Foumban and the Nguon Festival

Sultan's Palace in Foumban, West region, Cameroon.

Foumban is a village that is well known for its culture and history and it is the home of the Bamoun people. It is located one and a half hours away from Bafoussam, the headquarters of the West region, near Lake Monoun. Although I have visited Foumban before I had never been there during a festival of such magnitude or significance. The Nguon Festival only happens once every few years and it attracts people from all over the world. Nguon is the name of a buzzing insect as well as the name of the group of people who are said to bring the insects and commence the festival.

There were many volunteers there at the festival and we all stayed at the houses of the two volunteers who live in Foumban. I arrived a day early and helped Josh and Logan prepare for the other volunteers. Then Josh suggested that I should do the palace tour and museum before the festival really started because there would be too many people once the festival began. So, we went to see the Palace.

The Sultan's Palace was built around the same time as the German colonization of Cameroon. The sultan at the time had the palace constructed in the German style but included some features of his own, like pipes that connect the first and second floors for the transportation of wine between the two. The sultan uses the palace for meetings and audiences and he has a separate house on the compound in which he actually lives. The wall of the courtyard in the palace compound are painted with scenes from the history of the Bamoun people and a chronological list of all of the sultans and how long they reigned. There have been nineteen sultans, two of whom were women. One of the women was only sultan for thirty minutes. This happened because her son was not in the direct lineage and she had to sit on the throne in order to reestablish the line before her son could become sultan rightfully.

Part of the list of Foumban's Sultans, showing the Sultan that ruled for 30 minutes.

Josh and I paid our entrance fees to the museum and to the traditional drum of the Bamoun. The museum is located in one wing of the palace on the second floor but the drum is located across the street near the mosque so we would have to see that afterwards. The museum has artifacts of the Bamoun people that have been collected and stored by the sultans. The first sultan to start collecting these artifacts was the grandfather of the current sultan. He wanted to keep and preserve the culture of his people. So, he kept ceremonial robes, crafts, headdresses, and ceremonial cups and weapons and put them on display in the museum. The items are mostly too old to be used anymore but the ones that are not yet too old are only taken out to be used for very special ceremonies, like when there is a new sultan or a sultan's funeral. The same sultan also invented the written form of the Bamoun dialect in order to preserve the language. At first he wanted to have a symbol for each word but then decided to simplify it and made a symbol for each sound instead. He simplified it because he wanted the language to be accessible to all of his people. Twins are seen as very special and so when there are twins born in the community they are sent to live at the palace where they are raised and the sultan hand picks brides or grooms for them who are influential and wealthy. I will say that I can not be one hundred percent positive with all of this because the tour guide only spoke French. So, this is my rough translation of the types of thing he was saying.

Bamoun drum.

After the tour of the museum there were some musicians set up just outside and they played some traditional Bamoun music for us. They used many of the traditional instruments that we had seen inside the museum. When they were done we gave them some money for playing and then I bought two of their CDs. Then we went across the  street to see the drum. The drum is a cylinder that lays on its side and is over ten feet long and about six feet in diameter. The Bamoun people traditionally use this drum to call everyone together in times of war. This means that the drum is never used unless something very important is happening and everyone's presents is needed.

Over the course of the weekend, there were fantasias, artisanal craft markets, and a large trade fair. Fantasias are spectacles in which riders perform with trained horses that are dressed with ribbons of colorful tassels. The riders perform tricks, stunts, and choreographed patterns with other riders, often with staffs and swords, or other weapons. The artisanal markets are usually held in one quarter of the town but for the festival the vendors moved into the main squares of the town. They had jewelry, carvings, statues, and many other arts and crafts. The trade fair also had many crafts as well as booths with new products, Cameroonian products, merchandise from around the world, and local Cameroonian foods. There was also a stage where concerts and beauty pageants were held. The other volunteers and I often spent our evenings around the trade fair. We would have dinner and then hang out talking and dancing to the music. The trade fair would open for the day in the early afternoon and wouldn't close until three in the morning.

The Nguon Festival was celebrated during the week of November 2nd, 2014 and most of the major events and spectacles were held that weekend, the 6th to the 9th. It was a lot of fun and it was interesting to see a festival that is so rich in culture and history. The Bamoun people are proud of their culture and are working hard to preserve it for future generations.

The scale model for the new museum location and building.

The museum will be moved into this building rather than being part of the Sultan's Palace. The location is still within the palace compound though. The building will be in the shape of the Bamoun People's traditional symbol. It is a snake with a second head rather than a tail. This is a symbol of how no enemy can attack the Bamoun because the Sultan sees the enemies in front of him and behind him. Then inside the ring that the snake's body makes is a spider which is a sign of intelligence.