Life in CCAS Kumba

During preparations to write the GCE ordinary levels you are asked to make a choice of two high schools that you would like to attend if you are successful in the examinations. You get to make a first choice and a second choice. The school that you designate as your first choice is the one that you really wanted to attend. The second choice is if at all things do not go too well with your first choice.
The schools that you have chosen will publish a list of those admitted into their high school based on those that took them as their first choice. In order words priority is given to those that designated them as their high school of preference. There are no interviews at all at this level. The high school publishes a list of those admitted into the school as well as a list of those admitted into the dormitory. I would have loved to continue my education at Bilingual grammar school Buea. But after being thrown out of the dormitory while going into form five I had no choice but to look for another institution. Cameroon College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS Kumba) as it is called was my first choice. Unlike Bilingual grammar school Buea, at this time it was a high school only institution. There was no secondary school attached to it like Bilingual grammar school Buea. It was located in Kumba, the commercial capital of the South West Province. I liked the fact that I could get admitted into the dormitory. Being a government institution, no fees were being paid at the time. When I got my result slip, I and my dad headed for Kumba to see either the Vice Principle or the Principle of the school.
We succeeded in seeing the Vice Principle. It was not necessary though, because the man explained to us that admission we be based strictly on GCE ordinary level grades and a list will be published within the next few days. I met Fonge Julius during this period. He too had come with his father to seek admission into the school. His father and my Dad had apparently known each another because they spend a lot of time talking to each other.
Musonge Gabriel, a close friend of mind from Bilingual grammar school Buea was here also trying to seek admission into CCAS Kumba. Nkeng Ernest was around, so were Akoachere George and a bunch of other students from Sasse College. These guys are going to be my new friends in CCAS Kumba. Anyway the list finally came out and I got admitted both into the high school and into the dormitory. I was very happy to be coming to both a new city and a new school.
I and my dad returned to Tiko and I started preparations for school that was to begin in the first week of October. I started high school in Kumba in the year 1980 and graduated in June 1982. High school here in Cameroon is for two years. Having secured a place in the dormitory, I headed for Kumba to begin high school.
The journey from Tiko where my parents are and Kumba is about a two hours drive. Heading into CCAS Kumba, I had made some friends already. Guys that I met while we were seeking admission into high school. Once I got admitted I was also made aware of people that I should know when I got into the school. CCAS Kumba was a "mixed" high school. Unlike Bilingual grammar Buea, at the time I got there, my new school had girls in it. That would be a positive change because you get to learn how to interact with females.
You are no longer all the time amongst your buddies. There were a total of three dormitories in the school. Dormitory A, Dorm B and Dorm C. Dormitories A and B were the boy’s dormitories while Dormitory C was designated for the girls. There was a restaurant which we used for different purposes including as a dancing floor, Assembly hall and a theatre hall. The restaurant was placed somewhere between dormitory B and dormitory C.
The classrooms were located not too far from where the dormitories were. In terms of hectares, CCAS Kumba is not a real big school. From any of the dormitories you can see the whole institution. None of our administrators lived on Campus or nearby. There was a total of one administrative home near campus and this was occupied by a discipline master. He did not interfere in student’s affairs though and it was hard to see him as a discipline master.
CCAS Kumba was an institution where the students were treated as grown ups and everybody maintained a high level of civility. At the time we were the only high school in Kumba and we were regarded with high esteem. When I arrived CCAS Kumba I was assigned to dormitory B. The living arrangements are organised so that you sleep in a bunk bed with the first year students occupying the upper beds. My bed was on top of a guy called Takim Cletus.
I knew him already. He was a class ahead of me while we were in Bilingual Grammar School Buea. For my studies I enrolled for three subjects, English Literature, French Literature and History. This was the Bilingual series. The History that we studied in CCAS Kumba was world affairs. World History that covered from the 1900s to present day. I had done a bit of it at my secondary school, so this was going to be a continuation. The English Literature was English literature as you know it. It involved African Literature (we studied "Arrow of God" by Chinua Achebe), but mostly books by English Authors. William Shakespeare, Chaucer, Thomas Hardy. Some of the books that we had to get were Hamlet, The Comedy of errors,Much Ado about Nothing, The Canterbury Tales, Far from the Madding Crowd, etc, etc.
For French Literature we studied some African authors like Camara Laye "L’Enfant Noir" but mostly French authors. People like Molière "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme". Before settling on three subjects, I toyed with the idea of adding Economics as a fourth subject but after a week of classes I decided that I should stay with three. Four subjects were going to be too much of a study load. It would not allow you any time for a social life and there was no guarantee that you would pass all four subjects at the GCE advance level exam.
None of the other Arts students was doing four subjects anyway. So I dropped Economics and stayed with English Literature, French Literature and History. The primary difference between being in secondary school in Buea and attending CCAS Kumba is that in Kumba your social life just takes off. You meet a lot of students from schools such as PSS Kumba, GSS Nyasoso, Frank Harcourt Kumba, and PSS Besongabang. These are all mixed schools and the students from these institutions had a balance between their studies and their personal life. People like us coming from a predominantly male school were going to be following their leads.
There were three social clubs at the time and all three clubs were doing serious recruiting of members. I got recruited into a club called UNESCO club. The then President was a guy called Tate Ernest. The Clubs had pictures displayed on the main administrative building. I took a look and said this is real serious. The idea behind club activities is that funds are raised through ball room dances that are organised on campus and contributions are also sought from external donors.
The external donors were mostly former students, enlightened lectures and generally people in town who can throw some weight around. The dances were organised in a rotating manner with each club giving the others a chance to organise and raised some funds after they have gotten their turn. Most of the events will take place early in the semester before studies get serious and as soon as the term examinations were over. A lot of people from out of town attended our dances. There was a high table in which executive members of each club get to sit on during the ball dances as well as some invited guests. Ladies to accompany them were designated before the dances take place.
Members of each club go around before the dances and made arrangements for the ladies that will sit in the high table and it was a great pride to sit on one of these tables. At my second year at CCAS Kumba I was the Secretary General of UNESCO (the second high ranking person in my club) and I got to sit on quite a few high tables. What you do is you designate a lady that you like and one of the club members will go talk to her during the week leading to the dance. Usually you would choice somebody that you like and of course with whom you are in good terms with. I was generally regarded as being "cool" so I did not have any problems getting the girls that I wanted to accompany me.
Most of those elected into the high positions in the Clubs had some charisma and the ladies were just as happy to accompany them. Your names get called and you both walked hand in hand to the table and take your sit. There is an opening dance record after which the floor is opened for everybody. After about an hour or two I believe the ladies were free to engage with whomever they wanted to get engage with. Just because a lady accompanies you to the high table did not imply that she is yours to keep. The ladies had boyfriends and at some point had to be with them.
The arrangement was so nice and I cannot think of any lady who turned down an invitation to the high table. On party days there was a lot of work for the club members. The hall we did not have to worry about because it belongs to the school and we had permission to use it at any convenient time. So long as we did not attempt to organise a party at a time close to the final examinations we where okay. There was nothing as arranging for security. That is not necessary in high school parties here in Cameroon. People do not come to parties here to fight. Everybody is well dressed up and ready for a good time.
The musical instruments were rented from a nightclub owner in town. The drink, we put down a deposit and got all the drinks that we wanted. We returned and got a full refund on the drinks that were unsold by the end of the party. The hall that we used was our restaurant, so there were chairs and tables available for us to use in the party. The club members were responsible for keeping the place clean before and after the party. This duty was assigned mainly to first year students.
That is one thing that I really like about CCAS Kumba. Just about every duty had been planned. First year students knew their duties and second year students knew theirs. You did not complain because the following year you would be a second year student and the chores that you did not like will now be passed to the lower class men. In the dormitory the up keep of the place was divided between the first year and second year students.
The other activity that made CCAS Kumba an interesting place while I was there is our soccer team. We won the soccer championship trophy the first year that I was at the school and we were cheated out of a second in my second year there. The year that I came in, the team was loaded with quality players all over the place. There were two second division professional teams in Kumba town and a lot of our players were regulars in the professional teams. The rest of the players had the quality to play for these teams but choose not to because they wanted to concentrate on their education. We had Nana,Edwin,Khasara,Nzokwelle,Eno Charles,Fombo Henry ,Tasinda,Kimbo,Oscar Elundu(Docteur)and Hencho, to name just a few.
Games were played in the Kumba town Green and in my first year we just crushed all the schools in the regular season. No defeats, no ties, all victories. It was not just the victory that we were getting; it was the manner in which we totally outclassed the other schools. Frank Harcourt, PSS Kumba, Government Technical School Kumba (our next door neighbour) were all pushed aside. We did the same during knock out competition and defeated GSS Nyasoso by 2 goals to zero in the finals to complete our perfect season.
During my second year a lot of our star players had graduated though we still had a decent team. We made it all the way to the finals match and we were disqualified before a reply of the finals was to take place. The opponent was GTHS Kumba and they had beaten us by 1 goal to 0 in the first leg of the finals. On the returned leg we beat them by 1 goal to 0 also. There was a player that we fielded (Esele) is his name that had been showed a red card in the first leg match. The rules at the time were not too clear but our understanding was that you only missed the match in which you were sent off. This was high school soccer not the pros. On the returned match there was no protest and Esele was allowed to play the game. He was our star player at the time and he scored the lone goal of the match giving us the victory. We were getting prepared for the replay when a notification was sent to us claiming that we fielded a suspended player and therefore lost the second match. GTHS was therefore declared champion of the season. We all got so angry and forfeiting matches in all other competitions such as handball and volleyball that we were involved in.The main reason that you get into high school is to prepare for the GCE advanced levels and these usually begins in the first year.There is a syllabus that you follow and you have to stick to it because just about all the examination questions will be coming from text that are included in the syllabus. Studies in the first year though is mainly geared towards getting you into the senior year where you actually sit for the examination.
During my first year I did some preparations by beginning to memorise some to the quotes in the French literature text that we used. That was going to help when the time came for essay writing. You are giving some questions and you are required to provide a written essay on them.Second year came and I believe I and some friends including Musonge Gabriel decided to stay in school and study for the short two week vacation that links the second to the third term. It was a brilliant idea in terms of staying in school during a period during which everybody is gone and thus have a quite period during which you could concentrate on your studies.The reality was that we were very hungry most of the time and it is very difficult to study on an empty stomach.The two weeks that we remained in campus we ended up getting up in the morning and visiting friends and relatives around the area to try and get some food.By the time that we got to campus we were pretty much tired and ready to rest.The two weeks went by and we were happy to welcome the rest of the student body, together with all the restaurant cooks.
I believe you pass the GCE advanced levels through your efforts for the combined period that you are in school.You attend classes and take notes and just keep up with current events for your History class and you would be okay.I can only thing of one person that passed the examination by virtually staying away from classes and pretty much doing everything by himself.I believe the fellow's name is Tokuff Ferdinand.Guy nevered showed up for classes especially during his second year.He was a day student and ended up with two Es.The Minimum passing grade.Quite a few students that attended classes and did all the studying ended up failing the exam.During the period leading to our taking the examination some strange events began taking place.
First of all there were rumours that one of our classmates was capable of literally picking up our brains. You do all the studying and he ends up with the knowledge. Eno Charles is the name of the guy falsely accussed.Problem was the fellow was popular in school and was a friend to just about all of us.Our school principle had to step in and assure us that it was impossibly for somebody to accomplish what we are accusing Eno of doing. We called our principle "Mola" and we all had a lot of respect for him. He got all the second year students into the reflectory and his speech went a long way towards calming all of us down.
There was one other incident, but this was actually during the examination period.The night before we took the first part of the history examination, news spread around that somebody had gotten hold of the examination questions earlier.It was just a mess because questions that were suppose to be on the examination were distributed.A lot of people stayed up all night memorising answers to these questions. I do not remember exactly what I did.It just knew that getting questions that late at night before the examinations and trying to memory the answers was just going to get you confused. It was History though and World Affairs was something that I was pretty strong in anyway so getting questions that late at night was not going to be any good.The day of the examination, I do not believe that any of the questions were on the question sheet.I wrote all the sections of the examination and departed for home in Tiko.
Of the three subjects that I wrote, English Literature, French Literature and History, English Literature was by far the most challenging.There was a section that we wrote and everybody came out of the examination room basically complaining.When the result came out I was at home in Tiko listening to the names being read out. The batteries in the radio had ran down so low that I heard my name and that I had passed in three subjects. I could not get my passing grades. A friend of mind in town though got the grades for me and they were History C, French Literature D and English Literature E.Just like I was anticipating, I barely squeeze out a passing grade in English Literature.I got my GCE advanced levels and it was time to start thinking about University(College studies).