A new book, dedicated to the fight against slavery and trafficking, titled; ‘The Trials Of Mukom’, has been unveiled to the public.
The 24-page play has its setting in Cameroon and is authored by a Senior State Counsel and head of the Legal Department in Limbe, Justice James Eni Mokube.
Justice Eni is also the Coordinator of the Southwest Regional Task Force set by the Government and charged with the battle against trafficking in persons and slavery.
Justice Eni told the press during the launching of his work on Friday, December 5, in Limbe, that coming out with a book which aptly highlights the horrors that victims of human trafficking go through will just be another way of fighting against the degrading human treatment.
The play, ‘The Trials Of Mukom,’ according to the author, “depicts the plight of a young village boy, whose father naively falls victim to the trickery of his brother and who, through an intermediary, is taken from their village on the pretext that his uncle, who lives in the city, wants to educate him and better his life.
“Once in the city, they boy is rather, handed to a family unknown to him where he experiences, first hand, the horrors of domestic servitude; the most common form of human trafficking.”
Mukom ends up fleeing from the clutches of his enslavers, is picked up and rehabilitated by a Good Samaritan of sorts. He finally returns to his village and mounts up the fight against the habit where parents, unknowingly, are packaging their children for export to the cities in a bid to let them have a better life and they, unfortunately, end up being reduced to domestic slaves under the guise of working as housemaids and servants.
It is based on this that the public welcomed Eni’s work, during its launch on Friday, with a great show of concern and readiness to support him in his mission to help end the practice by many of recruiting people’s children and subjecting them to domestic slaves for little or no pay.
“Dedicated to all silenced victims of trafficking in persons. Someday, your voices will be heard; your yokes broken,” says the author.
It is, as Eni said, thanks to the National Oil Refinery Company Ltd, SONARA, that his very first works to be published came through. Above all, he hailed the Communication Director of SONARA, Blasuis Ngome, who, after reading just the manuscript, immediately took Eni to meet their GM, Ibrahim Talba Malla. Eni said when Talba read through the manuscript, he was also moved becasue the practice of trafficking is also very rife in his own area in the north of the country.
The support flowed right through the launching on Friday where Epey Mbeng came with an envelope from the GM of SONARA. Ebey, himself, doled out FCFA 100,000 to support the efforts while the Fako SDO, Zang III, also rolled out a pack of FCFA 100,000, urging Eni to go forward.
The financial support, nevertheless, was begun by the Chairman of the book launch and leader of the Southwest Regional Corps in the fight against trafficking in persons and slavery, Justice Gang Foncham, who launched with FCFA 100,000. There were many other supporters from the legal family, friends and administrative heads.
The launch was graced by several presentations made about the book by veteran Journalit, Muema Meombo; the Divisional Delegate for Communication in Fako, herself, a poet, Jacky Ngam Balon and the PRO of the Limbe City Council and poetess and storyteller, Donna Forbin.
“The author’s combination of his talents as a novelist and as a poet has made him to produce such a dynamic and powerful play,” Ngam Balon said. Meanwhile, Forbin was of the opinion that the author should not just end at this one publication, but should, “stay visible and shining.”
Justice Eni stated that the proceeds from the book launch shall be dedicated to turning the play into a movie so as to better make it possible for each and everyone to be able to comprehend his message against the trade in humans and slavery in Cameroon.
