Weh Festival

The Weh Festival was conveniently relocated to Yaounde this year, so we attended without hours of traveling on bad roads. We were with Tim's collegue, Susanne, and family. This was particularly good during the long wait for the event to began. Chairs were still being delivered hours after the theoretical start time. Tim had an official invitation and since the High Commissioner is in India was called "His Excellency" at every opportunity. Cecilia (Susanne's daughter and a seasoned diplomatic daughter) was unimpressed that there weren't any Ministers there!

The dancers above are wearing Bamileke Indigo, a fabric I researched a little the week I arrived in Yaounde on behalf of a student linked to Whitchurch.





A secret society of women, also referred to as the female government of Weh, came out in public for the first time and danced. Male nobles joined them for some of the dancing, holding their index fingers in the air as they danced. We were told that only nobles can hold their fingers in the air.

His Royal Highness the Fon of Weh was at the festival. He was greeted with three hand claps. No one is allowed to shake his hand. He said that the spirits of the ancestors were with us and God was with us. Not sure if he was talking about God in the same way as the Priest who had prayed "God, the people from Weh are your people" in a way that suggested he was trying to persuade people that this was true.

The High Commission employs quite a few people from Weh. The highest ranking person is one of the guards. He is entitled to carry a carved wooden stick to show his rank. Others of higher rank carry fly whisks. People who carry sticks aren't even allowed to touch fly whisks.

Reuben, Cecilia and Miriam enjoyed sitting on traditional kitchen stools, which had removable slats for menstruating women. We were shown other significant artifacts, including hessian bags, which looked like very ordinary "bags for life", but may only be carried by certain people and never normally outside the court. There were baskets for sowing seeds, cooking pots, traditional foods including balls made from ground peanuts and ripe plantains, which I didn't dare give to our children or one each wouldn't have been enough.

We're enjoying the rich and diverse culture here in Cameroon, and I'm sure we'll only ever feel that we've scratched at the surface. Cameroon is another "land of a thousand hills", but there's a kingdom, nobility, language and traditions for each hill.