Jacob Nguni approached death the way he approached life – Dr. Emil Mondoa

I am still unable to wrap my head and heart around the fact that Jacob is gone. From time to time I catch myself thinking about calling him for our weekly chats. We spoke about everything from nothing at all, to politics, health matters, music, photography, our children, family issues and death.

Regarding that last subject, Jacob Nguni approached death as he approached life, with courage, dignity and a touch of humor and whimsy. We cannot pretend that it will not come, because it inevitably shall, generally at a time not of our choosing or foreknowledge.

The most important thing is to be able to enter it with dignity and no regrets. I can say with certainty that Jacob died right as he lived right and that is teachable. We may with the best efforts never become similarly skilled at an art, but we can learn how to live well and depart well.

Jacob Nguni had what the Chinese call kung fu. Typically, kung fu is thought to mean martial art, but in actuality it refers to practicing a skill or an art steadily and consistently until mastery is attained and beyond that wisdom.

That is not the kind of wisdom that is read from books, but the superior sort that seems to emanate from the very pores of the body and the substance of the mind. Everyone knows that Jacob was a master of the guitar, but beyond that, he was much more.

He was a father who put his life on the line for his children. Many of you know the lengths he would go for his kids.

He was a much loved band leader and dean of Cameroonian musicians in the Washington DC area and perhaps the United States. That was not just because he was a master of the form, which he was. That was not just because he was a perfectionist who always demanded the best of those who worked with him, which he was. A genius who does not share cannot be a leader.

He was a leader because he was fair to his colleagues, often putting their needs before his. He did not hug the limelight and gave exposure to younger talents coming up in the music business. I saw all of this in action.

He was a respected leader of our community in the Washington D.C. area because he was naturally just, fearless in standing for what is right, approachable, humorous and generous.

Those who enjoy the vigorous discussions on the Cameroonian internet forums will remember Jacob as a fierce debater with a powerful intellect, loads of insight, a curious mind and humor. He also had a powerful and nuanced command of the English language, as those who have grappled with or read him in the internet know.

I am in no position to evaluate his command of French, but it was way better than mine. As a Sasse Old Boy, I acknowledge Jacob as the quintessential Sasse man: worldly wise, educated, humble, brotherly, a good citizen and abhorrent of insincerity, sycophancy and all manner of falsehood and cheating.

It has taken me a while to write this piece because I could not stomach writing about Jacob in the past tense, but an artist, he is immortal and will always be of the present. I am a lucky man to have called Jacob friend and we are all lucky to have lived at the same time as he.

Some years ago, I wrote a review piece following a phenomenal concert that Jacob and his band gave to an audience in Newark, Delaware. I am glad I wrote the piece then and not now, because although it is good to laud a man when he has passed, it is even better when he is alive to read it. The entire essay is reproduced below:

There are people who get into music for the chicks and there are others who do it for the money or for both. Then, there are the rare ones, the real musicians who enter the field for the love of music. I have known Jacob Nguni since we were kids in Sasse. He is one of the later, and I will tell you how I know.

When Jacob took up the guitar in Form 2, he instantly knew that it was what he wanted to do as his life’s work and he pursued it with a ferocity that I did not see in any other of my schoolmates, who did not really know what they wanted in life.

He practiced until his hands were calloused and bruised, but he kept on practicing until he achieved what sounded to me like perfection, and he still continued to practice. He could play the popular tunes of James Brown, Jimmy Cliff and others with ease, but his benchmark was much higher, the spectacular genuises of Congolese guitar.

Such names as Vata Mombasa, Ricos Kinzonga are not well known, but they were the magic fingers behind the guitar pyrotechnics of Orchestres Lipua Lipua and Bella Bella. Jacob could play the most demanding guitar licks and riffs of these giants with complete accuracy.

Parents used to be hostile to their children pursuing music, so I can only imagine the kind of hell Jacob had to confront at home, when he told his parents in no uncertain terms that he was going to be a musician. He was focused and determined and was not going to be stopped.

This unusual career choice was not because he was some kind of slouch at academics, because he transitioned easily from Form 1 to Form 5, always without hitch, and always at the high end of the bell curve.

Then, he decided to go professional after the second term of Form 5 and took off to Nigeria. He credits this move as the best decision in his life. There is nothing as satisfying as having one’s passion as both profession and hobby.

The next time I saw Jacob was at the Cameroon Embassy in Lagos, getting travel papers.

The barely teenaged Jacob was now the lead guitarist of Prince Nico Mbaraga’s Rocafil Jazz and they had already released Sweet Mother, which is still the biggest hit in African pop music history. Lead guitarists are usually the most senior members of an African dance band.

In December 2004, the BBC Africa organized a poll to recognize Africa’s most popular song, and Sweet Mother won hands down. James Warungu, who organized the poll was quoted as saying, “It’s not just about the lyrics. There’s something about the singing guitar that gets you.”

What Warungu did not know is that the “singing guitar” was Jacob’s and Jacob was a key partner and co-creator in the rise and stardom of Nico Mbarga.

This hit me forcefully at an October 23, 2009 concert at the Social House Club in Newark, Delaware. Jacob Nguni headlined the Waza Muzik Band as singer and lead guitarist.

Waza is a crack band that can handle anything from makossa to the blues; from afrobeat to rock; from Salsa to Mbolobolo with equal ease and aplomb, with the mastery of an experienced session band.

That evening, the band did not present its usual eclectic mix of genres, but focused predominantly on a Nico Mbarga retrospective to the delight of the 400+ strong crowd of Cameroonians, Nigerians, Kenyans, African-Americans and people from the Caribbean.

Watching and listening, it became clear that Jacob was to Nico Mbarga as Billy Strayhorn was to Duke Ellington. Jacob’s contribution was a requirement for the success of Rocafil.

The show started with Christiana and ended with Sweet Mother, making detours through Aki Special, Music Line and tucked in Jacob’s own rather challenging compositions such as Policier and other yet to be released numbers. Waza Muzic Band’s chanteuse Zaina rendered some classic Douala songs.

At the request of an audience member, the band played its rendition of the Eagles hit, Hotel California, in which Jacob performed an exact execution of Don Felder’s difficult classic solo.

Dr. Emil Mondoa is a practicing Physician, he writes from Washington DC