Dr Chemuta Banda: A Human Rights Crusader bows out.
The death of Dr Chemuta Banda is deeply regretted. He has left the scene in dire time of need. He was a rare voice for the voiceless, hope for the hopeless, and support for victims of atrocity crimes and egregious violations. The Late Albert Womah Mukong and me approached Dr Chemuta Banda on a number of occasions in the course of our sustained struggle against the enslavement and victimization of Southern Cameroonians. He was accomodating and supportive.
The legacy that Dr Chemuta Banda has left is that one of credible humble man who served a profoundly flawed system without compromising his ability to deploy his personal qualities to protect and promote human rights. Through commonsensical attributes of effective leadership such as humility and modesty, he compelled the attention of people of good will who looked beyond the institution he led, to find in him, a man of goodwill and committed human rights crusader. It is the goodwill and personal human qualities of Dr Chemuta Banda that sustained a grossly under funded human rights commission that he led. He denied those who established the human rights commission with the aim of using it to whitewash human rights violations their wish. In the end, they resorted to establishing and relying on a multiplicity of politicized commissions to attain their criminal purposes, sidestepping the national human rights commission.
That did not desuade Dr Banda from standing for human rights and that of victims in particular sometimes, without waiting for the predictable opinion of members of the commission of largely political apppointees.
To be candid, I didnot at any time in my contacts with him, look beyond him to expect institutional support for the promotion and protection of human rights. That institiutional capacity does not exist. By itself, the said commission has no power and no credibility. But the goodwill and strength of character of Dr Chemuta Banda, was compelling enough to convicnce me and the plethora of victims that I know and served to hope that the commission might one day become a paltform and voice for victims of human rights that such commissions were expected to be under the international human rights multilateral treaty regime. His reasuring predisposition, his willingness to share his experiences and provide useful information was enough contribution for as long as he lived. Albert Mukong and me greatly appreciated his sense of candor when we approached him.
A great human rights crusader, Dr Chemuta Banda is gone back to his creator but his sense of candor, his humility and modesty in strength and his services to human rights community will endure.
May his soul rest in peace.
Chief Charles A. Taku
