Neni’s Father Character Analysis

A father of five who worked as a customs officer at the seaport in Douala in the eighties and early nineties, which allowed him to profit from the gratuities left by merchants (though he is adamant about having never taken any bribes). As a result of his job’s benefits, his family was rich by Cameroonian standards. He bought a brick house with clean running water, and also owned a blue Peugeot and a television set. Neni’s father lost his job when he was forced out of it “by a Bamileke boss who wanted his tribesmen to take Neni’s father’s job.” He ended up “transferred to a far less lucrative position at the Treasury Department in Limbe.” Six months later, his widowed sister died, leaving behind three children whom he had to care for alongside his own. Around this time, he impregnated a teenager, despite his 24-year marriage to Neni’s mother. People in his community still regard him with respect, but they no longer depend on him for additional income. When Jende impregnated Neni in 1990, Neni’s father had Jende imprisoned for four months. He also refused to allow Neni and his grandson, Liomi, to move to the United States, where Jende awaited them, until Jende could afford to pay Neni’s bride price. Neni’s father demanded goats, pigs, chickens, palm oil, bags of rice, salt, cloth, bottles of wine, and an envelope of cash. In regard to the money, Jende provided double what his father-in-law asked for.