Limbe at 150: A city of smouldering hopes?

Written by BY YUH TIMCHIA , Standard Tribune Reporter

Saturday, 26 December 2009 08:58

Sesquicentennial celebrations here to reignite “the flame of unity and progress” from December 3-5 suggested that until then, growth and concord in this seaside resort city had only been smouldering.

Mile-8-beach-Limbe-Cameroon-0 LIMBE—The 150th anniversary of the founding of the small city of Victoria, by English Baptist minister Alfred Saker, would have been celebrated last year. A decree by then president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, renamed the town Limbe in 1981.

Annivesary celebrations were carried forward to this year due to certain “difficulties.” Difficulties the onetime economic hub of former West Cameroon has had to surmount, according to 90-year-old Pa Augustine Enow Tabot, who has seen the city evolve since 1955 and was part of centenary celebrations in 1958.

From a missionary post that Saker named after Queen Victoria in 1858, the town snowballed into an economic powerhouse, especially with the discovery of “black gold”, right up to the 1980’s, when the virtues for which the town had always been known began to fade.

Recession set in. Big employers like the sea port, the Public Works Department (PWD) and French car manufacturer Renault, either folded up or fled to Douala.Since 2005, when its paramount chief, Billa Ferguson Manga Williams, passed away, Limbe appears to have been creviced by a paramount chieftaincy brawl. To compound matters some chiefs had vowed not to be part of the celebrations. It took the intervention of Fako SDO, Jules Marcellin Ndjaga, for them to change their minds.

Successful raids at three of the city’s banks in September last year, which left at least one person, dead were regarded by many as proof that the town had been “abandoned”.

In spite of its past economic glories, many complain they did not reap the fruit of that epoch. Away from the pump of the 150 anniversary feast, many hoped things had been better.

Pa Tabot, a retired plumber with major Cameroonian employer and now partly-privatized Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), says he survives today only because his children, into whose brains he emptied his purse, are aiding him.

Because of the fled of investors and the failing of existing ones, unemployment is rife in the city. “I would not be doing what I’m doing now if there were industries here,” says Elias Bokwe 31, a trained automobile mechanic turned photographer.

Older residents like Pa Tabot have a different kind of complaints.

“It is a good thing to remember the man who named the town Victoria,” says the old man, who also worked for six years as a “special constable” for the former West Cameroon police force. He claims he has never received any retirement benefits from the government nor the CDC.

“If the government were a good one we would have been called to receive some retirement benefits. But it is our country and we have to work for it.”

It is such patriotic spirit that Baptist clergyman, Philemon Nfor, called on all in the city that “needs to take off anew” to adopt during an ecumenical service to kick start the celebrations at the Community Field here, December 3.

“Policy makers should copy Saker, who unlike his contemporaries chose not to plunder Africa’s resources but set up the rule of law, translated the bible into the local languages and taught us commerce.”

Nevertheless, there appears to be a flicker of hope for “OPEC City” in the horizons.

Construction work is underway for the creation of a maritime and fishing school and a deep sea port here, though work on a planned cement factory is yet to commence. The government also plans to build a sports complex for the city.

Since the coming of new government delegate Andrew Motanga Monjimbo, the city with its “huge tourist potential” is also witnessing a makeover. Road maintenance works are ongoing around town and at the roundabout facing Community Field.

The 150 years events were chaired by the culture minister Ama Tutu Muna, who was the personal representative of President Paul Biya.

The minister called Limbe “one of Central Africa’s most strategic and emerging metropolis” and a “geopolitically important town and transit point in the Gulf of Guinea.”

Now fading into history, the 150th anniversary did its job, “opening up [Limbe] to the world” to “bring in development,” said Motanga. And the town will continue building up lost steam if an annual cultural festival begins next year as promised by minister of culture, Ama Tutu Muna.