Wimbum Wisdom and Symbolism

Why would I go so far away and start talking about what is so near, and people aren’t taking it seriously? Where did Wimbum great-grandfathers get all this wisdom from, considering they didn’t go to school? Now, I am sitting in Alberta-Canada, about 11,033 kilometers from Cameroon. I still have memory of my arrival and I was fortunate enough to meet my sister, Amike, and her husband, Shey. Everything I ate and drank here was strange at the beginning. I couldn’t feel what I was eating until one day when Amike prepared water fufu and eru. I kept enough of it to eat for a week and truly enjoyed it/entered into the joy of it. This dish was far away from Tabenken, which I had only started eating while in Douala. I can never forget this experience, and I shall remain forever grateful to my sister, Amike.

 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