Ritualists constantly demand human parts - Chief mortuary attendant

The chief mortuary attendant of the Bamenda regional hospital, Tamia Sufor Gabriel, who has recently been honoured with a prestigious Cameroon Peace Movement Award, has made some startling revelations mortuary attendants go through in the course of executing their functions.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian Post at the Bamenda general hospital mortuary last Thursday, the 55-year old Tamia Sufor disclosed how ritualists have continued to embarrass them by demanding for human parts. Excerpts:

Can we know a bit about you? I am Tamia Sufor Gabriel, born some 55 years ago in Nkwen, Bamenda III Sub-division. I was trained on the job as a mortuary attendant since the early 90s and after working for some time here in the Bamenda regional hospital, I was promoted to the position of chief mortuary attendant with three attendants working with me. I am happily married with seven children.

How are your wife and children treating you given that you work in a place most people dread to work? My wife treats me like her husband and my children as their father. In fact, all of them love me and so they are not afraid of me at all.

Why do mortuary attendants always knock at the mortuary door before entering? If some do that, I am different. I am a Christian and what I do is that I pray very early in the morning before going to my job site. Why should I even knock the door? Who will open the door for me to enter when everybody in the mortuary is a corpse? Don’t forget that here, I deal with dead people as you see them lying in these chambers or fridges.

Now, can you tell us your daily routine? I come to work early in the morning and if any corpse arrives, I receive it and put in the fridge after some money must have been paid and receipt issued to the owner of the corpse. A note is equally attached to the corpse for easy identification. Besides, I wash the corpse when it’s about to be taken out for burial.

How do you wash and dress a corpse given that the body is already very stiff? I use some special techniques which I need not tell you except you want to learn the job.

What is the nature of corpses you receive here? Some are accident cases; some beyond recognition and others are abortion and suicide cases. And in cases of corpses that cannot be recognized, we report to the state counsel who gives orders where they should be laid to rest.

At one time, a corpse disappeared from this mortuary. What happened? Good question. That was precisely in 2006 and it happened because by then, we were not numbering corpses preserved here. You know because the fridges are not enough here, we used to double the corpses in the chambers. And you know we have three fridges each which take 18 chambers. So that explains why a corpse that was destined for Meta in Momo division was carted to Bafut in Mezam division and buried. In the end, the corpse was exhumed and taken to Meta for befitting burial. I think such a mistake will never repeat itself because all corpses preserved here now are numbered and the corpse owners are given tickets.

How long can a corpse be preserved here? Those we embalm can stay for a long time but unembalmed corpses are not allowed here for more than two days.

With the Ebola, cholera and other contagious diseases scare, how do you handle corpses here? This time, we make sure that any corpse brought here for preservation must be disinfected together with the vehicle and those who brought the corpse. Besides, workers of this mortuary use globes and masks when handling corpses. This is thanks to the new director of the hospital, Dr. Kinge Thompson Njie who has not only introduced the disinfection and masks systems but has equally renovated the mortuary chapel and mortuary gate including special financial motivation to us.

Permit us ask this particular question. Has anybody ever accosted you demanding for human parts for rituals? Of course! Ritualists at times come to us pleading for things like that which to me is embarrassing. In fact, we are permanently under pressure from ritualists who demand human parts. But politely, we advise them to leave before we call the attention of the police. I believe this is why I was given an award early this month.

What other difficulties are you facing as a mortuary attendant? Some people who did not preserve their corpses here plead with us to help them acquire death certificates by indicating that they preserved their corpses here. Besides, we pray that more fridges be installed here to keep more corpses. You know we receive at least 30 corpses weekly.

With the number of corpses you receive weekly here, does it mean that a lot of people are dying in Bamenda and North West region? The number was high before now. You know this time we have mortuaries in Akum, Bafut, Bali, Shisong hospital and Nkambe general hospital. Before, this was the lone mortuary in the region.