A Nso Man

A Nsoman'
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He is me or you , maybe born of Nso parents or not, maybe speaks the Lamnso, maybe having lived in Nsoland or had been a neighbour to one. From Wainama through Nkar to Tatum or from Liv through Tobin to Njotin-Nso, the spirit is one. A Nsoman's identity cannot be mistaken. It is unique in thoughts and tongue, in appearance and reality, in words and actions.
A Nsoman is one who behaves, acts, thinks and does like a Nsoman. He is cooperative, and loyal, honest and conscientious, he is strong, dynamic, inventive and appreciative. He is social and educated, he laughs and jokes and is very concern. He loves and is orderly, he is prayerful and powerful. In joy and sorrow, he is there. He welcomes strangers and gives them a home, something to eat and land to farm. When he leaves Kingomen and arrives Shisong at eating time, he eats, if the food is finished he takes a bite from the child's basket. (nkhawan).
A Nsoman believes that Nyuymbom took time to make and arranged the soil at the footstool of the Buea Mountain – that land is fertile. He leveled the plains of Bafoussam, the Ndop, and the Mbonso. Bamenda popularly refer to as Mvemlah is a mark of God's footprint. He rested His entire weight on one foot creating the Bamenda Depression. When Nyuymbom reached Nsoland he was tired and had back pains, when he got up to stretch and relief, Nsoland soil fell inbetween his fingers creating the hills and valleys we have in Nso today. God did not level the land but he made the man of that land strong and courageous. A Nsoman in Nsoland is either climbing or descending to reach his destination.
A Nsoman thinks he supplies all the foodstuff use to feed the densely populated coastal region of Cameroon. If he stops supplying these people will go starving.
He eats fufucorn, potato, yam, and chews cornchaff or beans. He eats banana, pears, pumpkin and chews guava, apple or passion fruit. He sucks orange or lemon and licks pap. He has his own original things 'from from;: the Nso knife, the Nso groundnut, the Nso cup or pot etc. He is a hunter and domesticates animals: he slaughters a chicken,a goat but 'pushes down' a cow and kills a pig. He is time conscious and knows that the twelve suns appear on each side of the day. He has eight days for a week and for leisure he sets aside two for his rest. There are thirteen moons in a Nso calendar year.
Ask him for a person who passed here he will include the phrase ' lhen lhen' (now now). Lhen Lhen could be one minute or thirty minutes, he thinks nothing is far fetched. He helps you bury your death and visits your sick in the hospital or at home, he dances with you at the birth of a new born, and is there to celebrate your victories and achievements. He brings food and veges for support when disaster strikes and carries along joy when happy moment set in. He is there year round for you. He respects age and loves title, reason why all Nso sons are Sheys or Fais and their daughters Sheys or Yaas.
The King of Nso is the supreme custodian of the Nso tradition. He is an epitome of a Nsoman, his words are divine. He is well deify and nobody goes against his command. If you hesitate against the Fon's order then you are anti Nso. The Nso political set up has two bodies at it helm: the Nwerong and the Fon with checks and balances. The Fon is the Throne and the Nwerong is the land. The army wing of Nsoland is known as Mfu headed by a Mformi.
The tradition is the pride of the people, untouched by modernism. This justify why Rhuom, Nwerong or Ngiri has never been played in radio or on TV.
No Nsoman is more Nsoman than a Nsoman. Any Nsoman from any part of Nso is 'fherr' or brother, then your joy and sorrow become part of me or us, your concerns and interests are mine, I treat and discipline your child as I will mine.
A Nsomam loves communion, that is why when an occasion like the Ngonso festival comes around there is a lot of long-time-no-see or 'tah! sieh lhaineen' . Drinking and merry making and dancing become the order of the time. The Khibarangoh of today and the Nwanmambuh of yesterday can not be the same as that of the next day and the day after next. The Nsoman wants to see every one of each, each day. When a Nsoman sales for a profit he sold, but when he sales at even or below expectation he has thrown away the goods.
Come looking for a kinsman, he abandons what ever he is doing and walks with you the next five miles to your guest's house. Thank you is enough reward for his kind gesture. He tastes his wine before giving you to share with him and he eats the first half of the kolanut before giving you the other. This is to clear his name from any after effect. A Nso man does not practice poisoning and moral decadence is far fetched because the society is highly moralized and the norms are standardized. He hates to be labeled a witch or a wizard or a thief because these vices are stigmatizing and carry implication generation after generation. He respects the death and knows that his ancestors are a stone throw away. He maintains the link between the land of the living and the land of the souls and makes sure he carries out his ancestral appeasements once in a while. A Nsoman hates cheating and despises lying. Anything that is not well explain to him or is not made clear to him is 'plebiscite'. Politics is 'Mehnang' or 'Mehcahreeh' very deceitful and to him an ugly game.
He knows that Nyuymbom is God the creator, very supreme but that the other gods are like angels in a decentralized system send by Nyuymbom to carry out specific duties. He goes to church on Sunday and does his appeasement on Kiloviey. If a Kiloviey falls on a Sunday, he goes to Nyuymbom first and then goes for his 'shooh sacrifices' or 'ntangreeh' later.
Another Nsoman exist, he is a sycophant or the Wanyentoh of the land. He goes to his farm and harvests his neighbour's crops. He practices witchcraft and gossips. He sits in the house and enjoys the she goat gives birth tie to the post. Ask him for a loan, that money is available only when the recruitment dateline is past. He joins your enemies to bring you down the more. He talks and smiles in the 'mbiame language' and tells you that the tongue of the bird is well understood by the bird trappers. This type of Nsoman is envious and jealous, stern and wicked and greedy. When he brings in goat or chicken meat home he tells his family 'don't touch', this is form the secret society. He tells his grand ma he's been involved and doesn't share an egg with anybody simply because he wants to eat the egg alone. When anything is more than his reasoning capacity it is witchcraft or occultism. If someone dies suddenly it is out of the ordinary - to him there is no heart attack or hypertension or sudden dead. His own forensic is his belief. 'How could this or that person who was so poor suddenly become so rich something is not right' he often wanders. He doesn't belief in opportunity. He doesn't know that the only condition that is permanent in life is change.
For society to be at peace with heaven, at peace with it ancestors and at peace with it self, appeasement must be made. The Nsoman does this at times, especially during the Ngonso festivities.
To appease his ancestors he displays some of the following jujus: These jujus are spirits in human form:
The Shiwgwaalah is first, it has it Nwerongs or Ngiris with whips running ahead of it, cautioning people that a human-like wild bird is coming, They should squat and sing it praises. The Shiwgwaalah carries spears and a club for its display and defense. It runs, dances around and squats to rest. It is a forerunner telling the community that something dangerous and wilder is coming. The Khibarangoh with its big head carries two clubs for it aggressiveness and is restrained from behind with two ropes by two men or two jujus. It is the most dreaded juju of the Nsoland and the most entertaining. It closes all celebrations. It counterpart the Wanmambuh is very athletic, carries a shield, spears and a club for its own defense. It is followed immediately by two men or two jujus with a rope defining it boundaries backward. When these two entertaining jujus want to be on the loose they take away their ropes and ties it around it self for the Wanmambuh or puts it on it head for the Khibaragoh. The sick juju of the land is the stick footed Khinghayasih or ngahgohnn. It is the delicate juju of the land. When it is healthy it walks on two legs, when it senses a little danger it walks on three and when the danger is more it walks on six legs. It has a whip for its defense yet men and jujus are always around it to make sure that it is up and bouncing. The other jujus of appeasement can come in any other but the fact remains that they are for fun jujus, for their defense, the men who accompany each carry a cutlass .
With these and many more the Nsoman sends off bad omen and ushers in good tiding and dwelling for it society. No matter what or who the Nsoman is, he is a happy man. To him Nso is Cameroon in miniature, a microcosm in a macrocosm.
My lamentation:
Friends do think that if you have a car and check engine light come on the dash board, the best thing to do is to crash the car in an accident and then fix the car from the accident and the check engine light? When a man breaks his arm he can be carried, when a man breaks his leg he can be carried but when a man breaks his back, it becomes complicated. It is difficult to carry a man with a broken back. The god that cracks my own palm kennels, accidentally cracked his finger and called 911. Paramedics rushed him to the ER and he got admitted into the intensive care of the general hospital. I went about for sometime without my personal guardian angel or chi. When I complain to Nyuymbom why he should allow me guardless and pleaded with him to loan me another angel for the main time while my Chi recovers. God told me He has assigned all angels and the remaining angels were Arch angels for his personal security and missions. Arch angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. I went down on my knees and did not ask for Angel Gabriel: he is God's messenger and has other portfolios both in Heaven and on Earth. I did not ask for Angel Michael he is a busy man: the opener and closer of the Heavenly Gate. He refers into the big and the small books to determine those who have to enter heaven. I ask for Angel Raphael, he is the guardian, the protector, the porter and the deliverer of good tidings. Arch Angel Raphael will deliver to us lots of good tidings this 2012, another positive year in our life time. One of the years with lots of Positive and Even days in a millennium.
JEVERTH NSOYUNI