Bøker av Martin Jumbam

In his memoir, From the Highlands of Nkar to the World, Martin Jumbam sets out on an adventure which leads him from the cosy domesticity of life in his village of Nkar, under the patronage of his parents, fervently-strict Catholic Christians, to what is practically a terra incognito, the unknown, the unfamiliar world that first opens up to him when he follows his elder brother, a Catholic teacher, to Nkambe, far from his native Nkar village. This becomes the first of an adventure that will eventually see him drift further and further away from his native village out into the beckoning wide world, a journey of nearly half a century, during which he frequents university amphitheatres in Cameroon, Europe, the United States of America and Canada. Deciding not to settle in any of these countries, thus rejecting the glamour of life abroad, he finally returns to his native Cameroon, an already married man and father of a family. Martin Jumbam worked for over 20 years for an American oil company, Pecten Cameroon, in the port city of Douala, Cameroon, before serving for four years as the general manager of La Maison Catholique de la Communication Sociale (MACACOS), the Catholic Media House of the Archdiocese of Douala. He is the author of My Conversion Journey with Christian Cardinal Tumi (Langaa Publishing, 2014), Beads of Memory (Spears Books, 2020), and co-author of My Night in Captivity (Spears Books, 2021). He lives in Douala and works as a freelance translator, conference interpreter and journalist.

In the wake of General Franco's demise, a Cameroonian student, Leinteng Basha, arrives in Madrid. He soon befriends two other African students, Bassey Okoro from Nigeria, and a drifter from Equatorial Guinea, Jesus Ndongo. Together, they navigate as best as they can through the challenges of loneliness, homesickness and especially the indifference, if not outright hostility of their host country. Leinteng keeps a diary in which he details in simple, straightforward but captivating prose, the travails and joys of his days in the Spanish capital. Through the diarist's sharp eye for detail, the reader is irresistibly drawn into the labyrinth of life as lived by an African student in post-Franco Spain.

Faith conversion experiences are first of all personal before being universal. While biblical history records relatively few conversion encounters as dramatic and as explosive as Saint Paul's on the road to Damascus, it is not rare for individuals in the throes of a religious conversion to fall prey to intensely agonizing confusion. That is what happened to Martin Jumbam when he marched for peace in his country alongside the charismatic and irrepressible Emeritus Archbishop of Douala in Cameroon, Christian Cardinal Tumi. He joined the prelate as a secular journalist but went back home more than ever conscious of his state as a fallen Christian, the first step in his journey of faith. Since then, all his writing, be it secular or religious, now bears the fruits of that encounter, characterized by intense empathy for the human person. This book recounts the myriad ways Jumbam's encounters with Christian Cardinal Tumi have activated, nourished and inspired his faith.