Thadeus Naliembe becomes the new chief of Iboko village at his coronation ceremony.
IBOKO, CAMEROON – It is 6 p.m. on the eve of the chief’s coronation in Iboko, a tiny village of eight homes in Cameroon’s Southwest region. Here, as in many of Cameroon’s rural communities, the village is struggling to breathe life into its traditional practices.
The town crier of Iboko strikes a gong, and the village falls quiet in anticipation. In the dialect of the Ngolo tribe, he announces the customary rules for the performance of the Nganya, a traditional Ngolo religious cult.
“Because of the coronation of the chief,” he says, “from 10 p.m. till dawn, the mystical Nganya masquerade will be performing, so everyone should stay indoors. All bush lamps should be put off or lowered. No noise or fidgeting should come out of any household, no bedtime discussions.”
The customs even regulate bathroom use.
“Even though toilets are outside of the house, no one should dare to walk outside to urinate or defecate,” he says. “If you feel like it, do it inside the house through any means. If you go contrary to any of this, you will have yourselves to blame.”
The crier disappears to make way for the masquerade.
Men belonging to the Nganya cult perform this dance on special occasions, says Iboko resident Balemba Bekumaka. At age 89, Bekumaka is the oldest man living in Iboko and is himself a member of the cult.
Their role is to protect the village through song and dance before the dawn of the occasion. Women and men who do not belong to the cult must not witness its performance or they risk misfortune and a heavy fine.
The previous chief of Iboko died in 2005, Bekumaka says. Because chieftaincy is hereditary, a council of village kingmakers, including Bekumaka, summoned the late chief’s only son to assume the throne.
But at the time, his son was living and working abroad in the United States and said he did not have time to dedicate to community issues. The council of kingmakers was unable to persuade him to return to the small village.
The kingmakers eventually settled on Thadeus Naliembe, a nephew of the late chief, as the new ruler. Villagers of Iboko waited three years to raise the funds needed for the traditional coronation ceremony. Wonder and anticipation filled Iboko last month as the kingmakers at last crowned the new chief.
But not everyone in the village embraces these traditions.
“Let them not disturb people,” says one Iboko woman who had returned to the village for the coronation. “What kind of useless tradition is this?”
This is not an uncommon attitude, Bekumaka says. He and other villagers are clawing onto their customs in the face of modern pressures.
“We don’t want our tradition to go down the drain,” he says. “That is why you see us performing the Nganya dance, amongst others, in important events like the coronation of our chiefs.”
Village elders lament the decline of traditional practices in Cameroon as youth move to urban areas to pursue education. The rise of monotheistic religion has also eroded traditional beliefs, as Christians decry them as witchcraft. But anthropologists say that traditional activities are driving tourism throughout the country and are alive among the Cameroonian diaspora. Cameroon’s government also engages traditional leaders as they implement policy at the local level.
More than 50 percent of the population now resides in urban areas rather than their indigenous villages, according to the United Nations Statistics Division’s 2011 profile on Cameroon. The profile predicts the urban population will grow an additional 3.2 percent each year.
Meanwhile, approximately 80 percent of Cameroonians polled for a study published in 2010 by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life expressed Christian beliefs. But the percentage of the population who participate in traditional ceremonies was just 40 percent.
Still, the number of tourist arrivals in Cameroon tripled between 2006 and 2011, according to data provided by Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics.
In outlying rural villages such as Iboko, though, elders worry that the flight of youth to urban areas in pursuit of education is eroding the foundations of their people.
The Ngolo tribe belongs to the Oroko ethnic group, which comprises 39 villages across southern Cameroon. Bekumaka says Iboko used to be the biggest village, a land pregnant with Ngolo history and tradition. All Ngolo villages respected Iboko because the paramount chieftaincy of the tribe sat there.
But now, villagers are struggling to keep that respect alive.
Membership in traditional religious cults has plummeted, Bekumaka says.
“Belonging to male-only cults was a sign of manhood, and it commanded respect,” he says. “Knowing the dialect perfectly, partaking in customary practices was a sign of belonging, and it commanded pride.”
The dialect is disappearing among children, Bekumaka says.
“I feel ashamed if I see Iboko children, Oroko children today who cannot even speak the dialect,” he says. “It is a shame.”
The advent of education, introduced by colonial settlers, led to an exodus from Iboko, Bekumaka says. Lack of navigable roads made it difficult for the educated to return, so traditional practices suffered.
“Many of our children have fled the village to get education, to go abroad, to get a good life,” he says. “They no longer see tradition as very important. They look at it as devilish.”
As a kingmaker of Iboko village, Felix Eta participated in the selection of Naliembe as Iboko’s new chief. He, too, is upset to see Iboko’s traditional practices decline.
“Tradition of yesteryears and tradition today are two different things,” he says. “Before, it was full of importance, as indigenes scrambled to identify with any of the traditional structures. Today, people scare away from it and even see it as witchcraft.”
In the past, belonging to a traditional cult was the only religious option for members of the village, Bekumaka says. Cults performed rituals to seek life and protection from their gods. But today, the focus has shifted to a belief in one God.
Cameroonians who embrace Christianity are wary of traditional religions.
Joseph Moki, who lives in Buea, the capital of the Southwest region of Cameroon, is the president of the Iboko Development Association. The group unites former residents of Iboko at monthly meetings to discuss how they can spark development in their home village.
A Christian, Moki says that people associate aspects of traditional religion too closely with witchcraft to survive in modern-day Cameroon, especially as more people turn to Christianity.
“Some traditional cults or masquerades are pure witchcraft,” he says. “People should stop getting themselves involved in such practices because it is not good in the eyes of the almighty God.”
In the past, the worship of multiple gods was the only religious option for villagers, Moki says. But Christianity has given people another option, and the Bible condemns the worship of idols or multiple gods.
Although Moki acknowledges that there are some valuable traditions in Iboko, he calls others outdated.
“Causing a man or woman with running stomach to defecate inside the house or causing children to urinate on the bed because a masquerade is performing at night is very bad,” he says. “I am not saying tradition is bad, but I am saying some are out of place in modern times.”
While younger generations turn away from the customs of their villages, anthropologists forecast that traditional life will survive for the purposes of tourism.
Ebune Eugene wa Mowoh Dada, an anthropology researcher at the University of Yaoundé I, has studied Oroko traditions extensively. He says Cameroon is using its history to drive tourism nationwide.
“Our traditions have today become major touristic attractions, especially the traditions of our brothers of the Northwest region of Cameroon,” he says. “This is because they have maintained their tradition to the fullest and in its purest form.”
The people of the Northwest have maintained their rich heritage for centuries in sculptures and palaces, as well as in marriage and family customs, Mowoh Dada says. Tourists visit specifically to see and learn about these practices.
Dances, masquerades and festivals are other major tourist attractions. Mowoh Dada says the Morimi festival, which the Oroko people celebrate once every five years, attracts national and international visitors.
International attention does not only come from foreigners, Mowoh Dada says. Cameroonians abroad also strengthen the importance of tradition, as they uphold traditional styles of dress, cuisine and music in their new homes.
In Cameroon, children learn their indigenous languages and dialects in schools because people have realized that this is an important part of their identity, Mowoh Dada says.
“Fifty years after independence of Cameroon, clear footprints of tradition can still be seen,” he says. “Fifty years to come, even clearer footprints will be seen. And as the world reaches the peak of globalization, tradition in Cameroon will assume its significant place. There is no doubt about that.”
Government officials also work to ensure that the country’s traditional rulers, such as the new chief of Iboko, retain their significant place in civic life.
Nganda Valentine Beyoko, the mayor of Toko Rural Council, the local administrative body that governs Iboko, says the state recognizes the importance of tradition.
“That is why the state takes active role in installation of traditional rulers,” he says. “Traditional rulers are installed by divisional officers or senior divisional officers of a subdivision and division respectively.”
Once installed, traditional rulers take an active role in the management of their people, Beyoko says. Chiefs work directly with local government officials.
“The chiefs represent their people in administrative meetings, organized at district level by state officials,” he says. “They take messages from their people to the state and also take state messages back to their people. They are the mouths and ears of their people and the state.”
Elders say they hope that this peaceful coexistence of traditional and modern life draws young people back to Iboko and other villages.
Iboko village elders are asking all sons and daughters living outside the village to invest in their home, Eta says. As an incentive, they are offering free land to any who return to build a house or a farm.
If young people return, they will learn the positive aspects of their tradition, which will increase their respect for their history, he says.
Mowoh Dada, for one, says he is not worried about the future of Cameroon’s past.
“No matter how hard modernism tries, tradition will always have its place in life,” he says.
