Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Despite Attempts To Sabotage The Funeral Of Anicet Ekane, Over Absolutely Irrational Reasons, He Was Given A Well Deserved Hero’s Burial On May 9, 2026. Several Opposition Parties Like Osih’s SDF, Tchiroma’s FSNC Were Represented. Sawa Elites, Without Consideration To Politics, Made An Impressive Presence.
Anicet Ekane – A Hero In The Fight For Democracy In Cameroon
Anicet Ekane was very active in the fight for democracy in Cameroon in the hot days 1990 – 92. Arrested and imprisonment in the Yondo Black Affair in 1990 for secretly working on a project initiated by Barrister Yondo Black to create a political party, Ekane was released in a clemency that President Biya granted. But from prison, Ekane in 1991 went back into the opposition’s fight for democracy in Cameroon, that effectively kicked off in 1990. Though a UPC militant, Ekane during those hot days in the fight for democracy in Cameroon, was in practice more of a political activist, than a militant of a political party. He was quite active in the powerful Coordination of Opposition Parties and Civil Society Organizations, with their Operation Ghost Towns and Red Card In 1991. Ekane was also one of the political activists at the frontline, of Union for Change, that in 1992 that replaced the Coordination of Opposition Parties and civil Society Organizations. Anicet Ekane was in the frontline of the group that designated the charismatic leader of the SDF, Ni John Fru Ndi, as the candidate of Union for Change, at the first multiparty presidential election in October 1992, following the rebirth of multiparty politics in Cameroon. It was during this period of 1990 – 1992, that Anicet Ekane who became known on the political landscape of Cameroon in the Yondo Black Affair in 1990, was recognized by the Cameroonian people as a hero in the fight for democracy in the country.
Anicet Ekane went on to become the Founding President of the political party, MANIDEM, which was officially legalized in 1995. In the last few years, Anicet Ekane had some serious health issues, to the point where, upon doctors’ recommendation, he had a personal Oxygen Extractor, which he used whenever he had a health crisis. Despite that, Anicet Ekane, and another veteran politician of the early 1990 fame, Djeukam Tchameni (Red Card), initiated the creation of Union For Change 2025, which on September 13, 2025 in Yaounde, designated the FSNC leader and presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a former member of Government, as the candidate of Union for Change 2025, at the October 12, 2025 presidential election.
It would be recalled that, less than 48 hours after the October 12 presidential election, Issa Tchiroma Bakary declared himself as winner of the election, and thus the President – elect of Cameroon. Many Cameroonians strongly believed so. The two leaders of Union For Change, Anicet Ekane and Djeukam Tchameni were arrested in Douala for political reasons on October 24, 2025, and transferred to Yaounde, precisely at the headquarters of the National Gendarmerie commonly known as SED, where they were detained. Due to his deteriorating health situation, Anicet Ekane was moved to the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie. Sad to say that, Anicet Ekane died in Gendarmerie custody on the fateful day of December 1, 2025. At Ekane’s burial in his native Bomono – Gare in Bonaguem , Dibombari Sub –division, Mungo Division, Littoral Region on May 9, 2026, Djeukam Tchameni could not be there to bid him farewell, because of his continuous incarceration at the Kondengui Prison in Yaounde. Issa Tchiroma Bakary also could not be there, because he had in the last couple of months been living on political exile in Gambia. This is the Cameroon that Anicet Georges Ekane, despite his long fight for democracy in the country, unfortunately left behind. A country that the Biya regime has taken hostage for over four decades!
Anicet Georges Ekane Buried Like A Hero In His Native Bomono Gare
Despite a number of attempts to sabotage the burial of Anicet Georges Ekane, the fallen hero in the fight democracy in Cameroon, his children, with the strong moral support of the traditional institution and people of the small Bomono – Gare Village, succeeded to ensure that he was given a real hero’s burial on Saturday, May 9, 2026. The funeral programme started in the evening of Wednesday, May 6, 2026, with the formal opening of the funeral, and the presentation of condolences. The ceremony took place at ‘Salle de Fetes’ Akwa, Douala. In the evening of Thursday, May 7, homages were paid to the fallen hero, in a ceremony which also held at ‘Salle de Fetes’, Akwa, Douala. A grand cultural evening, in homage to the fallen hero, Anicet Ekane, was organized at his native Bomono – Gare in Bonaguem, on Friday, May 8.
The corpse removal ceremony took place at the mortuary of the Laquintinie Hospital in Douala at 7 am on Saturday, May 9, 2026. From there, the hearse and the convoy headed straight for Bonomo – Gare in the outskirt of Douala. At the entrance into the village, traditional authorities and special traditional groups in the area, took over the corpse of the fallen hero, Anicet Ekane, and transported it in a traditional way, up to the ceremonial ground where the religious service, eulogies and other things that were scheduled, took place. The ceremonial ground was jammed to capacity.
Several opposition parties like Issa Tchiroma’s FSNC, Joshua Osih’s SDF, the UPC, Sam Mbaka’s AFP, and so on, were represented. The National President of the SDF, Hon Joshua Nambangi Osih, who is MP of Douala 1, and thus was the MP of Anicet Ekane, was personally present. Anicet Ekane’s closest political friend and ally, Henriette Ekwe, founding member of MANIDEM, that today heads one of the UPC factions, was very much present. Same as the President of AFP, Sam Georges Mbaka (former Vice President of CDU), who was a close political friend and ally of Anicet Ekane. Celestin Djamen of APAR was also present at the funeral. Prominent human rights lawyer and political activist, Madam Alice Nkom (oldest member of the Cameroon Bar), was conspicuously present at Bomono – Gare, to bid farewell to Anicet Ekane, the fallen hero in the fight for democracy in Cameroon.
Also, Sawa elites, without political consideration, made an impressive presence at the funeral of Anicet Ekane in Bomono – Gare. Several personalities like the former Government Delegate to the Douala City Council, Dr Fritz Ntone Ntone, were present. Economic operator and MP of NKam Division, Hon Samuel Moth ( Sawa elite and CPDM), known as ‘free –mixer’, made it clear that he came to Bomono –Gare to bid farewell to somebody who was both a friend and big brother to him, and that he did not there as a politician.
Meanwhile, after the events at the ceremonial ground, the traditional authorities and the family took over the corpse, for the burial proper. This brought to the final end, Anicet Georges Ekane’s journey on this earth, which started 74 years ago, precisely in 1971 in Douala, where he was born on April 17.
MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE
Why Anicet Ekane Wanted To Be Buried Besides Ernest Ouandie In Bafoussam
It was an open secret when he was alive, that Anicet Ekane had declared that he would like to be buried when he dies, besides the grave of nationalist leader, Ernest Ouandie, in Bafoussam, West Region. As The Mentor News stated in Part 1 of the series on Ekane’s funeral, Anicet Ekane was in the crowd that watched the killing by firing squad of one of the nationalist or UPC leaders, Ernest Ouandie, in Bafoussam on January 15, 1971. The neo colonial regime of Ahmadou Ahidjo, branded Ouandie and his comrades as terrorists. Anicet Ekane who then was almost 20 years old, was not into politics, and had in fact travelled to Bafoussam for a football match. But the picture of the horrible killing by firing squad of the nationalist leader, Ernest Ouandie, on that fateful day of January 15, 1971, never left the mind of Anicet Ekane. Suffice to say it was that brutal killing of Ernest Ouandie that pulled Anicet Ekane into politics and the UPC Party, when he travelled to France for further studies. Ekane declared Ernest Ouandie his hero, and maintained that position until his death. He repeatedly told those closed to him that he would like to be buried next to, or close to Ernest Ouandie’s tomb in Bafoussam when he dies.
When Anicet Ekane passed away on the fateful day of December 1, 2025 in gendarmerie custody in Yaounde, his children as well as the MANIDEM Party, re-echoed his wish to be buried beside his hero, Ernest Ouandie, in Bafoussam. The children then even proposed that the burial of their late father, should take place on January 15, 2026, to coincide with the commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the killing of Ernest Oaundie. In proposing that date, Ekane’s children did not know that the authorities would block their father’s corpse at the mortuary for over three months. Meanwhile during the commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the death of Ernest Ouandie, political parties in the West Region, which are members of the UPC family, gathered in Bafoussam, for the event They among other things expressed the wish that the Will of late Anicet Ekane, that he be buried in Bafoussam, should be respected.
Unfortunately the wish of Anicet Ekane to be buried besides Ernest Ouandie, could not be met or honoured. The main reason was that ‘Eglise Evangelique du Cameroun’, EEC (Evangelic Church of Cameroon), the current proprietor of the land where Ernest Ouandie’s tomb is built, bluntly refused authorization for the burial of Anicet Ekane on the land. While the MANIDEM Party alleged that the CPDM regime was behind the decision of the EEC, some other sources say the Church adopted a resolution in 2023, prohibiting burials on that land. Whatever the case, it should also be noted that besides the refusal by EEC, to allow Anicet Ekane to be buried close to Ernest Ouandie’s tomb in Bafoussam, there was no unanimity inside the Ekane Mbongo family, and especially in Anicet Ekane’s village, Bamono – Gare in Bonaguem, that he should be buried outside the village, more so, in Bamileke land.
