The good news has finally arrived in Ashong—and it has come from Yaounde.
After decades of competing claims to the Ashong throne, the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MINAT) has taken what could become the most consequential administrative step yet towards resolving the dispute.
In a ministerial letter dated June 19, 2026, MINAT called on the Momo administration to cancel the prefectural order creating Ashong Central in 1994 and the 2021 order homologating Enongang Reuben Tekwe as its third-class chief.
For many Ashong people, this is more than an administrative letter. It is a possible exit from a conflict that has divided generations.
The roots of the dispute reach deep into the colonial period. Historical records show that the British administration recognised Enongang I as chief of Ashong after a 1940 selection process. The dispute resurfaced dramatically when the former chief, Mbafor, returned from imprisonment in 1943 and reclaimed his royal insignia and stool.
By 1968, the succession question had again exploded, this time between the Mbafor and Enongang lines.
The West Cameroon government intervened. A chieftaincy advisory commission headed by V.T. Lainjo investigated the competing claims and recommended David Ajeck Mbafor—Mbafor II—as the legitimate chief. He was subsequently recognised and gazetted in 1972. Historical scholarship confirms that this recognition did not end the dispute.
Instead, the disagreement travelled from the palace to the administration, the courts and eventually back to the community.
In 1994, Governor Bell Luc Rene convened representatives of Ashong in another attempt to find a settlement. The resulting administrative arrangement created several sub-villages, including Ashong Central, as a third-class chiefdom.
But here lay the problem.
Ashong Central overlapped with the traditional territory and seat of the second-class Fon.
It was, in effect, two drivers fighting over one steering wheel.
The arrangement was later suspended, but the controversy resurfaced with the 2021 prefectural order that reportedly homologated Enongang Reuben Tekwe as chief of Ashong Central.
Historical scholarship describes the resulting reality as a divided Ashong, with Mbafor III recognised as second-class chief and Enongang III exercising authority in upper Ashong.
And what began as a dispute over traditional legitimacy increasingly threatened to become a dispute over development.
According to the petition that prompted the latest MINAT intervention, disagreements have surfaced around community projects, sporting events, road rehabilitation and management of the village water system.
That is why the June 19 ministerial intervention matters.
It potentially removes the administrative foundation for a parallel chiefdom and creates an opportunity for Ashong to concentrate on the business of rebuilding.
Because Ashong has much more urgent battles to fight.
Its children need schools. Its roads need attention. Its farmers need markets. Its youth need opportunities. Its diaspora needs the confidence to invest at home without fearing that development itself could become another battlefield.
After generations spent arguing over who should sit on the throne, perhaps Ashong can now ask the more important question: Where are we taking the village?
A throne cannot be more important than the people it is supposed to serve.
The real victory, therefore, should not belong to Mbafor or Enongang. It should belong to Ashong. One village.
One peaceful future. And, after generations of division, one Ashong finally moving forward together.
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