Find previous reports and pictures at www.lehigh.edu/~ejk0/cam2003.html

10 August 2003

Report 28

In my last report I backtracked to start to describe our trip to
Bafut last weekend, a description I continue now.  Clement Akongnwi
picked us up in Bamenda on Friday evening.  Previously, he had asked
me to suggest a present for Janice and me.  I responded that we had
no particular desire for ourselves but that we were looking for a
carved chair for Gwen.  Clement went out, bought some wood, and
commissioned a woodcarver to execute a design we suggested.  We
went to the woodcarver's shop, but he was gone.  That initiated a
chase around Bamenda, but we finally retrieved the chair, er well
chairs.  Because Clement was unsure of the size, he had two chairs
made, one medium and one large.  In a word, the chairs are
beautiful.

Clement offered us the choice of housing at a quiet convent outside
Bafut or at a "rest house" at a busy junction where the side road
to Bafut leaves the "Ring Road."  We opted for the latter to make
transporting us more convenient for Clement.  It proved to be a very
fortiutous choice.  Clement left us at the rest house, saying he
would return at 7:30 in the morning, when he intended to have us to his
compound for breakfast.  Later that morning, at 11, we would attend
a wedding in which Clement was taking part.

The rest house is set in a deep swale at the edge of the ring road
and extraordinarily well designed both in the way it sets in the
swale and in its design as a conference center.  From the main
entrance one enters a conference building, the first of two buildings,
at ground level but one story above a restaurant in a separate
building to the rear. A large side porch wraps around to the rear of
the second building which has about five hotel rooms.  Alongside the
side porch is a parking lot which gently slants down one level to the
restaurant.  The porch has hinged steel railings that can be swung
aside so that the porch forms a stage which faces the parking lot,
which is intended to provide space for seating in the case of
performances.  The construction is all cement, tile, and field stone.
Everything is very carefully arranged - slight slant of porch, slant
of parking lot, drainage from roof of hotel building overlappy with
that of the roof of the restaurant - so that the substantial rains
that occur in Bafut will be of minimal inconvenience.

We were at the rest house by special arrangement between Clement and
the owner, so there was no one else there, and we dined alone.  Janice
started talking with the cook/manager/clerk/..., Ngobe Francis, and
learned that he was an OIC graduate (1993).  They immediately started
talking about mutual acquaintances.  Soon enough Janice arranged to
teach him her cornbread recipe.  He bought all the ingredients on
Saturday.  On Sunday morning she rose at 6:30, and they made cornbread
together. Ngobe Francis very much liked the recipe and says that he
will make it the specialty of the house.

Clement was about an hour late.  As we waited we talked with the owner
of the rest house and made an instant friendship.  Fidelis Niba was a
student in Agronomy at the University of Arkansas in the 70's and
returned to Cameroon to work for the government.  About 10 years ago
he decided that his attempts to help Cameroon were ineffectual and
that he should work independently.  Now he works as an independent
consultant in rural development, acting as a middle man between the
construction firms in Cameroon and international aid organizations.
He has sunk much of his earnings into the rest house, with the idea
that it will serve as a catalyst for development in and around Bafout.

Our day with Clement started at 8:30.  It was a full day, with the
knowledge that we would be attending a wedding, which started at 11,
always looming in the background.  We started with breakfast at his
compound, followed by a visit to his parents' house, which I previously
described.  Then we went to the center of Bafut, which is a very large
village, and started what ended up being about a 90 minute tour of
the palace of the Fon of Bafut.  A Fon is a traditional hereditary
leader.  There are many in the Northwest Province, and the Fon of Bafut
is one of the most well known.  He is in his mid 40's. He has acquired
(a non-PC word) five wives and inherited his father's wives, of which
about 30 survive.  His Palace is surrounded by a large compound, which
houses his family, plus some (traditional) government buildings.  It
should be no surprise that there are a lot of children wandering around.
While we were talking with the guide, Janice rounded up some children
and showed them how to plat hopscotch.

It was now about noon.  Janice and I were wondering about the wedding.
Were we not late?  Was it perhaps at 11 PM rather than 11 AM?  Was it
set for 11 AM "African time?"  As we pondered this, Clement responded
to my previous suggesting about going to Presbook Store in Bamenda in
search of some souvenirs by starting the half hour drive to Bamenda.
After some leisurely time in Bamenda we headed back to Bafut, returning
to Clement's compound for lunch.  Around 3, Clement was suddenly
energized and in a great rush, thinking it was important we arrive at
the wedding at 3:30, which we did by perhaps 10 seconds.  The church,
which holds about 500, was full, and there was an overflow crowd
outside.  I got the impression that the crowd outside had no desire to
go inside, that the gathering outside was a separate social event, an
excuse to renew old friendships.  But what about Clement's role in the
wedding?  He was a "protocol," although I had no clear idea what that
meant.  Soon, the (very) newlyweds emerged from the church for
pictures.  This was a signal for Clement to rush us to his car and
for him to drive madly to the reception hall at Presbyterian High
School.  As "protocol" he, and about four other protocols, had the
job of arranging the seating at the reception.  The hall is divided
roughly in half, with one section about 6 steps below the other.
The lower half, where we were seated, had tables and chairs, while
the upper, scholarship section, had bleacher seating.  There were at
least 500 people at the reception.  At the reception I learned that
the wedding had started at around 11:15 and had lasted four hours!

The reception had all the elements that American weddings have,
although the order and the emphases differed.  One intersting variant
involved the gifts.  Everyone giving a gift got in a line and
individually presented the gift to the wedding couple.  The wedding
party, which was huge, formed a bucket brigade that carried off the
gifts to a waiting van.  Some time after the start of this phase, I
started counting the gifts and reached 192.

Sunday morning, we arrived at church exactly at 9:30, when services
started as scheduled.  Because I can only recall being at a Christian
church service twice in my life, I have no good idea how the
Presbyterian service in Bafut differs from the American variety.  It
lasted about 2 1/2 hours, which I think is long by American standards.
One part of the service consisted of a "thanksgiving," which focused
on Clement and my and Janice's role in helping Clement come to Lehigh.
Clement used the occasion to raise money for the construction of a
replacement for the current church which is old and crowded.  The
footers for the new church, which will be double the size of the
current church, have been laid as a reminder of the work and funds
still needed.  Clement's plea pried some money out of my pocket and
others' and ended up raising 100,000 fCFA, a tidy sum.  Later in the
service there was the usual passing of the basket.  A few parishioners
brought goods rather than money, and these were autioned off.  A
person in the row in front of us bought a live chicken, which he
placed under the bench.  The chicken was irreverent and unwilling to
pay attention to the service, which caused a minor commotion.

After church Clement's family had a reception and dinner for about 40
people in honor of Clement's going to the US.  We got back to the
rest house about 7, only to be swept up as guests in an njangi (village
meeting cum financial pool), whose monthly membership fee is a staggering
120,000 fCFA.  The members of the njangi were many of the movers and
shakers of Bafut, so that we got a picture of some of the political
goings on in Bafut.

Although Bafut is a small town some distance from Bamenda, we took only
about a minute to hail a taxi Monday morning. I gallantly got in front
with another passenger, enabling Janice to be one of the three passengers
in back.  Soon, my gallantry waned when the driver picked up a fourth
passenger for the back of the Corolla.  My gallantry waxed again when the
driver added another passenger to his (the driver's) bucket seat, with the
driver reaching around and then under this passenger's leg to shift.