Cameroon : Late Barrister Ekontang Elad’s Legacy

By Christopher Ambe and Warien Mbongo Ake*

Senior Barrister Samuel Ekontang Elad , 82,  who  breathed his last on May 29 ,2023   at  Buea Regional Hospital where he was admitted for treatment, was last 26 August, entombed  at his Bonduma residence in Buea,following a requiem at St Anthony Padua  Catholic Church  ,Buea Town, officiated by a college of priests led by the parish priest  ,Rev.Fr. Emile Tanka

A day before the requiem, the remains of the deceased were taken to the Southwest Court of Appeal in Buea,for judicial honors.

The requiem was attended among many VIPs by former Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge, former President of the Cameroon Bar Association, Barrister Eta Besong Junior , sitting President of the Cameroon Bar Association ,Batonnier Mbah Eric and University Distinguished Professor emeritus, Ndiva Kofele Kale,

After the legal luminary was consigned to his grave, Batonnier Mbah Eric on behalf of the Cameroon Bar Association handed over Barrister Elad’s wig to the deceased’s son, Ryan Elad, in the hope that he would follow, career-wise, in the footsteps of his fallen father.

The late Elad was an exceptional lawyer with about forty years of practice to his credit. In 2022, Barrister Elad’s professional excellence was acknowledged by the Fako Lawyers Association (FAKLA) with an award.”

He was also a famous minority   rights campaigner

Late Barrister Elad became even popular in April 1993 when he chaired the 1993 All -Anglophone Conference (AAC) in Buea and later AAC II in Bamenda  

The 1993 AAC birthed the Buea Declaration, which advocated –unsuccessfully-   that Cameroon should have a system of government that is federal in character.

The ACC would later be transformed into the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), which advocated the restoration of the Independence of Southern Cameroons, guided by its motto “The Force of Argument and Not The Argument of Force”.

Barrister Elad became the pioneer Chairman of the SCNC upon its creation in 1994 and led a delegation, which included former Anglophone leaders J .N Forcha and S.T Muna, to the UN to fight for the rights of minority English-Speaking Cameroonians, who complained of being marginalized by their majority French-speaking compatriots

But the SCNC, considered by the Cameroon government as a separatist group, was banned on January 17, 2017 following the eruption in late 2016 of what is today known as the Anglophone Crisis.  The Cameroon government had suspected the SCNC of fuelling the Anglophone crisis, behind- the-scene.

Barrister Elad also served for several years as Board Chairman of Cameroon Opportunities Industrialization Centre (COIC),Buea.

At the time of his death “Barrister Sam Ekontang Elad was one of the most senior Lawyers in the South West Region”, noted Barrister Samuel Eboa, when he learned of the former’s demise.

“Barrister Elad was a Bar Council Member and the Representative of the Batonnier in the South West Province (Cameroon) around 1975 .He was trained in one of the Inns in England and was amongst the first indigenous lawyers. Between 1960 and early 1970’s, we only had British trained lawyers and lawyers from Nigeria practicing in the former West Cameroon.”

Barrister Elad trained now senior barristers like Emeritus Batonnier Eta Besong Junior, Tangunyi Gilbert and Loh Patrick.

Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, founder of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), Buea,who attended Barrister Elad’s funeral ,had said this of  the deceased senior colleague: “He was a larger-than-life figure, a legal colossus, a pace setter; he had a mastery of the law; a gentleman par excellence; he was courteous and honorable.

“I related with him not only as a lawyer but someone who was a rights activist, fighting against oppression and marginalization of the Anglophones in Cameroon. His death is a big loss! He has left his footprints on the sands of time”

Barrister Shribe Wilfred, a former trainee of Barrister Elad, said the deceased was not only his mentor but much more like a father.

Lawyers paying last respects to late Barrister Ekontang Elad in Church.

Biography

Samuel Ekontang Elad was born on 4^th May 4 1944 to Evenye Mbonde Wange

Amonica and Richard Ntang Elad. He had eleven siblings.

Ekontang started school in Bonjongo; he briefly attended school in Mbo and

Oron Nigeria. Ekontang graduated from St. Joseph’s College Sasse and subsequently attended CASS Kumba.

He was an avid scholar. During the clamour of independence and post- colonial

period, he wrote articles and journals including “Famous wasMaking Independence Meaningful”.

He won the Aspow scholarship to study Political Science at the Virginia Union University. He aspired to Harvard University in Cambridge,Massachusetts and graduated with distinction in Government. Ekontang was influenced by both John and Bobby Kennedy whom he met and was awarded citizenship in Massachusetts and was offered lucrative government jobs.

Ekontang’s selflessness made him choose home over the luxury in the United

States.

After graduating from Harvard, Ekontang had a scholarship to attend Middle Temple and Oxford University, where he met the beautiful Hannah Mojoko

Monono. Hannah was also studying law. Ekontang got engaged to her  in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Shortly after both earned their law degrees they got married in London. And they had their first child a girl who was named after his beloved mother Evenye.

Returning to Cameroon Ekontang established a successful career as a lawyer

Ekontang’s role in the emerging political changes that occurred in Cameroon in the early 1990’s was memorable.

Indeed, Ekontang lived an extraordinary life

*Warien Mbongo Ake is a University of Buea  Journalism Student on internship