Hidden Power of African Diaspora Communities

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Story warrior.

[00:00:02]We rise and [music] we lead from our motherland's plains.

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[00:00:11]Business warrior. Voices that shine.

[00:00:14]African spirit in every life. Lead and inspire. [singing] Tell your story.

[00:00:20]Legacy in motion. [music] This is our glory.

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[00:00:32]Welcome to the Story Warrior podcast. We usually don't start >> [music] >> with this beautiful whistle from the motherland.

[00:00:42]But I had to do so today >> [music] >> because I am in the great company of royalty.

[00:00:48]I'm in the great company of a special people.

[00:00:52]Story Warrior podcast. This is where we curate stories, breakthroughs, and pivotal moments about stories, about trailblazers, about cultures, about people who have defined who we are.

[00:01:09]I am in the great company of Mekuda DFW with the president, Dr. Daniel Fonyam, with Madam Vivian Akeme, with Madam Abigail Fonyam, and yes, the world-famous Mr. Adingwa >> [music] >> And in case you're dropping by for the first time, you're wondering, but who are you?

[00:01:28]My name is Gideon Fomukwai, Fomukwai, the Story Warrior.

[00:01:32]I believe that until the lion learns to tell its story, the tale of the hunt glorifies the hunter. So tonight, we want Mekuda DFW to tell us about a special event that they are organizing, and tell us what is it that they are doing differently that they are considered change makers >> [music] >> in this arena when other organizations are splintering and falling apart.

[00:01:56]Mr. President, can you introduce your group to us? What is Mekuda DFW all about? Thank you very much. It's a privilege coming here in order for us to tell you people about our group, our culture, and our people. We are here in DFW. I'm here with my uh >> [music] >> with my members and the brain behind everything that we do here in DFW with Ma Vivian, the pioneer, Mr. Adingwa, also a strong pioneer. They will break everything down in order for them to form this wonderful group that we have. And we are also here with my beautiful wife, Abigail Fonyam.

[00:02:34]So we are here to tell you people about everything that has to do with Mekuda.

[00:02:40]Mekuda is Meta Cultural Development Association here in DFW. So without much to do, without much to say, I will just end it here so that my the rest of my colleagues, we are all going to talk more detail on DFW >> [music] >> in Mekuda, Mekuda in DFW. Thank you.

[00:03:02]>> [snorts] >> Thank you. Thank you. In fact, we should go around and have each of these distinguished members introduce themselves in their personal capacities before we dive in to talk about Mekuda DFW. Madam Akeme, why don't you tell us a little bit about who are you why are you such a highly respected pioneer? Hi.

[00:03:22]Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for bringing me to Story Warrior.

[00:03:27]My name is Vivian Ambai Akeme. I hail from Bome, Meta, and I belong to Mekuda DFW, a group that has been on for over 25 years and will be celebrating our silver jubilee this year.

[00:03:42]And I don't know if you want me to just go ahead and say what I have to say. I'm going to tell you You you mentioned your origin village.

[00:03:51]For those who know about that area, they they they maybe start they start to salivate because Bome is famous for fish.

[00:04:00]What? But if we go to Yeah, [clears throat] they have one of the best fish ponds, commercial fishing centers in all of West Africa, Central Africa. But let's go to Mr. Adingwa, who I think comes from one of those most notable villages in all of Meta land. Mr. Adingwa, tell us about yourself, sir. Yes, my name is Adingwa.

[00:04:21]I'm from Njin.

[00:04:23]And if you know about Tat Market, you know that's where Njin is located. So I've been a proud member of Mekuda DFW since 2009. I've had the honor to serve as chapter president from 2010 until 2016. During this time, I was really really blessed to work alongside dedicated members to advance the mission of this organization.

[00:04:45]Since completing my tenure as a president, I stayed a dedicated member because of what I've seen that this group have done.

[00:04:53]And uh this 25 jubilee that we are celebrating, I want to thank our current president, Dr. Daniel Fonyam, for initiating this project, this program for where we are today. It's a delight to have him as our president. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. And then we have Mafo, Abigail Fonyam. Madam, why don't you tell us why do they call you Mafo?

[00:05:14]And yes, tell us a little bit about yourself, Madam. Yes, thank you so much, Story Warrior. I'm very happy to be here today.

[00:05:22]So my name is Abigail Fonyam.

[00:05:25]Yes, Mafo.

[00:05:26]Fonyam is from the palace. I'm married to a prince and originally from Wum, but married into the Meta culture from Zang Tembeng.

[00:05:38]If you know where Zang Tembeng is, very up there up the hill, right up there. So in the palace, so that's where the Mafo comes from.

[00:05:45]So I'm really privileged to be among this notable today in this platform. I'm the current publicity secretary of the Mekuda DFW.

[00:06:00]So we are looking forward to this great event.

[00:06:04]And it's not going to be just an event.

[00:06:06]It's going to be a come and see event.

[00:06:10]Please stay tuned as we deliberate on this. Thank you. Okay.

[00:06:15]I was sounding that to acknowledge again that you all are distinguished.

[00:06:20]And [music] I am blessed that I'm connected to all of you.

[00:06:24]Blessed in the sense that Zang Tembeng, neighboring village to my village.

[00:06:30]If you stand from Zang Tembeng and you whistle, [music] I'm going to hear my village. I whistle for my village. You can hear in Zang Tembeng.

[00:06:37]>> [music] >> And let's put a spotlight on Njin. We have a notable here from Njin. Njin is this amazing village where people come from all over Northwest and beyond to go to this marketplace called Tat Market.

[00:06:50]People come from Littoral province. They come from Wouri.

[00:06:55]They come from far far away places >> [music] >> because of Tat Market. But we're not going to talk about Tat Market so much today. We're not going to talk so much about Bome and the commercial fish farming in Bome. We want to talk about the 25th anniversary, the 25th anniversary of Mekuda DFW.

[00:07:13]So I want to ask you, Mr. President, maybe you're going to pick one of your members. How did Mekuda DFW start?

[00:07:21]Because this is important for us because you are change makers.

[00:07:26]That's the reason we invited you. We didn't just invite you because you are having a good time. No, we invited you because we know that you are change makers. How did this get started? Thank you very much, Story Warrior. I'm here with my pioneer members, those that break every ground to make us >> [music] >> stand strong for 25 years. They went through every challenge, a lot of challenges for us to stay strong. So I will pass it on to Mr. Adingwa, and Ma Vivian will start first with Mr. Adingwa, and then let him go ahead and tell us more how it started, then from there we will go ahead. Thank you.

[00:08:04]Yes.

[00:08:05]Okay, yes. I must say again, this group started back in the back in the in 2006 with very few of us in this town, very few Meta people in this town.

[00:08:16]And everybody you meet was either a brother or a sister.

[00:08:20]So they find it better, why don't you start a group in this town? So that's how the group came to be known as Mekuda DFW.

[00:08:27]This group is part of Mekuda USA. And we've been we've been we've done our best to attend Mekuda USA conventions since 2008. And this group of Mekuda USA have recognized us one of the strongest groups in Mekuda USA.

[00:08:44]We've always been there. We supported the local community. We supported organizations um back in Cameroon.

[00:08:53]So we are very very strong group, and we stay this way because of the respect we have for each other and the support that we give when every each and individual and member is having a crisis. That is important, very important. And before we come back and start looking at some of the special activities and events that you have conducted over the years, I want for our viewers who sometimes may be of African descent, of Cameroonian descent, Nigerian descent. They may be from anywhere. Can somebody, maybe Madam Akeme, tell us who are the Meta people?

[00:09:28]We know that Cameroon has well over two to 300 ethnic groups.

[00:09:32]>> [music] >> Can you help us understand who are the Meta people? Looks like they're a little bit special.

[00:09:37]If I'm not mistaken. They are. The Meta people belong to the Widikum tribe and happened to have migrated about 500 to 600 years ago from a place between Cameroon and Nigeria known as Sanaga in the northeastern part of Calabar.

[00:09:55]The migration history and family settled men of the Meta people that took place and then they finally settled somewhere southwest of Bati Boy in a village close to present Kukum Buka Bati Boy. And the father of Meta is called Menemo. If you hear Meta people they always say Menemo Menemo. They are made up for about 32 villages and we have several funds. Some people make fun of us that we act like Southwest people and I think it's because of Cameroon by where the market people are with our many chiefs. If you see we don't have one particular phone like most of the other tribes do. But we are people of culture and we stick to our culture very well. Very interesting and I see you all are dressed in special regalia. Maybe Madam Abigail Fonyam can talk to us. Maybe >> [music] >> Mr. Adi you all can talk to us about it.

[00:10:49]It feels like you all are telling a story. You're you're making a statement the way you're dressed up. The the hats that the women are wearing, the the gears that the men are wearing and it seems that Adi is carrying a royal a power royal power. I don't know what you call it but can somebody talk to us about what you're wearing because this looks special. This looks very [music] unique. Okay. What you see is what they call Adi and then me Adi will continue.

[00:11:14]Okay. So Yeah, just to mention we the Northwest people from Cameroon we have a special regalia. If you can see we all put on something similar but different.

[00:11:28]Yeah, and the colors are always very unique. The red colors, the green and the black background.

[00:11:35]It's in green is the greenness of our pasture. If you look at Bamenda itself is so green and that shows how fruitful we are as regards to food.

[00:11:47]You go to Bamenda you never lack food because of the greenness in it. That's why we see the green and you can see from my spotlight you see the green in my my background. So that's just a little pinch of it and me Adi is going to give us more details about it. Thank you. And he's carrying a special a special item that I don't know the name of that. This is a gift. I think they call it a zaza something like that. It's a gift that they gave me about 10 years about 12 years ago. I got this from the palace when I went to Cameroon.

[00:12:20]And this is all handmade. The outfit is what they call togo.

[00:12:24]It's handmade, very colorful and this too was also a gift. Sometimes when you get a gift like this you keep it forever. I had this over 20 years. So so that we believe in tradition and we believe in maintaining that tradition and handing it down to our kids. Hey, is your story working for you or is just sitting there and gathering a lot of dust? Do you know your story is a powerful invisible asset? Your story is your superpower provided you know how to tell it. Give me 15 minutes. I will audit your story and make it unforgettable. It will generate buzz. It will generate engagement and above all it will create business for you. Give me 15 minutes. I can coach you on how to tell your story in the most captivating way possible. My name is Gideon Fomukwai Fomukwai, the story warrior. I help people like you to tell fascinating stories. So please click below and sign up and I'll be happy to work with you.

[00:13:15]Thank [music] you so much. So now that we've settled in terms of the origin in terms of the place of Mekuda DFW.

[00:13:23]Why don't you talk Mr. President about the vision of this organization >> [music] >> in the context of United States and in the context of Africa. Why is Mekuda DFW different from other Mekuda branches or other traditional groups around United States, Canada and the diaspora? Thank you very very much um story warrior coordinator. You know in the US here we have a lot of Cameroonians and as you said before Cameroonians we have a lot of tribes different more than 200 tribes. And our own tribe we call ourselves Meta people.

[00:13:58]That's why our group is Meta Cultural and Development Association. So we are a cultural group where our focus is mainly to develop to develop ourselves, to develop our children, to develop our people and also to look back where we are coming from to make sure that we don't just stay in the US and we are very comfortable without looking back where we are coming from.

[00:14:26]We also want to also develop the areas, the village that we come from and also the people. We believe not just on infrastructure but we believe in self-development.

[00:14:37]>> [music] >> And that is what we have been working for the past years that I've been president. I've been we have been working with the whole group and different committees to make sure that we as a group where we are taking care of where we support each other. We happy together. We stand together. When one person is down all of us are down. When one person is up all of us are up. We hold ourselves together and guess what?

[00:15:05]We are in a we are in the US. Yes, but we have to understand that we come from somewhere and as we as we are here most of us we are not with our families. Some of us our family are scattered around the world. Some of us our family are back home and when we come here we create a new family. And that new family is called Mekuda DFW. Mekuda DFW is the immediate family. So in case anything happens to any member before you know it everybody is coming together in order to to support financially, materially, emotionally and even when it comes to children. So when we come together we now say okay how we going to do to better ourselves? How we also going to do to give back? You know the best thing in life when you succeed you must always give back to those that their hands are short because not every hands are the same. So we have come up together. We have created a lot of um fundraising. Last year we have an amazing fundraising amazing fundraising where we were able to raise more than $35,000 and we were able to help give scholarship for more than 380 children. Give them books, schools, school fees. We gave them a lot of books. You know we also able to help the physically challenged, those that were blind, those that could not see in the in the blind center in Bamengui. So this year we are coming in a very grand style because we started last year and we see how much impact this caused. We we saw how much personal impact, how people were crying, how the [music] children were crying because they have they I mean some people just they just need just help. You know some were even having just food and they were so very very happy. Now this time we have decided that we have a 25 years we have been for 25 years. Now what are we going to do during these 25 years? Not just to come and celebrate, not just to come and eat and drink but what can we do in order to create impact? Personalized impact for individuals back home, those that they don't they don't really have that opportunity that God has given us. So our our main aim is for us to make sure that we take care of those that are still back home, some of them that are struggling. Some we have a lot of things that have been happening back home for those of you who know. Some have lost their parents. Children have lost their parents. They don't have any parents.

[00:17:38]They don't even go to school anymore.

[00:17:39]Some don't even have common food to eat and we are coming to close that gap. We want to create impact. We have women that their their husband have died.

[00:17:49]Widows, widowers. They are suffering.

[00:17:52]Some are just living in a subsistence lifestyle. They only believe in they only work through their farm. That's where they eat and we are coming to support them with seeds. We are coming to support all the widows, all the widowers. Those that are farmers we are coming to give them farming equipment.

[00:18:09]We are coming to give them farming seeds, fertilizers that will help them to grow their crops and then to take some of these crops to the market where they can have some some money to feed their family. We are also going to be looking at people that have been aged.

[00:18:25]Many times if we look if we look at the average lifespan today now in these recent years you will see average lifespan is 70 years. Some people that are more than 70 years they celebrate. They celebrate very highly because most people most people that die now mostly young people.

[00:18:45]But now what are we doing about the people that have God has blessed them?

[00:18:48]They are 100 years. They are 90 years.

[00:18:50]Some of these people are abandoned in the village. Some of them they even their children that they delivered has died and they are alone. You know we want to go in there. We want to take care of these people. We want to give them good good cold bath. We want to change their their their their wardrobe. We want to give them clothes.

[00:19:10]We want to give them food. We want to give them beds. Give them a nice place to sleep. That is our vision. Our vision is to make sure that we make our people back home that they don't have the opportunity that we have to be happy. We also want to do a lot of things. We want to give waters to areas that there is no water. We have good drinking water here but some of our villages, some of our markets they don't have this they don't have this opportunity. So we are here to use this opportunity during our 25 anniversary not just to celebrate, not just to eat and drink but also to create impact for our people back home.

[00:19:53]>> [music] [music] >> Mhm.