A few weeks ago I hosted 3 of my other volunteer friends Dan, Ben and Abbie who live in nearby villages to join me for Thanksgiving. We didn’t get to indulge on the typical favorites of cranberries or turkey, but we did make some good homemade mashed potatoes and a random assortment of other Thanksgiving meal creations. Typically back home my family, friends and I would either watch a football game on tv, or go watch a basketball tournament or else I would be playing in a basketball tournament. Here as we ate dinner on my porch we watched the kids play soccer in the path in front of the house. One of my favorite things to do over thanksgiving weekend back home is to spend some good time outdoors with friends and family skiing or hiking. Discussing this with Ben we decided that we should make a hiking trip walking to each others villages, crossing the mountain in between and spending the night halfway at Dan’s post.
So the morning after Thanksgiving, we set off walking out of my village to hike the 20 km up to Dan’s village at the base of Mount Manengumba. Dan’s village is quite isolated having only one route in and out that isn’t always passable during rainy season, but it is a beautifully quaint agriculturally driven village. From his village we set off the next morning to meet two friends of Dan’s who live in the neighboring village along the route up the mountain. The two of them joined us to guide us up through the many paths traversing across the mountain. It wasn’t like climbing mountains back home where the paths lead to the summit, summiting typically isn’t the goal of individuals here. Rather, the paths become a maize leading from one families field to another where everything from café, macabo, taro or medicinal plants are grown. This mountain is well-known in the area for the two stunningly beautiful turquoise crater lakes that rest just below the summit. We sat along one of the lakes and ate our lunch of grilled fish and baton du manioc a typical Cameroonian dish that Dan’s neighbor had packed for us to enjoy along our trek. After leaving the summit we descended down the other side of the mountain passing the huts of the Fulbe cow herders that live atop the mountains raising their cattle. It was The Fete du Mouton an important holiday for the Muslim Fulbes and as we hiked past one of the huts a young boy came out dressed in a suite to chop wood to prepare for the celebration. (I will try to upload a photo of this boy). It was a very contradicting scene standing atop the mountainside regarding the impressive patchwork of the thatched roof and out walks the boy in his suite and tie. That is how life seems to be here though, always contradicting itself and yet I never cease to be surprised and awed.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Installation of a New Village Chief
The region of Western Cameroon in particular is rich with culture, specifically in the tradition of village chiefs. In October I had the honor of being invited to join a couple of my other volunteer friends to attend the installation of a new chief in the village of Badenkup in the West Region of Cameroon. I have now taken part in some incredible ceremonies and celebrations here in Cameroon, but the enthroning of a village chief has no comparison in terms of the magnitude and magnificence of the ceremony.
Every village chief from within the West region of Cameroon attended the ceremony along with dignitaries, government officials and the whole community of Badenkup. We arrived with the chief of the neighboring village, where my friend Kareen is a volunteer, we were sat close to the throne of the new chief and had prime space to view all that was about to take place. This was quite lucky as thousands of people were in attendance at this ceremony, kids had climbed up trees surrounding the field to get a view of the action.
To give a little background, the chief of a village is the traditional leader of a community and the title of chief is passed down within a family from generation to generation. Before a chief passes away he has already told his notables (chief’s advisory counsel) whom he has chosen of his sons to replace him as village chief. The very moment a chief passes away the notables search the chosen son and whisk him away to the secret house where in tradition the notables spend nine months teaching the replacement all the ways of the chiefdom. Also important during this time passed within the secret house the soon to be chief is with his new wife so they can conceive their first child around the time that he will become enthroned. However, for some reason that I didn’t understand the 9 months has now been changed to 9 weeks at least in the circumstance of the new chief of Badenkup.
Imagine, the son of the old chief has just lost his father and has immediately been given the most powerful position in all of the village, now imagine this for a 17 year old boy as in the case of the new chief of Badenkup. At the moment the young chief walked through the entrance leading to the palace grounds the crowd of thousands surrounding the open field erupted with shouts, cheers, song and dance. The young boy kept his face serious and raised his arms in gratitude for the great welcome, but I wondered what was really going through the head of this young boy who had suddenly become the most powerful man in his village while a few weeks before he was just another young boy in the local high school. Now the young boy was standing in the midst of thousands carrying the hopes of a whole village and facing the challenge of carrying the traditions into the modernized world.
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