Away from Africa

Examples of Duala and Bamileke Matriarchal Authority... and a note from Zimbabwe Nowadays, seen from afar, African women appear to be living in very patriarchal societies for the most part. That impression would often not be incorrect, sadly. An exception could be made for the powerful “Mami Benz,” the traders of West Africa. On the other hand, who knows how the men in their family might be behaving with them, no matter their wealth and power! African women had a recognized authority in the socio-political and economic spaces established by traditional cultures. Cameroon has examples of traditional roles played by women. Some of these roles are still relevant today.   Amongst the Duala, the eldest daughter in a family was known as the Mangon, literally “Mother woman.” Even when she marries into another village community, she continues to play a vital role in the important stages of family life, such as births, marriages, and widowhood. She is the last resort in family disputes...

  Since the end of World War II, Germany has been grappling with the consequences of the Holocaust. Since about ten years, the country has also started facing its colonial history, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Germany started controlling territories in Africa in the 1800s, mostly after the "Scramble for Africa" initiated by Bismarck during the 1884 Berlin Conference, when the continent was divvied up among European countries. Germany annexed territories in present-day Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, and Namibia. After World War I, they lost most of their colonies, which were taken over by France and Great Britain. The Germans were brutal in their rule and committed genocide in Namibia in 1914. Until a few years ago, German city streets often carried the names of German colonizers, such as Petersallee in Berlin, dedicated to Dr. Carl Peters, who set off to start colonizing Eastern Africa in 1884. After the Berlin West Africa Conference, he was named Chairman of the German East-Afr...

The book  The African Dwelling - From Traditional to Western Style Homes (McFarland, 2019) is published, and available in many countries. It is the English-language version of the French-language book De la case à la villa (Riveneuve, 2014). However, it is not a replica: the book has been updated to reflect more current naming methodology, with some updated images, and includes an index. There are still about 200 images, in black and white. The foreword is by Jack Travis, FAIA. It is my hope that this book will be found in universities as well as personal libraries around the world, as a resource on the evolution of housing in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a repository for African terms that may not be easily found anymore. Below is a gallery of additional/color photographs. I'll continue posting color photographs as time goes on. Kain Tukuru home in Bonendalé, Cameroon, built 1953-1954 Entrance to a Bamiléké village, photo courtesy Amélie Essesse ...

The German King  is set in 1914 at the start of World War I in Kamerun (now called Cameroon.) Our hero is Rudolf Manga Bell, the African King of the Duala people. However, their land is under the rule of Germany and after he and his people are pushed too far, he decides to rise up and lead a rebellion. Despite his best efforts, he is eventually captured by the Germans and sacrifices his life for his people. To this day, the people of Cameroon remember Manga Bell as a king, a martyr, and a hero. History has long overshadowed his heroism, our goal is to create a film to honor the man and his legacy.  Help us bring this incredible true story to life.

Julius Essoka After a couple of years on Twitter, I started following--or did he follow me? I don't remember!--@JuliusEssoka, who seemed to be living in Douala, Cameroon, and who was up at all hours, as he'd answer my tweets when it was late evening in New York, but in the wee hours of the night in Cameroon! When I returned to Cameroon in January, I hoped to meet him. He braved the ridiculous traffic jams that are now a mainstay in Douala, to come visit us in our Deido neighborhood. Julius Essoka works for MTN, in communications, by day. By night he is a talented musician. I brought back his CDs and mailed them to another African Twitter friend, Akenaata Hammagaadji, who has a weekly African music program: First World Music  on  @ WVKR . Of course, first I listened to the CDs, and really liked some of the songs. I can't label them--some are Makossa-style, some reminiscent of African-jazzy House Music: it's quite a mix of styles. I interviewed him via email to f...

Having been raised in a multilingual household, and encouraged early on to learn the language of the country I happened to be living in, I planned on learning Duala, my husband's native language (albeit not his mother tongue, as his mother spoke Abo, and taught it to all her children). It turned out to be a different kind of endeavor than in countries which have one main native language, such as Germany or Italy. Anyone could live their whole life in Douala without knowing a single word of Duala. Cameroon boasts about 200 languages, and the official languages are French and English (former mandate administrators). Most Cameroonians speak one of these two languages. Moreover, Douala is now home to members of just about every ethnic group in Cameroon, as it is the commercial capital. The political capital is Yaoundé, further inland; it has about half the population of Douala. Less than a hundred years ago, many Cameroonians (from the southern part) spoke Duala, which was the li...

In daily life: work, parties... Cameroonian men usually wear the same clothing as in Europe, the US, Australia, and much of the Middle East and Asia: shirts, slacks, and so on. Traditionally, however, Duala men wore, and still wear for specific occasions, a large fabric fastened at the waist called a Sandja . Originally, sandja fabric was made of tree bark, beaten till it was fine and soft enough to be draped. In Congo, a woven style of tree bark fabric is still made today, called "Kuba" cloth. There were three different ways of wearing the sandja: Held up at the waist to form short sherwal-type pants*; knee-length; and the ceremonial style, still worn today, full-length. That is the style I saw the most, often called "Sandja Ngondo" because it is worn for the Ngondo celebration (which had not been celebrated for 20 years when I arrived in Cameroon). My first experience of men wearing a sandja was at funerals, when men wore a black velvet cloth, with a white shi...

Some dishes are steamed wrapped in banana leaves—the old-fashioned, eco-friendly, and tasty version of aluminum foil—the Dualas make Ekoki (from the sound of the pestle -  Mboloki - pounding in the mortar - Eboki ) The basic Duala Ekoki is made from ground beans similar to black-eyed peas, mixed with red palm oil. Another version is made with ground corn with Mbaa leaves. Another banana-leaf-wrapped loaf is Ngondo nya Mukon (pronounced Ngonda’Mukon), most often made around the holiday season at year’s end. It is a cake made of ground pumpkin seeds, ground dried shrimp ( Dibanga ), and filled with beef or shrimp, sometimes smoked fish. Wrapped Bekwang with Kiling-Kiling sauce  at Madame Njoh restaurant in Akwa-Nord A Duala leaf-wrapped stew is Suwé nya Dibomba – fish in banana leaves. My personal favorite is Bekwang , ground Makabo (similar to a dense potato) wrapped in leaves, served with a Kiling-Kiling leaf   sauce (slightly slimy, similar to okra). The ...