By George Muam
Princes and Princesses of Kom Kingdom from all the nooks and crannies of Cameroon converged on Yaounde on Saturday, July 29, to brainstorm on issues affecting them.
The come-together was the second General Assembly in 2023 after the first was held in Bafoussam.
Top on their agenda were deliberations on how to promote education in the entire Kom Kingdom and ways to safeguard the Kom Culture from being eroded by modernity.
“As an association, we want our members, particularly the young princes and princesses, to be able to go places. When we gather like this, we look for ways to encourage education, self-reliance and we transmit to the younger members, values and principles that should guide them as people of royal blood,” explained the President of the association of Kom Princes and Princesses, Prince Stephen Nsom.
The President was particularly elated with the massive turnout of his siblings for the second annual gathering, which was hosted by Princess Felicia Fukuin, and their association operates under the motto “Royalty and Dignity”.
In unison, they reiterated their role as custodians, pacesetters and advisers when it comes to issues of Kom culture, customs and tradition.
“As Princes and Princesses of the Kom Fondom, we preserve the culture by advising and educating the Kom people about palace protocol, how someone is supposed to behave before the Fon, how someone should enter the palace and we also ensure that when someone does something wrong, we call him or her to order by explaining that, according to our tradition, this is what should instead have been done,” remarked Prince Fidelis Gham.
The advisory role of Kom Princes and Princesses is well known to every Kom kin and kindred. They constitute an institution which is well known and highly respected in the Kom traditional hierarchy. They serve as advisers to the Paramount Fon of Kom, the Kwifoyn and to Kom people in general. As Prince Meredith Ndi Ngam puts it, they are; “the eyes and ears of the Fon of Kom”.
The Princes and Princesses observed that, under normal circumstances, their gathering should have been taking place in Laikom, seat of the Kom kingdom, but due to the crisis, that was not possible. They said some of their members even had to trek from Laikom to Bambui before boarding a taxi due to the road blocks imposed on the entire Boyo Division by Separatist fighters.
Prince Stephen Nsom had this message of peace to all Kom people: “Cameroon as a nation is looking for every means to see that peace returns, and we have been noted to be a peace-loving people. This trouble is not because of Kom Princes and Princesses; it is because of people who don’t reason like us. We appeal to them all to give peace a chance”.
Concerning the recent brawl that engulfed Kom title holders, the President advised that: “When you are a title holder, it is for you to know that you are an officer and every office has its own duties and responsibilities. Title holders should not even be conflicting because no two titles are supposed to be doing the same thing.”