US-based Professor Athanasius Ayuk, recently appointed at the Cameroon’s Embassy in the USA was given the title Seseku of the Manyu people.

People of Afap village in Manyu Division of the South West Region have honoured one of theirs with the title of “Seseku”. Professor Athanasius A. Ayuk, formerly Chair of the Department of English of the Higher Teacher’s Training College of the University of Maroua, was recently given a hilarious welcome in his native Afap village after a presidential appointment to the position of a Cultural Counsellor to the Cameroon Embassy in the United States of America (USA).

Recently on a visit to his native land, Prof. Athanasius Ayuk was received at the entrance of the village by the highest secret society of the Manyu people, the Ekpe (a secret society for men and a traditional governing body in any village in Manyu). Dressed in the Ekpe attire Prof. Ayuk was led by the majestic Ekpe and Nkanda dance groups to the village hall where he was elevated to the prestigious rank of Seseku, in the Ekpe society.

Prof. Ayuk was given the title Seseku in honour of what he has done for his village to encourage and support the educational community. Prof. Ayuk told Cameroon Tribune how he has encouraged young people in his village to go to school by paying their school fees, talking to parents about the necessity for their children to go to school, especially the girl child, as well as helping each month to pay the salary of a primary school teacher in the village. The new Cultural Counsellor said he has also been instrumental in strengthening the human resource base in his village through awareness-based activities. His wife, Dr Elizabeth Ayuk Ako, was given the traditional title of “Ekandim Nkanda”.

Speaking at the ceremony, the head of Ekpe of Afap village, Seseku Daniel Laluh said with Prof Ayuk’s commitment in the village, the Ekpe society thought it necessary to confer him the Seseku title while exhorting Prof. Ayuk to continue to represent his village and his nation valiantly in his new capacity as the Cultural Counsellor to the Cameroon Embassy in the USA.

During the colourful ceremony which was chaired by the Divisional Officer for Eyumojock, Johnson Malafa Mochi, the people of Afap also showed gratitude to the Head of State, Paul Biya for appointing their son to the position of Cultural Counsellor to the Cameroon Embassy in the USA. The D.O. of Eyumojock used the opportunity to encourage young people to go to school and do their own part of the deal, before the government will be expected to accomplish its own.