Marriage, Life and Death, Cameroonian Style

Parents here expect their children and grand-children to look after them in old age. They try to have their daughters married from as young as thirteen (for which they receive a dowry) and press them to have as many children as possible, with the result that many girls drop out of school. As far as I can judge, the wives get spent at an early age and the husbands take other wives, also young, retaining or divorcing the former wives. It is not unusual for men in their fifties, and even sixties, to take young wives and to continue to have children. There is a local chief who has 47 children and his sixth wife is currently pregnant. They don’t seem to consider whether they will be able to support the children, but look to the state or council to provide facilities for them. Men also have a lot of extra-marital affairs with “free women” and illegitimate children abound. It does not look as though there is any real bond between husband and wife in most cases, other than contractual.

Part of the logic here is that mortality will be high and that lots of children are needed to provide enough survivors to look after the old. A link does not seem to be drawn between the high birth rate, the lack of capacity of water supply, schools and health facilities, and the general worsening of very impoverished conditions. Illness and death are everywhere here. Within my small circle of friends in the space of a few weeks, there have already been numerous deaths, including children and people of all ages. Most have been caused by malaria, and this is not the bad time of the year (which is from October to December, after the rainy season).

Halidou’s mother fell ill and I went with him to visit her in the Pouss hospital. The hospital can accommodate around 15 patients, has almost no equipment and has only one qualified nurse and no doctor. It serves around 50,000 people, and some Chadians also cross the Logone to go to it. Halidou’s mother seemed extremely unwell and they were unable to diagnose her illness (which turned out to be malaria). I gave him money to have her brought to the Maga hospital, which has some equipment and a doctor, where she was diagnosed and given treatment. She has now recovered but I think she would have died if left in Pouss. All medical treatment has to be paid for and most people cannot afford to pay and just do without it. I have heard many stories of people who have died for lack of money to pay for treatment and medicines (which cost trivial amounts in our terms).

The mother of another friend has been having some sort of fits and she and everybody else thinks that she has been put under a spell by somebody. She probably has something like cerebral malaria but even the best educated people believe in sorcerers. There are of course local “healers” with dubious methods.

The bonds between parents and children are also weak in many cases. Children are left to roam unsupervised, and with no rubbish collection service they are constantly sifting through bags of decaying material, some of which they eat. On one occasion I tried to burn some rubbish but did not do a good job and decided to let the fire smoulder and then dispose of it. Later I heard a sound outside my window and saw three young children (less than four years old) at the spot where there had been the decaying remains of fish and other food, but there was none left. Not surprisingly, child mortality is very high. Apart from illnesses, accidents are frequent. In the past few weeks two children have drowned in the lake, another has had his foot crushed while trying to catch onto the side of a truck and another broke both his wrists in a fall from a tree after he was attacked by bees.

There is currently a financial crisis in the Council and employees have not been paid for five months. Nearly 100 employees are affected (including teachers and others employed by the council) and several have told me that they go for days without eating. Most have families, the average size being around 10. When some food is available, the father gets first call, then the mother and then the children, if any is left.