Not a Frisbee game
this time (unfortunately), just some (brief) musings on the differences between
the culture in the North West Region and the West Region. The short time I’ve
able to spend in either of the regions doesn’t really qualify me to make many
statements on their differences, but my recent trip back to Mbouda and
Bafoussam did get me thinking about the contrasts.
The most obvious
difference is the language. After the First World War, when the Germans’
holdings in Africa were split up among the allies, the West Region (WR) was
colonized by the French while the North West Region (NWR) was allotted to the
English. The language split still exists pretty starkly along these lines.
Cameroonians take a great deal of (justifiable) pride in the fact that they
live in a bilingual nation (for some reason they never count the 240 odd local
dialects in that assessment) but of course individuals differ widely in how much
of any language they speak. To make a blunt (and ready to be contradicted)
statement, I would say that Anglophones in the NWR are more likely to speak
passable French than Francophones in the WR are likely to speak English. This
is probably due to the dominance of French in the political and economic life
of Cameroon. On the other hand, outside of larger cities, the English isn’t
really English at all but Pidgin while the French isn’t quite what a Parisian
would speak, but close.
After spending a little
time in a village, another difference is the degree to which traditional
culture is observed (in this aspect cities are kind of left out, as they are
cultural mash-ups to begin with). In the WR I attended a range of traditional
ceremonies including a wedding, some burials, and a harvest festival. During
these events people will wear their traditional dress and carry out the
proscribed rites and for a foreigner it is a big cultural adjustment. In the
NWR you will find the same ceremonies being celebrated in a very similar
manner, but what has taken me some time to adjust to is that when the
ceremonies are over, the traditional social structures are not so quickly put
aside. For example, in both the WR and NWR there are individuals who an
uninitiated person is not supposed to touch (e.g. Chiefs or Fons, some members
of their family, family heads, etc.). In the WR I was never actually called out
on this, but it has been a semi-constant source of social anxiety for me here
in Oku. Adherence to this kind of social taboo in daily life differentiates my
experience of the WR and NWR.
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| Ba Tutuwan of Bali with one of his wives. Note the red feather in his cap, this is a good hint that you shouldn't try to shake his hand. |
This is not to say
that the population of the WR has overthrown their traditional social
structure, but it is less noticeable in a day to day way. One person who I
pointed this out to suggested that the explanation could again be drawn from
the days of colonial rule. The French, in control of the WR, practiced direct
rule. Their own people came to the country to fill top government positions and
they made sure the people knew that it was them exercising power in the
country. On the other hand, the British practiced an indirect rule. They used
alliances and agreements with traditional leaders to exercise their will in the
colonies. So when a citizen in the NWR looked to the top of the power structure
they still found their Fon while in the WR he would have seen that the Prefet
was the man calling the shots.
The realities of
these differences in social order are significant way beyond just the
occasional faux pas. Social mobility, bureaucratic efficiency, education
systems, and the strength of para-statal structures (e.g. coffee cooperatives)
are all manifestations that I and my ex-pat friends (Peace Corps Volunteers, to
be frank) have observed. Certainly there are lots more, some more or less
important, and if anyone wants to add to the list feel free. On the other hand,
if anyone wants to call me out for being shortsighted or completely wrong,
that’d be appreciated too.
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