Cameroon's Reunification Holiday

On the 20th May each year Cameroon celebrates the reunification of the country, which undid the divisions of the French/British colonisations. This is Cameroon’s biggest holiday and in the morning there were parades of all the local schools, some of which put on performances of traditional dances and displays of arts such as karate. The mayor did a walk-past in dashing blue, accompanied by his three male deputies (his fourth deputy was with a group of females from the local opposition party). The Sultan of Pouss was given some sort of decoration. He came with his usual retinue, who were weilding swords on this occasion (literally), and he brought along a group of musicians playing traditional instruments. It was a really colourful and enjoyable occasion and provided illustrations of protocols and hierarchies and also of other less seemly aspects of Cameroonian life, such as its rather aggressive crowd control.

Everybody seemed hyper for the day, even though the majority are Muslims and don’t drink alcohol, and the way motos were speeding around was quite alarming. Also, much activity continued into the evening, which is quite exceptional in Maga. My celebrations started the evening before with a reception in a local bar, “Evasion”, laid on by the lycée. I went along with Halidou, Ruth and Lady Diana. The latter two turned out to be almost the only ladies present but despite this they went ahead with the “tour d’honneur”, a sort of ice-breaking exercise which is used to start off dances. This consists of nominating attractive ladies to take the floor with the most notable men present. Once the music starts the men grab the ladies in embraces which are otherwise entirely out of place here. The music was supposed to last for 30 seconds but happily for Ruth and Lady Di, they cut it much earlier than this. Dancing continued throughout the night, almost entirely with men. To my surprise, Westlife seem to be the most popular band here and Celine Dion and Phil Collins also seem very popular.

On the evening of the holiday I was invited to a soirée in the Sous-Préfet’s residence. There were over 100 hundred guests, including lots of ladies on this occasion. People were decked out either in traditional dress or in suits, and I felt conspicuous for not wearing a suit. After arriving we were shown to our seats and then waited for a couple of hours while nothing happened. People conversed, if at all, in hushed tones and I remember thinking that there was no sound of laughter. The food when it finally arrived was really good, with fish, chicken, beef, lamb and probably goat, together with salads, rice, pasta and other local vegetables such as plantains and nyams. After the food was cleared, there was a bout of the tour d’honneur to start the dancing. It was rather like the session of the previous evening except that there was a much better supply of ladies and the notables were more notable. It did indeed break the ice, and very quickly there was quite a good party atmosphere and lots of dancing.