Frankly Speaking

Excerpts of what the late Daniel Muna told me in a 2001 interview


The late Daniel Muna said they (Muna kids) were not princes born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Their upbringing was devoid of the spoilings that children of well-to-do parents generally enjoy, he said. This, he said, involved trekking to school though there were vehicles at their disposal. He said that could have humbled them and given them the drive to serve humanity that leaves the impression they are over-ambitious. The first son of the late S.T. Muna who died on 12 July 2009 in Douala, had just been elected chairman of the Cameroon Medical Council in February 2001 when Franklin Sone Bayen conducted an interview with him in Yaounde, which was published in The Herald of 2 – 4 March 2001 (page 10). This excerpt was republished in Standard Tribune on Monday, 24 August 2009

What is it with the Munas? Why do they always seek to be leaders?
If I try to answer that question, I may want to refer to our background, and in referring to our background, I have to give credit to our parents. We have been brought up, consciously or unconsciously, with a sense of service to society, a sense of consciousness to the needs of society. But in doing this, it has not been to be leaders…

Is it not that the Munas are just ambitious…?
Well, I think everyone should be ambitious. I think you should be ambitious to achieve your objectives. OK, I was saying that we were brought up to work hard, to try to achieve, to be concerned about our society, you see, and it becomes a drive. You commit yourself to the things that give meaning to your life. In the process, you also find yourself having to fall in situations where, instead of being part of the problem, you become part of the solution. And so sometimes, some of these things galvanise you to certain positions without you really fighting for them. And when I look back, I become very appreciative for the time my father, S.T. Muna, for example, after a day’s hard work, would call me to his office to try and review my homework, to see what we did in school. He himself would teach by example. If he was going to the farm, he took you along. When he was working, you had to work with him. Sometimes, on going somewhere, which required driving there, he could prefer to go on foot and you had to follow him there on foot. As school children, he even made us trek to school like other children, although there were vehicles at our disposal. All these were lessons which were subtle. I tell you, when I look back they become very significant in my life now. It was when I did my studies in the United States that during difficult situations, I looked back and appreciated the hard way our parents brought us up. I’ll always give credit to our parents for giving us what I consider that foundation.


Let’s take a close-ended question. Is the Muna family a political family?
When you look at our history, our father has been in politics (S.T. Muna was still alive then) and has played a very significant role in the political evolution of Cameroon. I have a brother, Bernard, who is very politically inclined. I have Akere who is Batonnier (Akere Muna was Bar Council Chairman at the time). It’s a professional group. He has taken certain positions as a politician, though he has not been very interested in politics as such… I don’t know what he is thinking this year and what he may think next year. I think that situations change in life. In my case, I have never really been in active politics. I don’t see myself as a politician… [but] let us say that the situation among doctors becomes critical in a sense that some of the issues that we are fighting become political issues, in fighting for these issues, one can be perceived as a politician, but one would be going there because of an issue, not for politics as such. (Their kid sister, Ama Tutu, appointed into the Biya government in December 2004, was not yet in politics.)