Fantasia in Tibati - the Celebration of "Eid-Al-Fitr" or the End of Ramadan

As it might not have been pointed out clearly so far, the North of Cameroon, i.e. where I am living right now is predominantly muslim. Consequently, Ramadan is respected strictly by large parts of the population meaning that people do not only refrain from eating but also from drinking between dusk and dawn. And everybody impatiently awaits the end - since fasting in Ramadan in African heat unavoidably means suffering. What a relief when this period of self restriction finally is over - whatever poor one might be - that calls for celebration!
grandmothers - everyone wants to assist the big fantasia in front of the Lamido's palace in Tibati and puts on the finest pagnes or clothes one possesses. In a huge demonstration, the warriors of the Lamido get the chance to show off on their horses, neatly decorated with fine tissues reserved only for important festivitFrom babies toies. Authentic African Musicians, looking like funky clowns to the Eurpean eye contribute with their doodeling around and Tam-Tams while the "chevaliers" are swinging sables, lancets, swords and bows on their galopping horses in front of the Lamido - who appreciates their show by 'generously' distributing some bills of money among the heros.
Less apparent is that the horses are quite badly trained, no wonder, since they are hardly ever ridden throughout the year, yet also no wonder that one of the maltreated had a fall during the galopp towards the Lamido's. On photos one will not easily find acts and their marks of violence against the animals, yet their grimaces may tell you a bit of what is happening. When the sun sets down, the Lamido concludes the spectacle by retiring into his palace and the people go home to continue the feast with what was limited for such a long time.

From Side Actor to Movie Producer within a Year

It was about july when two young guys from Ngaoubela paid me a visit with an unusual question: As I was often taking pictures in our village, would it not be possible to produce a movie with my camera? First I was very surprised and had big doubts of the quality of a movie made by a photo camera, in particular as the microphone might not be of the highest quality and the autofocus works at a different speed than a movie camera. Nevertheless we tried some test shots and found it at least possible to do the project.
One weekend in August we decided to walk into a traditional village, two hours away from Ngoubela and do the whole thing. People prepared themselves well, Rene, the leader of this association of culturally aware youngsters organized all the equipment and traditional clothes like animal skins and beaten plants as well as huge leaves of bananas and other bush plants.
So, like this we shot a well known traditional story of the grand grand grand fathers of the GBaya tribe to maintain this cultural heritage for future generations. At first everybody was very shy to wear as little as a few leaves and/or some animal furs, but after I have demonstrated them that there is no need to be shy at all they got convinced that it is best to just do it :-)
Back in Austria I should be able to upload some cool dancing scene, for the moment the African internet connections do not allow such large data streams.... stay tuned!

On the Road to Austria

What are the odds of "randomly" meeting somebody from your neighbour village in Europe in the middle of nowhere – ie the African bush in Adamawa? Apparently pretty high, otherwise we would not have met a couple from Unterholzbach, Lower Austria in Malarba, the trucker’s night stop nearby Ngaoubela.

Peter and Sabine are about to tour around Africa with their lorry “August”, a 4wd Mercedes 1311 from 1966. What a pleasent and unexpected surprise!
After a while of reflection they decided to stay in Ngaoubela overnight where we learnt more about their tour from Austria to South Africa via Eastern Africa and back home via Western Africa including quite a number of exciting stories and plenty of photos. In the end we discovered that them and me were about to go to Ngaoundéré for some reasons so they gave me a lift – my first ride on a truck – and what an awesome one! On the road we found some of the “outstanding” lorry drivers besides their trucks which fell off track… fortunately Peter is an excellent driver, so August could bring us sound to the Camp Norvegien in Ngaoundéré.

Check out http://www.peterunfried.spaces.live.com/ for more details!!

Life in a bush hospital

It definitely is not easy for a newbie to imagine what it is like to live and work in a bush hospital in the middle of nowhere. There is no doubt, pictures can show you around well, but t could demonstrate my sourroundings to the full monty. But especially vegetarians among you won’t like to be confronted with a dead foetus or people defecating everywhere around for religious reasons (sic!).

“Az élet nem habostorta” I used to say a some years ago when a habostorta was one of the most normal things for me. Here in the bush there is no habos. And definitely az élet nem habostorta, particularly for those permanently living here. Just take a look...

An Invitation to the Great Djaouro in Gangoumi

After my report of the official audiences at the Lamido’s it is difficult to find another topic that could possibly sound as exciting and mysterious for a “Western” reader. In my opinion our recent invitation to Gangoumi, a traditional village in the bush, ie unreached by roads, electricity and all kinds of high-life, does indeed attain a similar level. To reach Gangoumi one has to travel between three and five hours on the motorbike following a tiny, tricky path through the savanna and the forests (probably the most adventurous aspect of the trip).

The Djaouro of Gangoumi is the traditional chief of the village, ie the official representative for the Lamido of the Djerem district. So this Djaouro has a passion – his passion for Dr. Elisabeth Neier, the famous Nazara that miraculously heals the ill Balejos (= Blacks in Fulfulde) in Ngaoubela. His passion started when he once had an accident and became paralyzed on one side. Dr. Nazara did a wonder and after a while under her magic treatment he suddenly started to slowly regain his capacity to move. So, his passion went on and now goes as far as his official proposal to her some years ago – what is why he is a regular guest in our house. Unfortunately, Dr. Neier can not grant him such a desire for a number of reasons; eg. she is living and working in Ngaoubela, plans to go back to Austria for retirement, and would be wife no. 3(!), as the Djaouro is muslim with currently two wifes and a whole lot of children. He remains persistent and tries to convince her of a life in Gangoumi (arguing that of course they would urgently need proper medical care there) and regularly visits the small Austrian community in Ngaoubela. That’s how we got to know to the Djaouro, as our guest. The great Djaouro of Gangoumi kept on inviting us to his village, to show us his home, make us get to know to his saare (Fulfulde for house or court), see his herd of cows (as an owner of such he is a very proud and wealthy man in his village) and go on a trekking search for Hippopotamus in the wilderness. So finally in Mai, Herwig, my volunteering colleague, and me went to visit the Djaouro of Gangoumi and enjoy the hospitality of his family. The last picture displays the ancient school of Gangoumi!

Le Conteneur Nouvau Est Arrivé !!!

Yes! Finally the containers have arrived – the containers we were successfully working on to get exonerated from import duties have come to Tibati.

And it was some ten hours too late to have Rudl, the dispatcher (see the picture of the first Lamido audience), with us to unload the huge carpenter’s machines. There was quite a challenge before us, the heaviest machine has got some unbelievable 2400 kgs that had to get out of the container to their designated place. When it had reached the entrance to the building we could not believe that we were able to bring the monster till here where one little - but crucial fixed part was 10 cm higher than the top of the entrance door. What to do? There seemed to be no solution but destroying the building… but one little workaround could save it: The pillars of the ramp that was used for moving the contents down could slowly be hit away with a hammer what created the necessary descent to make the giant pass through! (At the time we found out the real weight we all agreed that if we had known the actual weight at the time of unloading – we might have doubted our capability to move it to such an extent that we could have ceased to try it without even starting.)
We did it – our motivated artisans from Tela (the sunday market village mentioned in an article below) made some unbelievable efforts as I had never seen it from Africans before. This was the longest African working day ever – it started at 7 AM with the news of the arrival and ended after 1 AM of the next day with break in between apart from the short “lunch break” at 22 PM. That must be “sorcelerie” that makes one able to work like this – at least for some external African spectators. ;-)

Yaouwa!