The late Cardinal has been vocal, cautioning against bad governance, rampant corruption and electoral malpractices. He has been a supporter of peace initiatives in the Central African nation.
At the peak of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, the late Cardinal launched a nationwide crusade advocating for peace in the troubled North West and South West regions.
“The popular initiative for peace that we want to put in place will not be a rosary, incantations, a profession of faith or an avenue for strong declarations,” Cardinal Tumi said in August 2019, and added, “the crisis can no longer be healed by simple words or condemnation, but with concrete actions on the field.”
Last November, Cardinal Tumi was abducted in the troubled North West region of Cameroon. He was on November 6 after a night with his captors.
(Story continues below)
Kidnapped alongside twelve other people, including the traditional Chief of the Nso tribe, Fon Sehm Mbinglo II allegedly by a group of armed separatists under the leadership of one, “General Chaomao,” the late Cardinal had been accused of “creating problems in our territory,” his captors claiming that they had held him for “questioning.”
In a video shared on social media, the Cardinal’s captors tell him, “Let the government know that we will never lay down our arms until we are free because we are fighting for our rights. We are not rebels; we are not barbaric as the government says; we are fighting for our rights as a people.”
In the video, the Cardinal is seen responding to his captors, “I am a Cameroonian citizen like you. I am not part of the government. I am totally independent of what I say. I am not the mouthpiece of the government and am not employed by the government.”
“If you have done wrong, I will tell you that you have done wrong; if the government has done wrong, I will tell them that they have done wrong!” the Cardinal further responds in the November 2020 video recording.
For Martin Jumbam, the co-author of Cardinal Tumi’s memoir published under the title, “My Night in Captivity,” “A huge heart has ceased to beat! A great soul has joined the Redeemer in His moments of agony and together they make a triumphal entry into the Father's kingdom!”
“I owe my return to the faith to Christian Cardinal Tumi when l joined him in what he called ‘The March for Peace’ in 1993,” Mr. Jumbam told ACI Africa in an interview April 3.
He continued in reference to the late Cardinal, “I have since had the chance to work in close quarters with him for the past nearly three decades.”
“What l consider my last achievement with him, and for him, is my collaboration in his recent memoir ‘My Night in Captivity’, following his recent travails in the hands of separatist forces in the restive northwestern region of Anglophone Cameroon,” Mr. Jumbam, who hosts programs on the Catholic Archdiocese of Douala-owned Radio Veritas that was founded by the late cardinal told ACI Africa.
He added, “A man of peace has left us but the olive branch he carried with him to his final days remains evergreen. We have a Saint above who will continue to pray for elusive peace to finally make its home in our land. I am glad the Lord did lead me to know and work with him.”
On his part, Fr. Michel Tchoumbou Ngantchop of Douala Archdiocese has eulogized the Church leader as prayerful, “a great Priest” who was “outspoken.”
“I worked very closely with the Cardinal and I came to know him as a man of deep prayer,” Fr. Tchoumbou told ACI Africa Saturday, April 3.
The late Cardinal “spent several hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The Cardinal will never miss his prayer hours,” the Cameroonian Cleric further said, and continued, “We have lost a great Priest, a pastor, an outspoken somebody. He is my closest experience to physical Sainthood. He was a great man and a father to many.”
Fr. Etienne Bakaba who was ordained a Priest by the late Cardinal told ACI Africa, “Cardinal Tumi was a Priest that was guided by faith.”
“He was not only great in height and voice; he was great in faith. What can sum up the Cardinal's life is the courage of his faith,” Fr. Bakaba said.
Cardinal Tumi, the Cameroonian Cleric further said, “loved the celebration of the Eucharist. That is why Pope John Paul II made him a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.”
“With his dual Anglophone and Francophone culture, Cardinal Tumi was the prototype of the leader that Cameroon needs today in our crisis context,” Fr. Bakaba told ACI Africa April 3, adding in reference to the late Cardinal, “God loved him very much. God gave him much. God will ask more of him. Good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in a few things, enter into the joy of your Master.”
For the couple that coordinates the family Apostolate in the Archdiocese of Douala, Cardinal Tumi was at the forefront of their vocation in the family apostolate.
“The Cardinal sent us to study at the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences and with him we reorganized the family apostolate in the Archdiocese of Douala,” Aïcha Marianne Kenne Sob in Kola told ACI Africa.
She continued, “As a true defender of life, together with the Cardinal, we organized the popular march against the signing of the Maputo Protocol in Cameroon back in 2009.”
“The Family was at the center of his pastoral mission in the Archdiocese of Douala. He encouraged the creation of Small Christian Communities (SCC) and insisted on the teaching of the doctrine of the Church within families,” she said.
Mrs Kola implored, “Let us continue to pray for our Father the Cardinal. He was a great man and lived a holy life. Go well our dear father in faith.”
For Ewane Epote Kassy, “Cameroon has lost its lone Cardinal, an outspoken Prelate and an epitome of hope to the hopeless, undeterred voice to the voiceless, oppressed and a peace crusader.”
Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
