Bøger af Aja Oro

Within the pages of Balondo Through the Ages 1100‒2013, author and Balondo expert Aja Oro properly documents the Balondo story, in the form of a history book, for the perusal of all humankind. The information contained in this book is also going to be preserved in the form of a Balondo website. Balondo Cultural Heritage, Inc., which will act as a museum and clearinghouse for research materials unique to the Balondo experience, has also been established. Ultimately, when all of the unmet goals and objectives pertaining to Balondo and its history have been achieved, the Balondo people will find themselves once again on the world map -- a prospect that will enable them to emerge from their seeming obscurity and be recognized as one of the best African cultures in the world.Balondo Through the Ages is the first original one-time work written by Aja Oro, a pure Balondo man who has chronicled throughout the pages of this book about a thousand years of the Balondo story, highlighting the two historical voyages made by Balondo from the Congo to Calabar, Nigeria, and then to the south-west littoral region of Cameroon. Also, in a bid to ensure that the narrative will be viewed as a comprehensive rather than a disjointed panorama, Aja Oro has equally made the case for the many threads of continuity running through Balondo's total historical experience without which it would not have been easy to read and understand such an unprecedented extraordinary long period in the Balondo historical experience as a whole.

The Balondo Language Vocabulary Book was produced by Aja Oro to enable the Balondo-bakonja learn how to speak, read and write their own language because he realized that learning it would greatly keep intact by strengthening the psychological structures that literally unite them as members of the same community, especially as European colonial languages are constantly being used as the only official means of communication in most previously colonized African countries. Arguably, its perpetual enforcement does pose a formidable threat to traditional African languages, which if ignored might render them extinct. Based on that fact, the need to decrease the potency and continuity of this perceived danger to the Balondo Language and other African languages at risk of extinction is sustained throughout the book through the introduction of a sufficient set of vocabulary in the Balondo language for mastery by its beginners, who will be educated enough via this strong transmitter of culture that is their language to become more well versed in understanding their universe as a whole, while simultaneously taking charge of their discourse, which is at the core of their consciousness or self-definition that has continued to be at risk of being distorted by nefarious stereotypes perpetuated by less informed individuals.

Introduction to Balondo Studies is authored by Aja Oro, a Balondo-bakonja scholar, to serve as an examination study guide for the Balondo Cultural Exam (BCE). It covers several topics on Balondo in a way that makes it easier for the prospective candidates to be able to read and form a basic understanding of the material studied so that they can adequately prepare to write and pass the exam after meeting the basic requirements of the course, its purpose, and scope. Aja Oro hopes that eventually this book's methodology of using theory and praxis in Balondo studies will realistically become the proper evaluative educational tool for measuring the overall success rate of the Balondo Cultural Heritage mission of promoting cultural literacy.

This book is a Balondo-bakonja cook book that best describes the history and method of preparing Balondo Ekpang and other meals that form the people's gastronomical identity. In this context, the author's principal objective of bringing to light what Balondo people eat will help put an end to the inappropriate food stereotypes his people are ignorantly associated with by Cameroonians who still do not give them credit for their foods, especially Ekpang that they consume and relish routinely.

Within the pages of The Balondo-Ba-Konja History: The Elders' Narrative, Dr. Aja Oro, author and Balondo scholar, properly documents the history of his people, beginning with the evolution of the original birthplace of Balondo civilization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo region, including the events leading to its transfer from the Congo to Calabar, Nigeria (First Voyage), and from Nigeria to its present geographical location in the South-west littoral region of Cameroon (Second Voyage). He also details the concerted efforts made by his people to ensure cultural continuity in its natural form despite the intrusions of unsolicited change as made manifest in the "Balondo Wars."

This book comprises an overview of Balondo phenomenology that could be seen as a welcome contribution to the growing body of cultural literacy in Africa as a whole where African cultures are continuously being displaced by the 'dominant' European colonial culture that is visible in the schools, churches, language, government, and business enterprises. In that light, its main thrust is to educate the world about Balondo customs that are similarly on the verge of elimination and total extinction. To accomplish that goal, the author who is a son of the soil has made an excellent first attempt in describing how Balondo in Cameroon deal and cope with their 'contractual' relationship with the social world and the spiritual world. Two worlds comprising humans and spirits wherein change is constant to the extent that it creates an atmosphere of uncertainty that forces people to either shift their alliance or invoke the support of a more powerful force to ensure balance and stability.

This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of cultural literacy in West Africa where school children only learn about European languages, cultures, and people. Hopefully, when its goal of cultural literacy is fully implemented, the situation will be reversed as West African Children of Balondo-bakonja origin will become real graduates of the Balondo-bakonja cultural educational system. Briefly, it is divided into two parts plus a preface which gives general preliminaries. The first part focuses on the geography of Balondo-bakonja: their location, weather and soil texture, occupation, and Land use in general. The second part details the migration of the Balondo-bakonja from the Congo to Akwa Akpa (Calabar, Nigeria) and from there to their present location in the resource-rich coastal south-west littoral region of Cameroon. There is also mention of how much land each community acquired as well as the complex social issues that led to the outbreak of both internal and external conflicts resulting in winners and losers. Overall, Aja Oro who is the author has done a great job by showing to the world how his people, the Balondo-bakonja, think, act, and function in their own cultural environment.

Fundamentals of Balondo Society is a good book that is unapologetically written from a Balondo-centered perspective by Aja Oro, a "Morondo Kpaa" or a true son of the soil, whose undying resolve had been to transfer his people's narrative from the oral to the written culture. In a bid to transfer such information from an anterior source to the newer posterior one, the effort entailed was largely realized through the use a thematic approach, to outline short but detailed accounts of the cultural traditions of his people as well as their migratory patterns across three predominantly West African maritime countries: the Congo, Calabar, Nigeria and then the South-west littoral coast of Cameroon. Interestingly enough, all of the details that have been documented in the book are structured around one main philosophy, which is the empowering of Balondo-bakonja society to still own and protect their Discourse, so that they can continue to be the Center from where all references to Balondo emanates before being disseminated elsewhere. In this context, both the sanctity and authenticity of Balondo-bakonja phenomena will continue to remain inviolable in this world of competing ideas from diverse cultures that are embroiled in the intellectual politics of world domination.

This book analyses in a compelling and detailed manner, the role of colonialism in African culture with respect to staunch African cultural preservationists, and those Africans who have unreasonably traded their cultural traditions for westernization. In carrying out this analytical assessment per se, the concept of Afrophobia, or the fear of being an African, was developed and utilized to thoroughly describe and examine both scenarios, so as to provide a very solid empirical understanding of the deleterious effects of colonialism on the entire African continent-as well as on the global community.