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30
Living in two worlds
A Student in Bonn – A Chief in Cameroon
by CHARLES MORFAW, Dschang
am Chief Forbellah Morfaw Charles
Ngulefac of Bellah, a village in Fontem
Cameroon. There have been very important
events in my life, some of which keep
on repeating themselves. I find it very
necessary to share these very rich experiences
of mine with you, because I am sure
these gifts will also enrich your life. I started
writing these experiences but, due to
time constraint, the project was suspended.
With time, I have understood that the right
moment to write had not arrived, as we
shall see in the subsequent development of
the story.
It all began in October 1987 when I
found myself in Bonn, Germany, wanting to
study. At that time, I spoke no German.
Accommodation was my greatest problem. I
had neither a place in the university nor
even a student visa, which was a pre-requisite
for studies. It is worth mentioning that as
days went by the weather became colder,
and trees were losing their leaves. Winter
was approaching. On leaving Cameroon,
the temperature had been about thirty
degrees Celsius and now I found myself in
Bonn where the temperature was about ten
degrees and was soon to be below zero; a
situation I had never experienced. I knew it
was not going to be easy.
The question one may likely want to ask
is why I chose to study in Germany, when it
would probably have been easier for me in
England, the United States of America,
Canada, or France, considering my Cameroonian
background which is bilingual. The
next question is how and why did I find
myself in Germany so unprepared? I finished
high school in June 1986 and during
the academic year of 1986-1987 I had admission
into the University of Yaounde Cameroon.
At that time, my cousin Dr. Lebong
Morfaw had just finished his PhD program
in Moscow. For very personal reasons and
also due to our Cameroonian values, I call
this cousin of mine, my brother. One’s
brother need not necessarily be the one
from the same mother or father. Dr.
Lebong is at the same time one of my best
friends. He organised a scholarship to enable
me study in Russia. To cut a long story
short, I arrived in Moscow late due to technical
reasons beyond my control and found
that my place had been given to someone
else. I didn’t know what to do next. Upon
my departure to Russia, I had not bothered
to register for the academic year 1987-1988
in the University of Yaounde, since I was