Her good husband, also showed me a place where
we could buy Cameroonian beer. Here, I drank three bottles of Castle at $20
each. I enjoyed it very much. Why do we go far and the things that were so near
and not meaningful become so beautiful, and why do I miss these things and
people so much?
This was just the beginning, but later, I ate fufu and njama
njama, and now I can feel the food, especially my origin - Tangmbo.
I know the people in Douala would be excited to join me here if
they had the opportunity, also those from Tabenken. If I can’t bring Tabenken
to Alberta, I will take Alberta to Tabenken – this has always been my ideology.
Now, back to the important issue: I want to talk about our
beautiful compound in Kieku. What is beautiful about the compound is not the
nature of the buildings, although our house in Kieku would be rated above many
others here. But comparison is foolishness. What I am thinking of is my navel –
it was buried under a stone to the right of our old kitchen. The grass kitchen
is no longer there, but its structure and all the cabinets inside are still in
my mind. Our old kitchen door faced to the north, and to the east, just to the
right of the kitchen door, was my navel buried in the ground when I was born.
This
is the symbolic point of connection I have with the whole cosmos. That is the
sacred space. The holy place. The holy compound. There is no other one like
that on earth for me. Although the navel, alive, is still in my abdomen, the
symbolic or sacramental connection remains important to me.
The Wimbum knew that the root of any human being, which connects
them to the whole of creation, was the navel. That’s why this ritual was
performed, and I wonder about the wisdom of my great-grand Wimbum ancestors.
They knew that from your roots, the navel, things proceed to the heart. Not the
biological heart, but the heart where emotions – love, hatred, anger, etc. –
arise. They knew that essence or being begins at the navel and is linked to
everything. That’s why they buried it beneath the earth – so interesting. The
only advice my mother gave about the heart was to keep it open when she saw me
showing hatred.
From the heart, it proceeds to the head or mind – the wanderer,
the portion of us confused by the foreigner, the part of us that eats from the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge is necessary but also very evil. What
you focus on grows, so guard your mind from unproductive thoughts
I remember that our parents had very stable marriages. Each time
they brought a new bride (ngwagu), they would shave all her hair and bury it in
the ground. This is tradition and Wimbum wisdom. They would shave the wanderer,
the head or mind and bury it - sacrament. The bride has come, and with this
symbolic sacrament, she would remain in her matrimony forever.
What do those
Wimbum who desire lasting love think about this? Have they done so? Even if
you’re not Wimbum, and not the hypocrite trained by religion with ideals that
can’t be achieved, keeping people hypocritical, lusting, angry, or hating, and
saying these sins will be forgiven, you might still reflect on this.
Our grandparents knew that by burying our navels in the earth, we
would be linked to the whole of creation. Anything that comes to us comes from
creation, and anything we do affects the whole of creation. If we hate, lust,
love, etc it affects everything. God is Love! Creation is love! Love can’t come
to me except from the whole of creation. Now, everything has become artificial
because we have forgotten the roots of our bodies, the center and our origin,
with everyone desiring love but not truly loving. We protect our heads, our
professions, our accomplishments(ego), because we know that if we truly love,
something will happen because we can’t protect ourselves from what will happen
if we fall truly in love. That’s why it is said that to truly love is
blindness, is foolishness. Yet, everyone moves in their heads, desiring love,
talking about love, but not loving. They are marring and separating but creation
that is love has never separated. They are not becoming one with love, not
becoming one with creation.
Tfurndabi
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