Cameroon's Culture

Cameroon is rightly described as "condensed" or "synthesis" of Africa because of its soil found cohabiting, mingling and crossing with all the great cultural traditions of Africa Sub-Saharan Africa, namely:

- The Bantu cultures of the African high mountains and lakes, not to mention Southern Africa etc ...

- Crops Sudano-Sahelian savannah grasslands and plateaus of Adamawa, sandy plains and warm areas of the Sahel, plus all the varieties or "shades" intermediate (nomadic and pygmy cultures etc.)

Starting from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad, a brief overview of Cameroon's cultural landscape to distinguish and better highlight some major cultural spheres with their own originality and specificity, such as the coast, the Bantu forest, and the grass fields.

The coastal or sawa culture

Cameroon's coast, which extends over a distance of nearly 400 km from Rio del Rey on the western border with Nigeria to Campo near Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, is home to a number of tribes (Douala, Bakweris, Bakoko, Batangas etc ...) that belong to the coastal Sawa Culture.

The history, traditions and cosmogony is sawa decipher through masks, photographs and artwork sawa, which populate museums and art galleries in Douala, Buea or Limbe. This culture is undergoing certain vitality, through the performing arts (music, theater, ballet and choreography, etc ...) in all localities of the coastal region.

Douala, now counting over two million inhabitants, economic capital of Cameroon and major regional cities is artistically famous for being the unassailable bastion of Makossa, the new generation of makossamen, trying to keep up the torch bequeathed to them by their illustrious elders: Manu Dibango, Nelle Eyoum, Mouelle William Eboa Lotin etc ...

Finally, Douala home once a year during the dry season, the Ngondo festival, which is the major event of the Sawa tribe with their history and traditions.

The Bantu cultural sphere

Geographically, the central, southern and eastern Cameroon, belong to the Bantu cultural sphere. They also say "Forest Bantus" to better distinguish them from other Bantu peoples who do not live in the forest zone.

Who are those Bantu from the forest? Among the Bantu tribe, there are particularly the ethnic with the largest group called the Beti-Fang whose traditions abound with mythical narratives of their past migrations, tales and legends, chronicles and singing fables, all backed up by a epic music of high artistic craftsmanship at very high dose of emotion: named the Mvet, a word describing both the instrument and the musical genre.

Dressed in traditional outfits this consists of having a suitable hairstyle made of bird feathers, wear a cloak of animal skin, a skirt of beaten tree bark (obom) now often replaced by a fabric loincloth, a necklace of cowries shells or pearls, ring a bell, ankle rattles. The Mvet player recites sounds with his instrument, while debiting an oral epic narrative which, according to Professor Eno Belinga, "restores an ancient social order because of grandeur and heroism, with a view the constant quest for immortality ... "

The peoples of the middle and lower valley of Mbam, those of Lom, Kadei, Boumba and Ngoko, Upper Nyong and more complete the ethno-cultural of this vast region Bantu immensely rich in music, choreography (Bafia, Maka, Kozimé xylophone orchestras and Bamvelle etc ...), cultural handicrafts and specific arts.

The great metropolis of the region, Yaoundé, now populated by about one and a half million inhabitants, the capital of Cameroon, is well known thanks to the  Bikutsi (kind of music) while Douala is respected for Makossa. The two cities are  temples, shrines of great and emblematic musical faces such as  Messi Martin, Anne-Marie Nzié, Elanga Maurice, Aloa Javis, Nkodo Sitony the Zangualewa the Zombies in the capital , Ntondobe, Zealous bomber etc ...

Yaoundé is also famous for its many festivals and major cultural events, including: its "month" Dance, Theatre, Music, Jazz, Choral Music, Fashion, Painting, Book etc ...

Literary and artistic showcase by excellence, publishers, libraries, bookstores and art galleries are always full. The works of the "elders" like Oyono, René Philombe, Francis Bebey, etc ... alongside with those of writers of the generation known as the post-independence, or a bit recent period with some key faces like Valere Epee, Severin Cecile Abega, Guillaume Oyono Mbia, Pabe Mongo, Were Were Liking, not to mention talented essayists, Jacques Fame Ndongo, Hubert Mono Ndzana, Maurice Kamto etc...

The royal art and dazzling costumes grass fields

The cultural sphere of Grass fields which covers the provinces of West and Northwest, became famous, first for his "royal" Art is discovered with curiosity and delight in the Royal Museums of Foumban, Bafoussam, Bandjoun , Bafut, Bali, Bamoungoum, etc ... Here, works of art, from one locality to another, from one leadership to another (the chiefdom is the epicenter of all expressions of this art) are what a critic called "moral force" in contemporary Cameroon. The bronzes Tikar, paintings and bas-reliefs Bamoun, sculpted thrones, animal totems, dance masks and other cultural artifacts of the Bamileke, Nso and Bali-nyonga, not to mention the small wonders of the Fon of Babungo great traditional chiefs where the head is himself an artist and craftsman, all these reflect the dynamism and cultural development of the grass fields.

This cultural area has also become famous for its colorful costumes and richly embroidered, and his funeral ceremonies, traditional dances (Ndanjé, Koungang, Juju, Mewoup, Mékembou, Lali etc ...) and modern (Manguembeu, Ben-Sikin, Tchamassi ...)

Finally the cultural sphere was made famous by the great organization of cultural events, traditional festivals and big shows very well made, like the feast of Ngouoni in Foumban.

Culture of the north under the sign of a double contribution

The cultural area of the North-Cameroon extends from the high plateaus of Adamawa, to the Lake Chad, up to the plains of the Bénoué and the Diamaré, without forgetting Mounts Mandara and other mountainous zones of the Cameroonian ridge.

This cultural sphere of the North, indeed presents, at least two fundamental characteristics.

• A cultural background "autochthon". By the word “autochthon", the German anthropologist Leo Frobenus ("Traditional Peoples and Societies of Northern Cameroon", Stuttgart 1987) speak and so identifies the peoples living and occupying this part of the country, before the Fulani revolution. It is the case in particular for the Mboum of the Adamawa, possessing a very sophisticated (refined) musical art, for the Fali and the Bata of the Bénoué, Guiziga and other “kirdi” populations among which certain elements or groups have made the echo of the famous Sao civilization.

• A-Fulani Muslim cultural background. The Revolution Fulani, launched in Sokoto in the early years of the 19th Shehu Ousman dan Fodio in, leading to the creation of large and powerful territorial entities called "Lamidi" (in Garoua, Maroua, Ngaoundere, Tibati, Banyo etc ... ) under the dynamic supervision of the literate Modibo Adama, gave birth to a new Muslim society whose physical manifestations are:

As regards the specificity of the province of Adamawa, it is according to written and oral corresponding testimonies, considered as the point of convergence, meeting and dispersal of our big sudano-sahelian and Bantu cultural traditions.

And as to what major towns and cities of the "Grand North, each holds a large annual festival, especially during the tourist season which goes from November to May. This constitutes a convenient opportunity to an unrivalled cultural and artistic deployment, punctuated by one thousands of attractive colored and diversified attractions. It is the case in particular during the “Festival of the lamidat” in Ngaoundéré (FESLAM), the “Big cultural Week” of Garoua, the festival of Maroua; without forgetting the traditional parties of certain number of sultanates and chieftainships of the region of Kousseri, Mora and Mokolo, etc.