We visited the Man and Woman crater lakes, deep lakes in a huge caldera on top of a volcano near Bangem in North West Cameroon.
The "Man" lake is inaccessible, deep and sacred. The chiefs of two nearby areas come to the lake together to perform rituals to ask the lake's spirit to prevent bad harvests, to bring on the rains etc. They dress in red robes and go down to the lake to sacrifice a goat and to pour palm wine into the water.
I asked our guide what effect the coming of Christianity had had on this kind of tradition, and got a completely blank look. Most people seem to combine traditional and new religions without feeling that there is any contradictions. That was certainly the attitude at the church we attended for a while, although not our current church. I was visiting someone from our church the other day who was telling us about the challenges of being part of a polygamous family split between Christians and non-Christians.
The woman lake is accessible to all, as a Mother is to children.
We had a picnic by the woman lake and liked the idea of bathing in it, but couldn't for risk of bilhartzia.
The lakes are said to produce storms as their spirits fight!
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