Our visit to the North West of Cameroon included visiting a Fon's palace. Sue and Richard (Tim's parents) wanted to visit, having read about it in Gerrald Durrel's "Bafut Beagles".
The Fon is a chief or king and is also regarded as a god. When he roams his territory he does so in the form of an animal. Apparently, before tigers were extinct in Africa (?!) he liked to turn into one. We were shown round by someone from the Fon's family.
I was taking photos and marshaling Reuben and or Miriam most of the trip round the palace, so I got edited highlights and apologise for any inaccuracies. Next time we go it's my turn to listen properly!
We started at the "Talking drum", which can be heard over a 15km radius, and is used to communicate with the citizens. Reuben rushed to play it as we quickly checked whether it was taboo. Our guide told us it wasn't, as he couldn't hit it hard enough for the sound to carry.
The Fon lives in the hut with the pointed roof, his 37 wives live in at the sides of the courtyard. 26 of these wives were inherited from his Father (as is the tradition) when he died in the 60s.
The Fon's hut is hundreds of years old, and still has the original straw, because each new layer is just added on top of the last.
Reuben and Miriam were most interested in dust, stones, a spider (live) in the museum (which made Miriam do incey wincey spider)
and the Fon's wives' chickens (which made Miriam shriek with excitement, point and whistle because they are birds).
Miriam enjoyed this stone for grinding grains etc.
However, we had to keep them away from these stones on which sacrifices used to be made!
P.S. If anyone's interested in African history from a more African point of view than normal, the BBC did a good series called The Story of Africa which you can now listen to on line. We enjoyed listening to it in our car in Rwanda. We're too busy in the car now-a-days, entertaining children and concentrating on much more dangerous roads.
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