bakwerirama

Book Review - Namondo (Child of the Water Spirits)

Originally Published in Summit Magazine no. 006

Ntemfac A.N. Ofege. Namondo (Child of the Water Spirits). Langaa Publishers. November, 2007. 360 pages (Paperback). Available from Amazon.com ($24.95) and African Books Collective (£19.95)

Ntemfac A.N. Ofege forays into the customs and traditions of the Bakweri people, the often unfathomable dwellers of the lands below the Fako Mountain (Mount Cameroon to put together a story that is beautiful in content, flowing in style, enthralling in meanders, fetching in intrigue and ethereal in plot. The plot of this book is bustling, fascinating and lingering. This page-turner keeps the reader wondering what next.

A Video Clip of Buea

Buea (A 10 minute video clip)
Directed by Isaac Menyoli
Produced by Samuel Sielen
Edited by Samuel Sielen for AE3 Architects
Raw footage from Dorst Dedia Works and Home Box Video

Starting with over 8 hours of raw footage this sub-10 minute clip was assembled by selecting a variety of shots to create an immersing visual exploration of the market in the town of Buea in Cameroon, Africa. Video shot by Dorst Media Works.

AFRICAphonie Produces Historical Documentary on Kuva Likenye and the Bakweri-German Wars of the 1890s

AFRICAphonie (with an OSIWA support) Presents Kuva Likenye, a historical Documentary. Directed by Kome Epule Mathias. Editor: Njukeng George Njukeng. Script Consultant: Dibussi Tande. Narrator Muema Meombo. Executive Producer: George Ngwane.

A new Cameroonian documentary film titled “Kuva Likenye” has been produced. “Kuva Likenye” is a 30 minute documentary that profiles the heroic exploits of a mountain King called Kuva Likenye who mobilised an ill-trained ragtag army to stand up in arms against German exploitation of the Bakweri people culminating in the Bakweri-German wars of 1891 and 1894.

Dr. Namanga Ngongi Announced as President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

Alongside Kofi A. Annan, A. Namanga Ngongi to Lead AGRA’s Work To End Poverty and Hunger of Africa’s Small-Scale Farmers

Accra, Ghana (14 November 2007) — The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) today announced the naming of Dr. A. Namanga Ngongi as its first president. Ngongi is in Accra meeting with Ghanaian government officials, after which he will return to AGRA headquarters in Nairobi.

Ngongi began his career in the fields alongside farmers in his native Cameroon, where he worked as an agricultural officer helping farmers improve yield and diversify and market their crops. His career has spanned involvement in international organisations, and has included serving as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and leading the peace-keeping mission in war-torn Congo for the United Nations.

“Dr. Ngongi’s leadership will strengthen AGRA’s efforts to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families end poverty,” said Kofi A. Annan, Chairman of the Board of AGRA and former Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Gbea - A Poem

By Dibussi Tande (Culled from No Turning Back: Poems of Freedom 1990-1993 - Available on Amazon.com and Michigan State University Press)

I look at your sores
And I feel the pain of our misery
I walk in your squalor
And I sense our impotence
I witness your slow decay
And my soul slowly dies.

Dr. Jem Spectar Inaugurated as President of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

By Lloney Monono (Originally published in The Sun)

"I am confident that students from this institution under the guidance of Dr. Jem Spectar will make a substantial and positive difference to the world" - Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu (click here for video message)

Dr. Jem Spectar who hails from Buea at the foot of Mt. Fako, South West Cameroon, was on Friday 28th September  installed as the 5th President of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in the United States.

Friday's inauguration at the Pasquerilla Centre highlighted a week of festivities to welcome the new president and to mark the university's 80th birthday.

Growing Black in Nazi Germany: The Story of Mola Martin Ngeka Luma

On April 13, 2003, Mola Martin Ngeka Luma, one of the most prominent and most venerated sons of Fako of our times, died in Douala after a protracted illness. His death brought to a close one of the most fascinating lives of our time; that of a little Bakweri kid who grew up in Nazi Germany with a Jewish family and later became a minister in the Government of Ahmadou Ahidjo in Cameroon.

According to Mola's biography as presented by his son Peter Luma at his funeral:

The Late Hon. Dr. M.N.LUMA was born on 10th September 1927 at Tongo. His father Nako LUMA died three months before he was born while his mother Sarah Ngombe died six months after his birth. Hon. Dr. Martin Ngeka LUMA was adopted later in his life by a childless German Family ,the Reinholds. In 1929 he was taken to Germany by his adopted parents.

Man, Mouse, Ape and Water Spirit

Culled from “Belief and the Problem of Women” by Edwin Ardener (1975)

According to the Bakweri of Cameroon (in a male rescension): “MOTO, EWAKI and MOJILI were always quarrelling and agreed to decide by a test which of them was to remain in the town and which should go to the bush. All were to light fires in their houses in the morning and the person whose fire was still burning on their return from the farms in the evening was to be the favored one.

Moto, being more cunning than the others built a fire with big sticks properly arranged, whereas they only built with small dry sticks, and so his was the only fire that was still alight on their return in the evening. Thus Moto remained in the town and became Man. Ewaki and Eto went into the bush and became Ape and Mouse. Mojili was driven into the water and became a water spirit (This version was given in 1929 by Charles Steane, a Bakweri scholar to B. G. Stone).

The Eyu and Motio Rites of the Bakweri

Culled from: Edwin Ardener. Coastal Bantu of the Cameroons. (The Kpe-Mboko, Duala-Limba and Tanga-Yasa groups of the british and french trusteeships territories of the Cameroons). London, 1956. 116 pp.

Formerly it was the custom to hold a large supplementary rite (Eyu) for an important man [upon his death]. This would be performed as soon as possible after the normal rites, but might be delayed up to six months or perhaps a year.

When the decision to perform the ceremony was made, his heir would send word for all the dead man's relatives to meet together and fix their contributions of livestock (chiefly goats) to the celebration. Large numbers of these were necessary to make the eyu a big occasion.

The Spider as a Seer

By Lyombe Eko (originally published on Fakonet in 2001)

Mbosi o no titowe
Mbo mbosi mbo
Mbosi o no titowe
Mbo mbosi mbo
Ekuku lu'uwa
Mbo, Mboszi mbo

This chant is part of Mokpe folklore and philosophy. It is the chant that a sick person or a person who needs help has to chant before he or she is seen by the doctor or soothsayer. In Mokpe folklore, the seer or soothsayer is the spider.

Bakweri Industry and Handicraft in the Early 1900s

By CARL JACOB BENDER (Culled from Twenty Years Among African Negroes (Halderman-Julius Company, 1925)

The following excerpt is from one of the numerous publications on the Bakweri by Carl Bender, a German Missionary who settled on the Cameroon coast toward the end of the 19th century, and lived among the Bakweri for about 25 years. One cannot help but sadly agree with Mr. Bender’s century-old observation that pre-colonial Bakweri culture was dealt a fatal blow when it came in contact with European “civilization”. Read on:

The Liengu Cult (Mermaid Cult)

By Dibussi Tande

The Liengu cult is primarily as a medicinal rite that leads to the induction of the patient into the powerful mermaid cult. According to Edwin Ardener in “Belief and the Problem of Women”, the Liengu beliefs and rites actually consist of:

…various different combinations producing a patchwork of several women’s rites all of which are linked by the name LIENGU... they are all enacted, however, as a response to a fit or seizure that comes mainly upon adolescent girls but also upon older women.

Edwin Ardener (like Carl Bender, 50 years before him) distinguishes three types of Liengu rites:

Elephant–People: Negotiating Globalization, Religion and Local Cultures (Movie Review)

Reviewed by Dibussi Tande

Elephant-People: An African Secret Society in the Age of Globalization. Written and produced by Lyombe Eko. Narrated by George Thomas. Shot in Location in Fako, Cameroon. 30 minutes.

In 2004, Lyombe Eko made a pilgrimage into the inner core of the Bakweri “Mahlé” secret society which he describes as "the most enduring aspect of the Wakpe culture” which “survived 125 years of colonial and missionary effort to stamp it out”.

Melela: Oral Poetry, Chants and Recitations of the Malley [Mahlé] Society

Lifio li kendeke li fondoko wana wa ndembe: a dirge

Translation from Mbomboko by David Kombe Monono aka  moliki m’wangani
Rendering into poetry  by  Richard Moki Monono aka mbak’a moliki

The Molela is a recitation, of the Malley [also spelled Maalé or Mahlé] Society of the Bakweri/Bomboko tribe in general. Several Melela are sung before each celebration of the Malley begins. There are more than one hundred melela recited in the the Malley society and they occur in Mbomboko, Bakweri, Bakundu, and the many coastal dialects which use malley recitation and ritual. The Malley is therefore a very poetic ritual. Non initiates merely see the Malley as a dance society while the literary and poetic aspects of the society are not always well understood.

A Visit to the Maalé: A Festival of the Mokpe Secret Society of the Elephant

By Lyombe Eko (Iowa City, Iowa, USA)

We live in an age of mascots. Transnational political groupings, nations, ethnic and tribal groupings, organizations, companies and sports franchises all have social symbols or mascots that incarnate their values, ethics and aspirations. Not so with the Whakpe (Bakweri) people group of Fako division in the South West Province of Cameroon. The symbol of the Bakweri people is the elephant or Njoku. To say that the Bakweri have a mascot, which happens to be the elephant, would be an understatement. Indeed, the reverse is true. For the Bakweri, the elephant, a denizen of the rain forests of the slopes of Mount Fako, is not just a mascot.

Titi Ikoli: Sexual Insult and Female Militancy among the Bakweri

By Shirley Ardener

An excerpt from “Sexual Insult and Female Militancy.” In Shirley Ardener (ed.), 1975. Perceiving Women. London; Malaby Press, pp. 29-53

This article attempts to examine certain manifestations of female militancy in Africa, not only for their own interest, but also to see whether they can throw any light upon the completely independent modern women’s liberation movements with which we are now familiar in the West. The African ethnographical material, which is set out first, refers mainly to the Bakweri, the Balong and the Kom of West Cameroon. Besides oral reports collected from Cameroonians about traditional behaviour and on particular occurrences, for the Bakweri there is additional relevant documentation from Court records.

Book Review: Ewumbue-Monono’s Blueprint for Political Revival in Fako Division

Reviewed by Dibussi Tande

Ewumbue-Monono, Churchill. 2001. Indigenous minorities and the future of good governance in Cameroon: an inquiry into the politics of local governance in the local councils of Fako Division, 1866-2001. Buea, Cameroon: Center for Research on Democracy and Development in Africa. 345 pages (5000 francs CFA).

I had the opportunity this weekend to finally read Churchill Monono’s seminal book, Indigenous minorities and the future of good governance in Cameroon: an inquiry into the politics of local governance in the local councils of Fako Division, 1866-2001. It is, without doubt, the most comprehensive and most detailed book ever written on the political history of Fako division. Not only does it give a detailed chronology of local politics in Fako in the past century - with a detailed list of all councilors in Fako since 1935 - it also tackles head-on, the native-settler problem which has bedeviled ethnic relations and politics in the division for close to a century – a problem which now manifests itself at national level as the Northwest / Southwest problem.

JK: John Kale and the Lost Generation

By Moki Monono (Chiefs Palace - Great Soppo, Buea)

When JK first returned to Cameroon from the US, all of his brothers were abroad. Some people blamed him for returning. They felt that having arrived in the paradise of America he should have continued to live there. JK’s love for Cameroon was very strong. He kept on coming back to a country which did not merit his love.

he came, the only one who returned, to save
   the old family and its old house, to continue
the ancient line, a quite life
   a life of modest soups with a quiet woman

The Early Times in Victoria (Limbe)

By Joe Burnley (Originally published on the Hard Times Blog)

The city of Victoria was the solution to the vexing problem of Spanish harassment at Fernando Po. The Baptist missionaries who resided in this small island using it as a hub for their work there, and in the Cameroons, had finally lost patience with the Spanish authorities. The British had used Clarence as a base for their naval squadron from where their man o' wars patrolled the gulf of Guinea to disrupt the trade in human slavery, which had been abolished in England, but was still the main trade in that area at that time. They tried to encourage the more legitimate trade in palm oil. This occupation led to the creation of a Creole society at Fernando Po.

Chieftaincy among the Kpe (Bakweri)

Culled from Edwin Ardener. Coastal Bantu of the Cameroons (The Kpe-Mboko, Duala-Limba and Tanga-Yasa Groups of the British and French Trusteeship Territories of the Cameroons). London: International African Institute, 1956.

The political unit among the Kpe is the village, which has a chief (sang'a mboa, " father of the village ") descended from the founder of the village by the most senior branch in the patrilineal line, as far as the exigencies of the succession (q.v.) permit. Other patrilineages may also be descended from the founder in junior lines, or from those who accompanied the founder (even the descendants of the latter, however, often claiming descent from the founder).

A Bird's Eyeview of Buea in 1970

Courade Georges, Magouët T.P. "The Urban development of Buea : An essay in social geography". In La croissance urbaine en Afrique Noire et à Madagascar. Yaoundé : ORSTOM, 1972, 27 p.

I. NATURE, HISTORY AND PEOPLE IN THE FORMATION OF THE TOWN

BUEA is a small town of 11,000 inhabitants situated at 55 kms (35mls) from DOUALA, 2Okms (12 mls) from VICTORIA as the crow flies, spreading at an altitude of between 800 ms (2,600 ft) and 1,100 ms (3,600 ft) on the slopes of the Cameroon Mountain.

(c) Isaac Menyoli

At present the capital of the Federated State of WEST CAMEROON, it attracted the Europeans very early owing to its temperate climate and the absence of malaria, this town being at a latitude of 4'09' North.

Notes on Bakweri Funeral Customs

By M. D. W. JEFFREYS [Originally published in African Studies, Vol. 20, no. 1 (1961): 61-65.

Sometime before 1920, Bakweri historian ESASEA WOLATAE made very detailed notes about Bakweri funeral customs. Around 1946 he handed over these notes to M. D. W. Jeffreys (pictured). Spurred by the realization that "old customs and manners are disappearing [along] with the generation that still remembers how the old customs were performed", Jeffreys submitted these notes to the African Studies Journal for publication in 1961. Today, some 45 years after its first publication, and close to a century after Mola Wolatae jotted down his notes, Bakwerirama offers its readers this unique "refresher course" on Bakweri funeral customs from the perspective of a master of pre-colonial Bakweri culture.

Bakweri Beliefs About Mount Fako

Angoweya Fako yasu (Take Care of of our Fako Mountain)

By Lucas Ngale Wolete (Mountain Porter)

Mola Lucas Ngale Wolete, a porter at Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Organization discusses Bakweri beliefs about Mount Fako during the Afropeaks Pan-African expedition (In Bakweri with English subtitles).

Introducing Mount Fako (Cameroon): A Unique Ecotourism Site

By LIFAFA Tourist and Travel Agency - Buea

This lovely volcanic mountain welcomes visitors immediately they arrive Buea. It stands majestically along the background of Buea Town. The Mountain spreads from Bomboko to Bakweri of Buea and down to the Limbe Beach. It is 4100 metres in height.

A visit to Mount Cameroon is always an exciting experience both in the rainy and dry seasons.

Efasa Moto, the God of Mount Fako

By Wose Yangange Martin

To young Bakweris, Efasa-Moto is either a fairy tale or a frightful phenomenon beyond their comprehension. Otherwise, it is a myth handed down from generation to generation and usually told elderly village folks.

Efasa-Moto is the folkloric god of the Fako Mountain. It is believed that he controls the entire "hill" from the West Coast to the border with Balondo land to the north east coast, and towards Meme Division.

Dr. Herbert Endeley, University of Buea's Pioneer Registrar Laid to Rest

By Harry McYemti and Ben Nakomo in Buea (Originally published in The Entrepreneur)

The mortal remains of late Dr Hebert Nganjo Endeley, the pioneer Registrar of the University of Buea has been buried in his native Mokunda village in Buea Town, Cameroon.

Herbert Endeley who until his death was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) in charge of Research and Cooperation at the University of Buea (UB) died after a brief illness at the Reference Hospital in Douala on Tuesday, November 28, 2006.

Adieu Dr. Herbert N. Endeley

By Jerry Komia Domatob

As Dr. H. N. Endeley joins ancestors
Cheery with decorum and splendor
Admirers applaud his grand feats
Shinning like lights on mountain tops

Buea University captures global spotlight
Like Olympic winners on universal spotlight
As maiden Registrar, Dr. Endeley set standards
Both friends and foes emulate and salute

Tribute to a Fallen Hero: Dr Herbert Nganjo Endeley

By Ernest L. Molua

A Fako native is fallen
A Hero is fallen
Together in grief we join.
Nganjo is lifeless
Herbert is Breathless
Citizens in Fakoland together stand,
Citizens in Diaspora bemoan
Honor those who served.
Tribute to the fallen;
As in EML Endeley
Family of the fallen,
So too, Nganjo is fallen
Bears our debt in grief.
Today another funeral;
In Fakoland, one too many
Honors this one taken.
One man's duty done;
Prosperity continues.

Unraveling Conflicting Narratives about the Origins of the Isubu of Bimbia

By Dibussi Tande

The Isubu (also known as Isuwu) like many other African peoples, have different and sometimes conflicting narratives about their origins. Although it is generally believed that the settlement of Bimbia was founded by Isuwu La Monanga, a native of Womboko, there are emerging alternative narratives which reject the Womboko connection. These alternative versions may be termed the “Duala narratives”, since they emphasize on real or imagined ancestral ties between the Duala and the Isuwu.

Bimbia in 1893: From Colonial Grandeur ...

Letter to the Contestants for the Royal Stool of Victoria (Limbe)

By Mola Njoh Litumbe, Bakweri Notable

There has been lately some discussion in the press pertaining to the succession to the vacant royal stool of Victoria, following the death of HRH Chief Ferguson Billa Manga-Wiiliams.  As potential aspirants gird their loins for the contest, they would do well to have the benefit of history, as it relates to  royal succession in the city of Victoria.

Introducing Max Sako Lyonga: The Man with the Golden Brush

By Dibussi Tande

In October 2004, Cameroonian painter Max Sako Lyonga captured the imagination of the country and made headline news with a breathtaking and grandiose exhibition at the Blaise Cendrars French Cultural Center in Douala. The exhibition, which was titled “Letter to anyboby”, drew thousands of visitors and again confirmed, if need be, that Max Lyonga was without doubt one of the greatest Cameroonian painters of his generation, if not of all times.

According to a World Bank portrait of the artist, “[Max Lyonga’s] native Bakweri culture, the environment, social aspects of life, and intimate scenes and feelings dominate his artistic works which he expresses through abstraction and figurative works.”

Max Sako Lyonga in Images

Click the thumbnails below for a sample of Max Lyonga's paintings

Click here to visit the ARNET website to purchase paintings by Max Lyonga

Art Ambassador

By Simon Mol (Moleke Mo-Njie)

(The Second Renaissance; World Forum of Cyframatics - Villa San Carlo Borromeo, Milan (Italy), Nov’ 29-Dec’ 5, 2005)

On ALITALIA flight nr. 555 from Warsaw to Milan last Tuesday, Dec’ 29th, I picked a copy of the Financial Times and flipped through to the space reserved for Art critics – on page 10. An article written by Samson Spanier tilted The Critics, captured my attention. Somewhere between Spanier states and I quote, ‘Giambologna, the great sculptor after Michelangelo’s death, was said to care nothing for money because he wanted only artistic glory’. True to this line of thinking, here is what Simone Fortuna wrote to the Duke of Urbino in 1581 about Giambologna: "He is the best sort of man one could ever want to meet, not greedy at all, as one can tell from his being so poor: all that he wants is glory and his greatest ambition is to rival Michelangelo.

Book Review of "Sophia's Fire": A Fako Sage's Ouevre

Reviewed by Emil I Mondoa, MD

Sango Mbella. Sophia’s Fire. Pittsburgh, PA, G&V Publishing. 2005 (ISBN 0-9768150-0-1)

Sango Mbella is the nomme de plume of a United States-based sage and writer, who seems to prefer a degree of anonymity at this time.  His publisher, who sent me a copy of his work, “Sophia’s Fire” describes him as a writer, scientist and entrepreneur and holder of several US and international patents and that he hails from Ambas Bay. I understand when writers want to be anonymous, and have no desire to unmask the man of mystery nor to question his reason for not wanting to take public credit for a well-written and profound book.
Sophia is the Greek goddess of wisdom, and fire is the symbol of energy. That gives one an idea of the scope of the book, whose purpose is to impart the reader with the wisdom required to succeed on earth.

Before the First Rooster Crows - A Poem

By Eposi N. W. Tokeson

Moms prepare their wares for the market place
Dads sharpen their cutlasses for the farms.
Moms heat up (ekwakoko ya weku).
Children get up reluctantly from their cozy beds when the 3rd rooster
crows.
And line up with their buckets, for the stream to fetch water.

The Horseman's Woman

By Mbella Sonne Dipoko

Some Bakweri people in Great Soppo owned horses
When I was growing up in that village as a small boy, going to school
In the late 1940s of the just-ended century.
And on the Mission Hill too there were horses
On which white missionaries sometimes rode
For the fun of it for they also had their station wagons.
Maybe it was because of those horses
That I came to write
About a woman who never betted on the races, not being a gambler,
But who nevertheless was always dreaming of a big black horse
On which a man sometimes came riding through her farm,
A big black horse that sometime was No. 6
And at other times it was marked No. 9
And always it was painful to her
Whenever that man came riding through her farm
As if it was no longer her private property
But the village common or the Town Green
On which any black horse could gallop
And any cow graze.

The Bakweri Drums

By Eposi NW Tokeson

The rhythm starts slowly
With a pause
Then the throbs increase their pulse
The pulse increases to tones that needle the shock waves
of the senses
Into your brain, hair follicles, stomach and feet
Like an electric shock of fever waves
That moves from your toes all the way to
The hairs on your head in a flash
Then the hairs remain standing as the rhythm continues
Then the throbs send currents to the shoulders to move
Left- right -then left.
Flashes of continues uncontrollable movement then
Stop.
That is the way of the Bakweri drums.

Obituary: Chief Manga Williams is Dead!

The Paramount Chief of Victoria (Limbe), H.R.H Chief Ferguson Billa Manga Williams has died. He died on Saturday, July 9, at about 11:00 am in his Down Beach Palace.

Born on February 1, 1919, in Victoria (now Limbe), late Manga Williams was the fourth child of his parents: Chief John Manga Williams and his mother, Iteki Ida Williams née Do'o of Bonabile in Bimbia. He was the second child of his mother. He succeeded his father in 1959.

The Two Bueas: Buea North (Then) Buea South (Now)

By Canute Tangwa

I spent the long 20th May weekend in Buea. It was both exciting and chilling. Exciting because every time I visit Buea, the town and land of my birth, I go down memory lane. I always look forward to meeting good old friends; savour the warmth and hospitality of the indigenous people (the Bakweri); think about or visit the prestigious schools we attended, popular joints (Holiday Inn, Cybel, Olivia, Mobutu) where we used to sit and crack jokes over bottles of beer;

Performer, Audience, and Performance Context of Bakweri Pregnancy Rituals and Incantations

By Babila Mutia (Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 177, 2005)

Abstract:
This article presents a comprehensive description of the four kinds of rituals that are performed on pregnant women among the Bakweri of South-western Cameroon. These pregnancy rituals are performed to avert abortions, premature deliveries, still births, and to ensure safe delivery. They are also intended to keep the pregnant woman healthy during her gestation period. The four rituals are performed by four separate nganga (traditional doctors). The implication here is that the pregnant woman moves from one herbalist to the other as her pregnancy progresses and need for each ritual arises. Of equal significance in this article is the consideration of the incantations that are chanted by each nganga and which complement each of the rituals as verbal art.

Simon Efange: "Brain Gain" Pioneer

Professor of Chemistry at the University of Buea, Cameroon

In the past two decades, the socio-economic and political development of most African countries has been severely hampered by the massive exodus of its highly skilled human resources to developed countries -- the infamous brain drain phenomenon. Recently, however, there have been coordinated attempts by international institutions, NGOs, and some African Governments at stemming or simply reversing the tide by creating enabling conditions that would facilitate the return Africa's intellectual capital to Africa - the much touted "Brain Gain" movement or the "reverse brain drain".

While this movement has gained steam in many Southern, Eastern and West African countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Ghana, it is an idea that has yet to be embraced at state level Cameroon. In spite of the absence of institutional incentives, some skilled Cameroonians are nonetheless taking the plunge and making that generally uncertain and risky return to the motherland

Philosophical Basis for Bakweri Mysticism

By Magnus P. Mukoko-Mokeba

Culled from ABBIA, Vol. 3 (September 1963): 39-44.

Bakweris inhabit the south-western portion of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. They are part of what sociologist E. W. Ardener has described as "Coastal Bantus". In this article, we shall endeavour to examine and describe some of their philosophical concepts in order to understand the basis of their spiritual life.

Usage has rendered a number of words ambiguous and vague: This is particularly true of words such as "democracy", "communism" and "justice". Definitions of such words are apt to be arbitrary and my definition of philosophy claims no exception to arbitrariness. For the purpose of this article we shall define philosophy as the critical reflection on the justification of basic human beliefs and analysis of basic concepts in terms of which such beliefs are expressed.

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Bakweri words of wisdom: "Mooli mo Wanga ne Eyea Wanga"

By Mola Mbua Ndoko

35.  Mooli mo Waanga na Eyea Wanga.
(A vine clinging to a tree in the forest).
Source: Tales of the Plants and Animals World.
mooli = twine; a rope;

eyee = a stick.
Mooli  mo  Wanga = a climbing stem in the forest.
Eyea Wanga = a tree in the forest.
Likomba  la  wanga = an area thickly covered with large trees to an extent that it is dark under the trees; a virgin forest.
yosa = friends/friendship.
joono = a finger.
nganda = a finger/toe nail.
yosa  ya  joono  na  nganda = tight friends; inseparable, for instance, a finger and its nail

FAKO SUMMIT OF HOPE

By Mola Fritz Ngale Ilongo

Fiery crown of the Kpes
Guarding refugees on exile from lands ancestral
Brooding brow wreathed with cloud waves high and low of tide
Mirror reflecting flitting emotions experienced below awesome giant.
From sources mysterious, rivers and fountains red molten
Are belched suddenly
The invincible floods preceded by shivers earth-shaking

Prelude to gigantic vomits
Coughing out earth's bowels devouring
Terror of generations
Never committing the error of annihilating species menaced by extinction
Seeking protection grace within arms colossal.
Solid flanks of forest green repel invasion onslaughts
Petering out into savannah lush
Dancing brushes waving gaily in soft breezes without caprice