EMMANUEL NGWA TABE

The calm morning voice of CRTV Buea and a young journalist loved by his listeners

Every weekday morning at six, for nine years, a calm voice told Buea that the fog would lift by ten, that the road to Limbe was clear and that everyone should remember to eat before work. Thousands of people set their kettles by Emmanuel Tabe.

Born in Bamenda in 1992, the second child of a teacher and a nurse, Emmanuel grew up reading every newspaper in the house, including the ones his parents said were too old. He attended Presbyterian Secondary School in Mankon, where the debating club discovered that he could argue both sides of a question and still be liked by everyone. In 2010 he enrolled at the University of Buea to study Journalism and Mass Communication, graduating in 2013 and joining the regional station of CRTV in Buea as an intern the following year.

By 2016 he was presenting the morning show, mixing the news, the weather, traffic, birthday greetings and the occasional Cameroonian pidgin proverb. He read the day's condolence announcements gently and slowly, because, he said, 'someone's mother is listening.' Through some of the quietest and hardest years Buea has known, he kept the broadcast going, believing that people needed to hear a steady voice.

Outside the studio he coached under-twelve football on Saturdays with the Buea Street Soccer Project, supported Arsenal in a sea of Manchester United fans, and cooked a famous Sunday pot of achu with yellow soup. In 2023 he got engaged to Linda Neba, and they were planning to marry in December 2025.

Emmanuel died in November 2025, at thirty-three, after a short illness. He leaves his fiancée Linda, his parents Ngwa and Beatrice, his sister Chiara, and the many listeners who miss his morning voice.

“Someone's mother is listening, so say it kindly.”