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BRIEF HISTORY OF ST THOMAS AQUINAS’ MAJOR SEMINARY, BAMBUI.

Until 1973, the students aspiring to the Priesthood from the Anglophone part of Cameroon went to the Major Seminaries of Enugu and Ibadan in the Republic of Nigeria. Until then Cameroon had only one Major Seminary at Nkolbisson, Yaounde. It was thanks to the kindness of the Bishops of the Eastern Nigerian States that priests were trained for the Anglophone Dioceses in Cameroon. Although there was an acute accommodation problem in the two Nigerian Seminaries, the bishops preferred to postpone the admission of some of their own students in order to make room for the Cameroonians. This situation had to end one day.

After the erection of the diocese of Buea in 1950, the lay faithful thought and rightly so, that they had come of age to support the training of a local clergy at home. Theirs was a longing for truly indigenous priests, graced with deep knowledge of the Faith and the attendant cultural and pastoral circumstances of their people. Hence, availing themselves of the golden opportunity of the Episcopal ordination of Mgr. Pius S. Awa on Pentecost Sunday, 30^th May 1971, the lay faithful, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, requested with one voice the erection of a Major Seminary in “West Cameroon”, (a federated state at the time). According to Canon Law, the erection of a Major Seminary needs the approval of the National Episcopal conference and the authorisation of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Rome.

             Within a few months after that surprising and unexpected request of the committed lay people, the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda decided to take the challenge to effect the realisation of this dream. They put forward cogent reasons and arguments, which they presented to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in October 1971, and to the Plenary Assembly of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference in April 1972. The Bishops got the green light from Rome via the Apostolic Nunciature at Yaoundé in letter No. 2439/72 of October 8, 1972. A year later, precisely on the 15^th of September, 1973, a group of twelve men set foot in what had been until 1972, St. Peter’s Teacher’s Training College.

             The pioneer class, which consisted of students from the three dioceses of Buea, Bamenda and Garoua, was catered for by eight full-time teachers, two Cameroonian priests of Bamenda diocese, three Benedictines and three Mill Hill Missionaries, with Rev. Fr. Christian Wiygan Tumi (now Cardinal) as first Rector. However, it was not until 14^th October, 1977, that by decree Prot. No. 4684/77 the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples declared the Seminary canonically and definitely approved and erected. By another decree Prot. No. 4685/77, the same Congregation appointed the Rev. Fr. Christian Tumi as Rector of the same Seminary.

             Opened on the 15^th September 1973, the Seminary was solemnly inaugurated two and a half months later, on 3^rd December, 1973, Feast of St. Francis Xavier. A Pontifical High Mass, which began at 3 p.m. was the focus of this red-letter day.   

            The then Minister of Telecommunication, Professor Bernard Fonlon, had written a letter to the Bishops of Bamenda and Buea before the opening of the Seminary. Fonlon rightly notes in this letter:  “…next to being a saint, our future African Priest should be such a scholar, that he should be respected by the world of learning, whether they like it or not”. Hence from its inception, the Seminary has taken this challenge seriously and pursued its aims with the necessary intellectual rigour. By decree No. 902/78/2 issued at Rome on Dec. 1^st, 1978, the Congregation for Catholic Education declared the Philosophy Department of the Seminary to be an Affiliate ad quadriennium et ad experimentum of the Philosophy Faculty of the Pontifical Urban University, Rome. And in 1981, by decree No. 277/81/2 issued at Rome on April 8, 1981, the Congregation of Catholic Education declared the Theology Department of the Seminary to be an Affiliate ad quadriennium et ad experimentum of the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Urban University, Rome. These affiliations have been renewed over the years. On 30^th March, 1989, the Congregation for Catholic Education by decree Prot. 220/a/89 renewed and extended for the maximum of ten years, the affiliation of the Philosophy department of the Seminary. On 9^th June, 1990 the theology department had its affiliation extended for another five years according to decree Prot. No. 409/A/90. This extension was accompanied by a strong advice from the Congregation for Catholic Education that the Seminary should employ more qualified lecturers to give it its desired status. The Seminary has remained affiliated to the Pontifical Urban University since the renewal of its two departments of Philosophy and Theology on May 8^th, 1996. The history of this affiliation has shown itself very fruitful as nearly all students over the years received their end of course certificates in either Philosophy or Theology from the Urban University in Rome. The Seminary had frequently been visited and inspected by officials of the Urban University. This affiliation has definitely created a tradition of high academic standards. As recent as this year 2006, we got a letter of Renewal of affiliation for the Theology Department for the next five years. 

            Meantime, we saw the first results of the strenuous efforts of the Seminary staff in the first ordinations during Easter of 1979. Nine out of the first twelve seminarians had successfully gone through and the local Church rejoiced as they witnessed the grace-filled occasion of the harvesting of the first fruits of their sacrifices. This first group was referred to as the Pioneer class of Bambui Seminary. By July 1978, the last group of seminarians of the English Speaking dioceses who had been studying at Bigard Memorial Seminary Enugu, Nigeria, completed their studies and from then on all seminarians were supposed to pursue their studies in Bambui.

             The history of the Seminary bears the stamp of six Rectors, viz. Fr. Christian Tumi who after assuring an effective take-off and laying the foundations on which future generations would build, was appointed Bishop of Yagoua on December 20, 1979 by Pope John Paul II. He had proved himself worthy in small things and so was entrusted with greater ones. Fr. Engelbert Nyamnsai Kofon took over and became acting Rector until 30th September 1980 when the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples by decree Prot. No. 4907/80 confirmed and officially appointed him Rector. The next ten years saw Fr. Engelbert Kofon at the helm of the formation team. In 1990, he was called to higher duties as he was appointed first Rector of the Catholic Institute of Yaoundé. He was succeeded by Rev. Fr. Immanuel Bushu who served for three years only and rose to a position of higher service, receiving the fullness of the priesthood as he was appointed Bishop of Yagoua. In January 1993, Rev. Fr. John B. Ambe was given the mandate to pilot the Seminary into the Third Millennium as Rector. In 2002, he was succeeded by Father Christian Mofor who was serving on the Seminary Staff as lecturer in Philosophy. In 2005, he in turn was appointed Rector of the Catholic Institute in Yaoundé. The Bursar, and Patristics teacher, Rev. Fr. Agapitus Nfon was then appointed Rector and took over from Fr. Christian Mofor.

 It is worth noting that the Major Seminary has been a fertile ground for the "training of Bishops". Today, she counts six Bishops to her credit. After Christian Cardinal Tumi who on Dec. 20th, 1978 was appointed Bishop of Yagoua, the Bull Aptiora in Dies issued in March 1982 appointed Rev. Fr. Cornelius Fontem Esua, then lecturer of Sacred Scripture at the Seminary, as the first Bishop of the new diocese of Kumbo. Eleven years after, Fr. Immanuel Bushu was appointed Bishop of Yagoua. Then in February 1999, the Seminary was again honoured, as her Spiritual Director, Fr. Francis Teke Lysinge was appointed first Bishop of the diocese of Mamfe. An ex-student of STAMS, Fr. Dieudonné Bogmis, was also appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Douala, now the Bishop of Eseka. On July 8^th 2006, another ex-student of STAMS, Fr. George Nkuo, was appointed the new Bishop of Kumbo, succeeding the First Residential Bishop, Mgr. Cornelius F. Esua, who is now the Archbishop of Bamenda. With six Bishops to its credit, the Seminary in Bambui could never sufficient1y thank the Lord for his abundant blessings.

ITS SITUATION AND MORPHOLOGY

           St. Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary, formerly known as the Regional Major Seminary, is situated some ten kilometres from Bamenda town along the Bambui-Fundong main road, precisely in Bambui village. The Seminary shares boundary with the former St. Peter’s practising school, as the Seminary is actually in the Campus of the defunct St. Peter’s Teachers Training College.

            Although the Seminary campus is an inherited compound with old buildings of the 1940 architectural styles scattered among its beautifully shaped conical shrubs and tall coniferous trees and simply designed modern flats, one will not fail to notice a typical Anglo-Saxon University campus on entering it. The lawns and the paths are mathematically marked out with low evergreen lawns punctuated with both seasonal flowers and shrubs.

            The very conspicuous building one will notice upon entering the Seminary compound is the academic block, about 200m long.

There is the Rector’s residence called St. Peter’s Block, which is the only storey building in the compound.

Then the Library block, the auditorium, the refectory, eight hostels (inserire our Lady’s dormitory), each with a capacity of 20 rooms, one common room, 5 toilets, 5 showers, a drying cell and the traditional long corridors of seminaries and convents. With the number of vocations increasing, the Seminary is planning, with the help of Benefactors to build new dormitories. The staff houses are scattered at the edges of the compound. At this point we must mention the Chapel, with its tower towering above every other building. This is the central building of the compound as the whole life of the Seminary is centred on the celebration of the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the hours. Some geographers say that the whole compound was once a bed of a crater lake, this may account for its flat and evergreen nature.

THE LIBRARY

1. Managment Team

 Reverend Father Henri Peeters, the first Father Librarian since the establishment of this Seminary in 1973, and who is still heading the team of Librarians including Father Joseph Tangka and Father Robert Ntungwe, together with the student librarianshave been working very hard in order to ensure the development and smooth-functioning of the different departments of the Library. The underlying idea has actually been to enable more Members of Staff to be fairly familiar with the workings of  the key areas of our Library system so as to ensure continuity. 

At the end of every year some students are selected and assigned to work in the Seminary Library for a month, when other seminarians are out on Apostolic Work. This is in keeping with our initiative of training some Seminarians of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province in Library Management and Organisation. The knowledge and experience acquired by the students trained so far is very useful for the future. We continue to express our profound thanks to the Bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province who have always readily supported and promoted this initiative.

2. Library Facilities, Books, pamphlets, periodicals, articles, etc.

 This academic year has been a momentous one for the library of St Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary: the building of the Archives that were attached to the seminary library was completed. At long last our long-time cherished plan of bringing together the so-called Kaberry centre in Bamenda and Professor Fonlon’s documents and the Cameroon collection of the Library was realized. The books and papers from these three sources are all lodged in the new section of the library which bears the name Archives.

In Bamenda town, some years ago, there used to be a Kaberry Research Centre, which was based on local research initiatives throughout the North West Province of Cameroon. This Centre had collected a lot of material that can be useful for an archive. It happened for reasons we cannot give with certainty, that this initiative did not continue, and so all the material and documents collected were offered to the St Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary Library.

Professor Bernard Fonlon, born on November 19, 1924 and died on  August 26, 1986, was the first Cameroonian to optain a Ph.D in 1960. He initially was studying for the priesthood at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria, until the very eve of the Final Step, the Subdiaconate, six months away from the priesthood, when his life took a sharp and unexpected turn. Thanks to his Seminary formation, even as a top ranking official in the Cameroonian Government, serving as a minister in various ministeries and a renown professor, he remained a moral and spiritual compass for his contemporaries and for the Cameroonian posterity. What we referred to above as the Dr Fonlon’s Documents are actually his volumes of books and articles and personal documents on various subjects like Literature, Politics and Anthropology, which were bequeathed to St Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary, Bambui, by his family. His books have been put in the main Library but the other documents will form part of the archives.

       We also have to express our immense gratitude to the General Council of St Joseph’s Society of Mill Hill, since they decided to send us 99 cartons of books that formed a substantial part of the library of Mill Hill College which is being closed down. This consignment of books reached us in August 2006. This means a considerable increase in the area of theology, Church History, Anthropology etc. So that we are forced to consider further extension of the Library buildings.

       Also in the course of the academic year 2005/2006 we had been able to acquire serendipitously a precious collection of about 120 volumes of Sources Chrétiennes. It is just now a matter of waiting till it is shipped to us in Cameroon, hopefully before the end of the year 2006.

       After years of looking forward to reaching the number of 50,000 entries in the library, we finally reached that target last April 2006. At the end of September 2006, we are already well on the way to 60,000 volumes. The above entries do not yet include the consignment of 99 cartons mentioned above.

       During the academic year 2005/2006, we continued with the computerization of the library. Since this is a painstaking and tedious task, the initial steps were rather slow. With some of the seminarians at present involved in the work, we hope to fanalise it within a year or so.

       What we have to mention every year with gratitude is the splendid contribution that the nearby Dominican Sisters make in binding magazines and books. We are really in their debt, not just financially!

       As regards the future, we realize that the Scripture section of the library needs to acquire a good number of up to date exegetical works. In the eighties of the last century the Bible section received a spate of fundamental works on Scripture. Since then it has been somewhat in abeyance. But we are working at a further improvement of this section.

       It is the wish of the Bishops and Staff that some of the seminarians who are being trained as librarians will in future be able to keep up in the library the standard that we have reached over the years thanks to the aging Fr Henri Peeters.

       We shall remain thankful to everybody including our benefactors, the Bishops of Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, the staff and students of STAMS and outsiders who have helped to make the library what it is today.