01:27 PM