SCNC SG’s ‘State Burial’ Marred By Controversy At Graveside

- CMA Members Boycott Burial Over Traditional Rite Performed On Corpse

The fallen Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC Secretary General, Fidelis Chwenko was on Saturday July 21, 2012, given a state burial at his Ntaseng quarters in Nkwen Bamenda.

Officiating over the state burial, the SCNC acting chairman, Nfor Ngala Nfor, regretted that it pains the SCNC activists to bid farewell to somebody like Fidelis Chwenko who was very dedicated to the SCNC struggle.

Referring the mourners to Proverbs 23:10 and Esther 4, the SCNC chieftain wondered why some people claim they are Christians, yet they do not fight for the truth and justice like Fidelis Chwenko did in his hey days. Hear him: “Fidelis died for the truth, love and justice and defended and fought for what he believed in”.

On behalf of SCNC and in line with late Fidelis Chwenko’s will, Nfor Nfor handed a symbolic SCNC flag to the deceased’s eldest son, Kenneth Chwenko, a cardiologist working in Australia, to finish the fight his father left half done. The SCNC national anthem, “Freedom Land…” was sung as the casket was lowered in the grave amidst an outburst of wailing from the deceased relations.

Ructions broke out when the late Fidelis’ family head and a delegation from the Mankon Fon’s palace nosed in to put a traditional camwood on late Fidelis’ forehead. This provoked the Catholic Men Association (CMA) members of St. Joseph Catholic church, Nkwen where Fidelis was a member, to check out of the scene without witnessing the burial proper.

According to the CMA members, no traditional rite is supposed to be performed on a corpse after the church service. But the family head and the delegation from the Mankon fon’s palace, argued that it was a normal traditional rite performed with camwood extracted from a tree that was created by God himself and so nothing was satanic or devilish about it.

The Mankon fon’s delegation succeeded to perform the traditional rite by robbing camwood on late Fidelis’ forehead arguing that it’s simply a sign of bidding farewell to the decease in the Mankon land.

In an exclusive interview with Nfor Ngala Nfor, he said Fidelis Chwenko was a comrade and barefoot soldier in the SCNC. “In fact, I have lost part of me. He was so close to me that his death is like I have been stripped naked”. He opined that it was just proper for SCNC to accord late Fidelis a state burial, reason why the symbols of the SCNC state like the flag and anthem, wee present at the burial.

On who will succeed Fidelis Chwenko, Nfor Nfor said the executive of the SCNC will sit and designate someone to act in the interim before the election is conducted. However, he said for the main time, the Assistant Secretary General, Mesodi Zacheri, who came in from Meme, South West Region will go on with the job.

The SCNC activists who wore mufflers, caps and T-shirts with the inscription: “Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons- FRSC” placed the biggest wreath on Fidelis’ grave reading: “SCNC bids farewell to Fidelis Chwenko”.

Fidelis Chwenko served as the assistant organizing secretary of the SCNC until he rose to the portfolio of secretary general when Vincent Feko allegedly became wayward.

Fidelis was allegedly dead of diabetes on July 7, 2012 at the age of 64.

Unlike late Hitler Mbinglo’s burial in Bamenda which policemen disrupted the occasion and arrested some activists for wearing SCNC T-shirts, Fidelis Chwenko’s burial went on hitch-free with no police in sight.