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SOLOMON TANYI TAMBE
1912—1990
Solomon Tanyi Tambe was born in 1912 in Bakebe Village in the Manyu Division of the Republic of Cameroon. He died in Messing Bakebe on 2 April 1990 at about 3:30 pm. It was a quiet and peaceful death for a loving sewant of the Faith Whom the Hand of the Cause of God Enoch Olinga had called “one of the pillars of the Bahá’í Faith in Cameroon”.
From his teenage years Solomon had been attracted to deism, and in 1932 he was baptized by a Basel Mission Missionary. He returned home and immediately started gathering people to the church. This action sent shock waves through the family, and particularly through his father, Tambe Eyong Enow, who was a combatant, a healer in traditional medicines, and a polygamist. Solomon was not physically largeyor strong. He was the only child of his mother, Enowambane, who was the first of six wives to his father. Consequently his father could not hand down much of his traditional skills: it was 1ike a curse which he endured to his grave.
THE Bahá’í WORLD
Denigrated as traditional misfit, Solomon’s attachment to the church grew stronger and stronger. At the age of 23 he was admitted into the seminary, though he pulled out shortly after due to incongruities. “It looked like employment”, he said.
By 1937 he had started plantation faiming with the Germans in Tombel. That same year he found his spouse, Esther Agbortoko, in Mfaitock Village. The couple had eight children, five of whom had died before Solomon’s own passing.
His years as a lukewarm Christian were brief. With an insatiable desire for the spiritual, and the Bible his cherished consort, he returned to the seminary in Nyassoso in 1943. This time he completed the three year course and gained “employment” in Tombel and later in Douala as catechist. But the “irreconcilables” persisted. Among these were dreary rituals and a strange realisation within church tanks that “not every cleric’s turban is a sign of continence”. Once again he was thrown in the lurch of unacceptables. At this point, by 1950, he was resolute to “quit catechism” and “return home to subsistence farming”.
If Solomon was not a ready soul for the Cause of Baha’u’llah, he was certainly a man of sane judgment. He had demonstrated remarkable courage several times against despondent traditions and mortifying rituals. He was always quiet in meetings but affable in reply to committee puzzles. His opinion in most cases was respected as he was a cool-humoured man of wisdom.
His encounter with the Faith was quite peculiar. One fine morning, in December 1954, he woke up to find a vehicle standing in front of his door, off the roadside. The occupants—a man and a lady whom he reoognised later as Enoch Olinga and Valerie Wilsonm—had just wakened. The man crossed to a neighbour, requested water from the old woman, and then left with his companion on their day’s journey towards Mamfe.
Solomon noticed a foreign accent and a certain reverence in the stranger, but he
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IN MEMORIAM
ignored them and went to farm. All the same, the circumstances remained enigmatic in his mind. Who were these intruders? Why had they stationed themselves only in front of his door? Why had he failed to talk to them?
That evening, while Visiting a friend, Sampson Agbortoko, at Bakebe Corners, he was presented with a leaflet left by the stranger. “Solo” suddenly found himself captivated, attracted to the spell of its wording: “...a rose has the same fragrance no matter in which orchard... Man must be a lover of light whether it comes from the east or west”. The pillars of faith remain shining no matter from which heart, especially a heart led by the spirit of God. Solomon’s immediate remark was, “Whoever is the author of this leaflet has the same authenticity as the Bible.” His embrace of the Faith came With a stark sense of responsibility and a loyalty even greater than to his catechism.
In the wake of the early spiritual fire that blazed through West Africa with Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings, Solomon played his part. Some Cameroonians, including his family members, responded to the call of the Guardian to open Virgin territories but back home it was necessary to have the Faith’s administration built and Solomon Tanyi was one of its indigenous architects.
By 1955, eleven people including himself had become Bahá’ís in Bakebe and were having regular meetings. By Riḍván 1956, 18 believers had made a joint declaration, permitting them to elect their first Local Spiritual Assembly with Solomon as secretary. Other of his early activities included participation in extensive teaching projects With Enyand Basi and Joana Ngo Mpek in the Mamfe~Kumba-Victoria areas, the opening up of Mamfe, including Kendemy and parts of the northwest, and translations of the Holy Writings into the Kenyang language.
Solomon served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of West Central Africa from its inception in 1964 until 1967, and then was elected to the newly formed
Solomon T anyi T ambe
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Cameroon Republic for 1967 to 1968. His services figure conspicuously in the decree recognizing and incorporating the Bahá’í Faith in Cameroon. From 1969 to 1973 he was the first Cameroonian appointed to be an Auxiliary Board member for Propagation, serving alongside Jaward Mughrabi who was an Auxiliary Board member for Protection.
Besides his mother tongue, Kenyang, Solomon could speak Ejagham, Douala, English, and German. His appellations, “Ta Mfaw Tanyi” (“teacher”), and “Solomon” are indicative of a remarkable quality associated With a man who could literally sail in all Winds and who was a father of wisdom dearly missed.
The following message was sent on 30 July 1990 on behalf of the Universal House of Justice:
...the Universal House of Justice was very saddened to learn of the passing of clear Mr. Solomon Tanyi Tambe who is so fondly remembered for his historic
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services to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh in Cameroon. Kindly assure his wife, his three sons and his grandchildren of the ardent prayers of the House of Justice in the Holy Shrines for the progress of his pure soul in the realms above.
SAMUEL TANYI TAMBE
