bakwerirama

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.

Witchcraft in Contemporary Bakweri Society by Rosemary Ekosso

The belief in witchcraft or liemba is very common among the Bakweri. It considered to be the art of influencing the lives of other people by occult means. Such influence is usually malevolent and affects a person’s spirit, and through that, his mind and body. Alternatively, it is benevolent, but requires the harnessing of such powerful and potentially ungovernable forces that its practice is shunned by many people. In the Western world, people who practise witchcraft can be referred to either as Wicca (male witches) and Wicce (female witches), or wizards and witches, also respectively male and female practitioners of witchcraft. For our purposes we shall use the latter terminology. Witchcraft shall be considered here to be good or bad witchcraft, depending on whether ‘black magic’ or ‘white magic’ is used. Among the Bakweri, bad magic is what is known as liemba. Good magic is often just called.