When tradition clashes with administration

To implement the rule of law and eliminate certain inadmissible cultures, the administration is increasingly “interfering” in traditional practices

Before now, the kinsmen or some group of people in every culture in Cameroon had the full autonomy to choose, sometimes “in collaboration with their gods or ancestors”, their rulers, their queen mother, etc. They also reserved the total rights to sack and exile or even molest or kill anyone of them who failed to respect the rules.

But, increasingly, the rule of law and globalization and modernity are greatly turning things around. It does not suffice today to molest or kill exile, sack or choose some person simply because the gods or the ancestors said so.

Sadly, conflicts between the administration, who go by the rule of law and modernity and globalization or even by some interest, and the traditionalists, who hold firm to the spirits of their lands, have sometimes burst into sheer animosity and outright antagonism.

Recently, tradition clashed with administration in sop, a remote village in the northwest province of Cameroon. The administration intervened when traditionalists there, with authority from the Fon of Nso, Sen Mbinglo III, took a decision to “sack” their queen mother – “Wirba – accused of witchcraft and having caused untold horror and havoc. A native of that area confirmed she is a witch and has killed people.

But, for the love of his wife, the traditional ruler there took the matter to the gendarmerie in Jakiri and with instructions from the gendarme, the ban on the “Wirba” from coming back to the chiefdom was removed and she was reinstated, against the will of the people. But the Nso fon, who did not welcomed the idea, immediately ordered that the traditional ruler be “washed” of his traditional title and escorted into exile.

Though the whereabouts of the traditional ruler and what he was intending to do was not known it is clear that but he could still be reinstated by the administration if he deems it necessary.

Similarly, an attempt by the administration to impose an exiled ruler on the people of Babanki still in the North West province some two years ago resulted in the brutal killing of the ruler and a chain of court cases and arrests and detentions. Recently too, the installation of an imposed lamido on the people of Sabga met with stiff resistance. In fact such cases are rampant.

Yemti Harry Ndienla Esq
Senior Journalist,
P. 0 Box 494 Buea,
Southwest Province Republic of Cameroon,
West Africa.
Cell; 237 772 52 03
mcyemtih@yahoo.com