An amazing Bambui man

So today I had the pleasure of meeting on of the most interesting men I have ever encountered, his name is Pa Bonu. As a dedication to his golden jubilee of 50 years of marriage he wrote a brief biography of his life, which he shared personally with us today.

He doesn’t know when he was born as his parents were illiterate but working from his baptism certificate he took the date as 30^th December 1932 making him 87 years old. He was lucky enough to go to school for 8 years a great achievement in this time and went on to train for an additional 3 years to become a teacher, and later a Headmaster. He married his wife at 27 and had their first baby called Abongmechi meaning “knowledge is better than strength”. He had seven children and educated them all. As well as sponsoring the education of some of the most influential people in Bambui and Cameroon today. He was awarded a scholarship to come to reading university in the UK to study agriculture and here is where he learnt about bee keeping, he didn’t know that they could be reared and cared for like other animals, and brought this knowledge and a selection of second-hand  books to help the Bambui people to start bee keeping. After starting a successful teaching course on bee keeping he retired in june 1991 when I was just 4 months old. He also helped set up water protection centres and help lay the pipes that now bring water to the main city of Bambui.

This incredibly man is an inspiration to all Cameroonian people about the importance of education. He is also an avid study of anthropology and has compiled information on 300 years of Bambui traditions which was turned into a book. He is one of the first people here to talk about the limitations tradition places on development. He talked about the reluctance of people to marry outside their tribes as they are afraid they will lose property and belongings but he also talked about cross pollination and how it strengthened flowers and crops, this is true for people as well. He said that people who marry relations will go on to study arts subjects not sciences which are better, this especially made me laugh. I brought from England some bee friendly flowers to encourage his bees to produce more honey, and bring a little bit of England to Bambui.