GRAND FORKS (AP) - In a University of North Dakota apartment more than 7,000 miles from his farm in Africa, Manu Anumendem has been reaping the fruits of six decades of backbreaking manual labor.

Anumendem came to Grand Forks to visit his son and daughter-in-law, Alexander and Florence Azenkeng, and grandchildren, Jaden, Lyonelle and Reggie. Thanks to his father's determination, Alexander, the eldest of Manu's nine children, not only has attended college, but graduated with a doctorate and is now a research scientist at the Energy and Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks.

With his right arm around 3-year-old Lyonelle and his left arm cuddling 9-month-old Jaden, Anumendem smiled broadly as he talked about seeing his family for the first time in five years.

"I was very, very excited. We had been four years without seeing each other. It was very big excitement meeting at the airport," Anumendem said.

He arrived in Grand Forks in late December 2008.

His smile grows even wider as he reflects on his son's success.

"I am very, very proud," he said.

"He (Anumendem) grew up with some friends who had the chance to go to school, but he's never had that chance," his son said.

Azenkeng said his grandfather died when he was 2 months old and his father and grandmother were homeless for many years, living with "Good Samaritans." His grandmother was too poor to pay school tuition for his father, so he stayed at home and did farm labor.

It hurt Anumendem to watch his friends attending school when he wasn't able to enroll, Azenkeng said. At times, his father worked on the farms of parents of friends his age.

"Those friends who went to school benefited from his labor," his son said.

One of the friends later ridiculed him for not being able to read, and that made Anumendem even more resolved to send his own children to school, Azenkeng said.

"When he started having us, he was determined he would get us an education. That has been the driving force to work as hard as he can, to make sure that none of gets insulted for that reason," Azenkeng said.

"Growing up in a small village, the only school that was there was at least five miles from our house. I didn't go until I was 7 and I was strong enough to walk up and down the hill," Azenkeng said.

After attending 14 years of primary and secondary school, Azenkeng took a year off to earn money for college, then enrolled in the University of Buea in Cameroon, where he graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees.

After he received his master's degree, Azenkeng worked as a chemistry instructor at the University of Buea and learned from a former student who was studying at UND that a scholarship for international students was available there. He applied for it, went on to earn his doctoral degree from UND while working as a research associate in the UND chemistry department.

Azenkeng started a job as a research associate at the EERC in 2007, the year he graduated.

His father helped finance 19 of his 25 years of education. He also contributed to the education of his other children, including a son and daughter who are pursuing master's degrees.

Anumendem, who began working as a child on one farm, eventually had enough money to buy two more. He grows cocoa, coffee beans, plantains and cocoa yams, a tropical version of the potato, on the Cameroon farms, which include a few acres of forest land that he cleared by hand.

"It's very different from the farming that's done here. Back there, it's manual and hoes," Azenkeng said. "It's very challenging because you have stones."

After farming the land for several decades, Anumendem now is sharecropping.

He is in early 70s and has health problems, Azenkeng said.

The family isn't sure of the exact date of his father's birth because there were no birth certificates at that time in the village of Njenawung in the Southwest Cameroon province where he was born. Azenkeng's own last name is different from his father's because when he went to obtain his birth certificate, the recorder thought his middle name was his last name, Azenkeng said.

During a visit to a Grand Forks physician, Anumendem learned he had prostate cancer. The international health insurance plan that Azenkeng had purchased for his father to cover his stay in Grand Forks is not covering his surgery, so friends at the EERC have arranged benefits for Anumendem.

Laura Raymond, one of Azenkeng's co-workers, said there's been an outpouring of support since people at the center learned about his father's health problems and medical bills. Azenkeng is well-liked and people want to help his family, Raymond said.

"He's a super-nice guy. We've got all kinds of people that want to help," he said.

"I am so blessed to have such nice people to do this," Anumendem said.

Azenkeng is overwhelmed with the kindness of his co-workers and his father's many years of hard work to make sure he got an education. Taking care of his father in his late years is a small measure compared to the sacrifices Anumendem made for him and his siblings, Azenkeng said.