OUR TRADITIONAL REGALIA IN DANGER

Any ethnic group which only seeks to preserve without asserting its cultural values and practices risks loosing its cultural identity altogether. Here, I will be talking about the gradual and steady prostitution of our traditional gowns and caps. Change is part of human life and in fashion too, we live its evolution through the years. Change can be intolerant e.g. with the wearing of mini–skirts, while a British Minister could admire his female secretary’s legs, (each time she streamed into the office), many people were against the attire. Good enough, magistrate Savge in Victoria (today Limbe) once ordered the arrest of women shabbily dressed, with their thighs exposed. I congratulate him for that. In the North West Region of Cameroon, the wearing of traditional gowns and caps, follow specific patterns as prescribed by specific traditions. The colour and design of each traditional regalia help to identify the position held by each person who uses any of them. The designs vary the traditions of ethnic groups. The “Nfuh” society in Nso and Mbum, the Kwifor society in Ngemba have their types. The black small fibre caps “Lantong” which are highly respected in the West Region too and which the Littoral traditional rulers are adapting with ease are the free–for–all type. Until recently, special traditional regalia were never sold in the common market. They were acquired on special orders and circulated strictly within the traditional society. Today the untameable quest for money has prostituted our tradition. The caps and gowns are sold and used anyhow. This common use can no longer easily identify a traditional ruler on sight in any part of the Region as was the case with Foncha who distinguished himself (as a Bamenda chief at the UN) in a well embroidered traditional gown, a specially designed cap and a walking stick. The hair saloons do a marvellous job to our girls and women, giving a finishing touch to the crown the Almighty gave them. I love their hair–do–styles which change almost daily. It is evolution. But imagine a beautiful girl or woman dressed in a “Wifa’s” gown and a “Nformi’s” red–feathered-cap. It’s intolerable. During the Pope’s visit to Cameroon, our women dressed in heavy traditional attire dancing as if they were going to a “Nfuh” house. Even in the North West, you find young girls parading in front of traditional rulers in traditional regalia. How protected is our culture! What I mean here is that these women have come too near into the men’s “eighteen.” I hate to wear the Scottish skirt or the Kaba Ngondo. Men tolerate their wearing of trousers, shirts, cowboy’s hat, Hausa gowns and Senegalese suits. I wish to warn here that they have gone to far. As soon as women start wearing the two aprons that go with the traditional gown and cap, we shall explode. Fortunately, animal horns are too heavy for them to carry. We must start addressing this issue seriously in order to preserve our rich and time–tested tradition. So women, leave the wearing of traditional gowns and caps to the men. Do not help to degenerate a tradition which identifies itself with our very being.