Tribute to Bishop Pius Suh Awa

Bishop Awa I first met Bishop Pius Awa and his comrade Archbishop Paul Verdzekov in 1952 in Sasse College. I was then in Form 5. In those days we did six instead of five years in college as is the case today. In other words they were 2 years my junior in Sasse.

They were mature students and lived up the hill in the Minor Seminary. They were always together. We called them twin brothers. They had a sense of vision, mixed very sparingly and spent every minute praying or studying. They gave up teaching and wanted to be priests and nothing could stand in their way. They even studied subjects outside the school curriculum like Greek and literature, and graduated with excellent grades at the Senior Cambridge School Certificate exams.

In 1971, I attended Bishop Awa's Episcopal Ordination in Soppo. Bishop Awa was one time editor of the Cameroon Panorama. I was then Senior Laboratory Superintendent for West Cameroon with headquarters in Victoria. I had just started the Blood Transfusion Services in 1968. This was a new service and quick source of treatment in some serious emergencies like surgery, childbirth and chronic anaemia.

People were suspicious, sceptical and frightened about blood transfusion. Our blood bank was always virtually empty. Blood donors were difficult to find and the few who volunteered took a lot of pleading, counselling and it was time consuming. A good number of our volunteers were prison inmates who ended up with a big Guinness and biscuits after each blood donation. We formed blood donation clubs and worked very closely with the Red Cross Movement. The blood donor response was still difficult. In my frustrations, I summoned enough courage and approached the then Prime Minister, Hon. S.T. Muna and told him of my predicaments. I appealed to him to come to our Blood Bank Centre in Victoria and donate blood to convince prospective donors that blood donation was harmless but very useful in saving life. You cannot imagine, but the unbelievable happened and the great Prime Minister obliged. It became headline news, "Prime Minister Donates Blood to Save Life". That news was a red letter day in the history of blood donation in West Cameroon.

Things changed but not dramatically. I never gave up, I kept fighting and finally I met the Editor of Cameroon Panorama, Rev. Fr. Pius Awa, and told him too of my predicaments. I pleaded with him to let me have a write up every month in the Panorama on Haematology, Blood Donation and Blood Transfusion to educate the wider and reluctant public. Fr. Awa kindly accepted. The caption was "The Red Light". This exercise paid off. By the time I left Victoria on transfer to Yaoundé in 1973, our Blood Transfusion Services in Bamenda and Limbe Hospitals were flourishing.

Thanks to Bishop Awa for helping to save the lives of thousands of people when he accepted to publish those life saving articles in the Cameroon Panorama. Oh! Our simple and smiling Bishop "Gratias agamus"

By Simon Awasum Soh SIMON, SOBAN N° 444 Class of 1949