September 13 1958.
Today marks exactly 60 years that Ruben Um Nyobe was assassinated. Um was born in 1913 in Boumynyebel. He founded the UPC party on April 10, 1948; the same UPC party that has thrown its weight, 70 years, later behind the CPDM.
He was a trade unionist and a charismatic leader with a passion for law
He was named" Mpodol Ion", which meant speaker of the nation or spokesman in the native language of the people of Bassa. His friends called him Mpodol, which meant "prophet", due to the belief that it was his biblical mandate to lead and speak as their prophet.
Um Nyobe was killed by French forces in the forest where was hiding years after he had 'gone into the maquis' although he had initially been against violence. He was shot many times at the foot of a tree he was trying to climb when the French troops entered his camp in the forest.
After killing him, the soldiers dragged his body in the mud from the forest camp to a village called Liyong. Due to that, the skin on his body and his face was badly damaged. According to Achille Mbembe, a historian, this was done to symbolically wipe his memory. After which he bodied was buried in a concrete block without any traditional rites. They thought we would forget.
WE will never forget. Long live Um Nyobe.