Ernest Sumelong
5 May 2008
Akwaya has almost become a hell, dead end or nightmare to those who have gone there. It is cut off from the rest of the country by road; it has no electricity, no TV or radio signals, no telephone network.
Akwaya people find it difficult trading within Cameroon and are sometimes forced to use the Nigerian Naira instead of the FCFA. A team leader of a Limbe based NGO, EMPOWERMENT, Divine Ewane, who has worked in the area in collaboration with the Social Welfare Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Mamfe paints a bleak picture of the war between the Olitis and the Yves and says it might escalate if nothing is done.
You are the team leader of EMPOWERMENT, a Limbe-based NGO, working with the Social Welfare Commission of the Diocese of Mamfe and your focus is on early marriages, especially in Akwaya. Could you tell us about your activities in the area?
Let me first of all define early marriage as it obtains there. It is a situation that is common in many parts in Mamfe, especially Akwaya, whereby children are betrothed to old men or even women while they are one year old or when their mothers still bear them in the womb. These men or women are those who can pay some money probably to solve some family problem.
Early marriage is a very big problem and it is one of the main causes of under-scholarisation of girls in Akwaya. What we notice in the field is that when the already betrothed child gets mature, the husband requests that she comes to his house and so the parents have to stop the child's education.
In most cases we have investigated, the husband instructs the girl's parents to stop her education. It has been hindering development in the area a lot. In one of the workshops we organised, some people told me that some villages do not have a single girl with the Advanced Level.
You said most of these girls get married early. At what age do their husbands take them and when do they start bearing children?
What happens is that the girl's parents may run into trouble, either the father is sick or something and they don't have money to go to the hospital, but the wife may be pregnant and they know that they are expecting a girl child. They would borrow money from somebody on the agreement that when that child is born it would now be that man's wife.
After that initial amount of money, the man continues to bring other things like goats, chicken, etc. Then when the child is about five years old the man would request that his wife should come to him. The man's intention would be that from that early age the girl would become used to him and when she is mature she would assume her role as wife.
At times the girl may go in as the second or third wife when the man already has children. I must say there are two kinds of marriages happening there; there is one they call the "njumba" marriage and the "money woman" marriage. In the "njumba" marriage, a man could marry a woman and have children and because he did not dowry the woman the children he has with the woman do not belong to him.
The children are considered to belong to the woman's family. If those children are girls, it is the woman's uncles or brothers who can give them out for marriage. So, some people, because they might not have had the money to engage in marriage, first start with "njumba" and when they beget children,
they may now work alongside their wife to raise money and do what they now call the "money woman" marriage. So, any child they get after the "money woman" marriage will be considered to be the legitimate children. Most of the arrangements in these marriages are largely polygamous.
You mentioned that young girls also get married to older women; how does this happen and how do the women consider these girls?
It is a very strange phenomenon that I observed. There are two phases of it; there is a situation where a woman marries another woman in anticipation that the son would like the woman when he grows up and eventually marry her. But most of the cases that came to me, the sons did not like the choices of their mothers, yet the mothers continued paying the dowry just to keep the woman.
They do this because even if the woman gets children out of wedlock the children would belong to them. There was another pathetic case I witnessed; there was a particular woman who paid dowry for a girl but refused to give out this girl to one of her relatives who wanted to marry her even when the community insisted that she should do so.
Even when the girl got fed up and abandoned her house, she continued to consider the girl as hers since she had paid the bride price. There girls are used more or less like commodities.
Are there schools in Akwaya and what level of schools are they?
There are schools in Akwaya. When I went there, I met many schools; both government and Catholic Mission schools. There are also secondary general and technical secondary schools.
Are you saying that most girls in Akwaya do not go far in education?
Yes, most girls, especially in some particular tribes do not attend school because not all the tribes in Akwaya still have this practice. But this practice is common with the Olitis, the Yves, the Assumbos and the Becheves.
Most girls in these areas do not go to school. However, there are isolated cases of girls in Akwaya who are degree holders. I am saying that the number of girls that attend school as compared to the number born is so low. For 40 cases of girls I investigated, only one had reached Form Two in secondary school. This is to tell you how serious the problem is.
How much has the church done, through the Social Welfare Commission, to remedy the situation and how better is it now?
The church has done a lot. When Rev Father Leonard Ekwelle arrived there and saw the situation, it was so unbearable. He started sensitising the people; he informed me on the issue and I wrote many newspaper articles on it. We sought the assistance of some well-wishers and repaid the dowry of some of those girls and freed them.
Those can go to school; the church has helped them to go back to school. That is what the church did initially. Now, we are looking at a broader level of sensitisation, bringing together the various stakeholders, including the chiefs, local administrative officials and the victims etc, to come and discuss the issue.
We think that it is a cultural issue. So, we have had this broad sensitisation that brought together many people that led to the formation of the Synergy for Akwaya Development. This synergy is the network of several "njangi" groups of various tribes, church groups, various traditional councils and some administrative departments, which want to fight early marriages, "njumba" marriages, HIV/AIDS and also to develop Akwaya.
How long has the church been doing this and how much fruit has the church's efforts yielded?
The church has been doing this since 2005 and there are about 20 girls that have been released. We are also widening the sensitisation campaign with put up posters. We are preparing a film on early marriages, a movie that would touch people. We are forming clubs in various schools in Akwaya to touch on the various aspects of early marriages.
During public holidays and national days, we take the opportunity to sensitise the people on the consequences of early marriages. We also move from one church house to another and from one "njangi" house to the other to sensitise the people. Because one of the underlying causes of the practice is poverty we are trying to assist the parents or some people who can take care of these victims.
We empower them to engage in cash crop cultivation so that they can take the responsibility of sending their children to school.
One of the main problems of Akwaya is said to be its enclaved nature. Just how enclaved is Akwaya and what are the basic amenities they lack?
I think I should make bold to say that Akwaya is a scar in the conscience of the nations. You cannot imagine that to go to one part of the country you have to go through immigration four times. That is not just all. The road situation is very very bad. Presently, between Mamfe and Ekok is like cut off.
I paid FCFA 12,000 to a motorcycle rider to transport me from Ekok to Mamfe because small vehicles cannot do it. That is just a tip of the iceberg. In Akwaya the situation is worse; the roads are steep and stony and vehicles have to pass through deep wide streams. If the streams get to chest level and there is a bike to cross, four people would be called to carry it on the heads and cross with it. Again, trade with Cameroon is very difficult.
Also, there is no electricity, no TV signals in Akwaya. The people of Akwaya are cut off from communication, since they neither have the MTN nor the Orange networks. However, Akwaya has two health centres; one run by government and one run by the mission, and pipe borne water.
What currency do they use?
They use both the franc CFA and the naira. The Akwaya people prefer to use the CFA but they are compelled to trade in Naira. At times they find out when it is advantageous for them to use which.
We have been told of a conflict in Akwaya. Is there actually a war between the Olitis and the Yves and how serious is it? Is anybody dead or is there destruction of property?
Yes, there is a war between the Olitis and the Yves. I cannot tell how many have died because it is difficult to get correct information in the area because of a lot of rumour peddling. But the Yve village has been deserted and its occupants have fled and are taking refuge in other villages.
I have not witnessed any loss of lives but when passing through Akwaya, I saw the village of Lagos completely devastated. While also in Akwaya town, I was shown two kids that were shot and I saw the bullet wounds. Also, I saw a lot of arms in the town. One night when the people were expecting an attack I saw about ten different groups of five and ten boys carrying arms.
There are lots of arms in Akwaya. You know I didn't go to Akwaya to report on the war but what I saw appalled me. One day, I saw some boys all carrying about three guns each and one told me they bought them from Nigeria at 6,000 naira each. Since there is the absence of communication means in Akwaya there is a lot of rumour mongering. So, this rumour constitutes a large part of the problem. It causes the people to constantly live in fear.
What are the authorities there doing to calm the situation?
It is difficult for me to say because the authorities are caught up in a kind of situation since the animosity is so deep and there are very few law enforcement officers. Even if the law enforcement officers were increased, that would not be the solution to the problem.
What are the chances that peace might return to Akwaya?
For peace to return to Akwaya, government has to work together with non governmental organisations and particularly the church to calm the situation of hostility. At the end of hostility, they would now bring in the government force that would ensure confidence, because part of the problem is that the people are not quite confident because even if you broker peace and ensure the end of hostility, the people are still worried that the other may attack.
So, government force needs to be stationed there for sometime as a confidence-building measure. Then, people who have been displaced have to be brought back so that the due process of reconciliation starts. Also, the crimes that have been committed need to be investigated and even the initial causes of the war.
Also, Akwaya needs to be transformed into a Division of its own because I see that that is part of the problem. Akwaya is so remote and has just a DO, who has to go to the SDO in Mamfe to look for support and it is not easy for that type of support to come.
Akwaya needs to be transformed into a Division because authorities on the ground can take decisions and communicate directly with Buea rather than pass through Mamfe all the time, waiting for long while people continue to suffer.
We hear that thousands of people have been displaced, how true is it?
Most of the Yve people have fled their village, but it is difficult for me to give facts in relation to numbers since there is a lot of rumour mongering. But one of the things I was told was that there is no Yve village left. Somebody said that even the church and the school that were remaining there have been demolished.
Even the Olitis do not feel safe because they are always protecting their area for fear of a counter attack. This makes the food situation in Akwaya very precarious because people are not farming properly.
Presently, food prices have skyrocketed and probably next year there would not be food in Akwaya because when three people go to the farm, while the woman is working, two people stand with their guns to forestall any attack. With the present situation no real development can take place.
It seems like the church is now the only hope for peace to return to Akwaya.
No, the church is not the only hope. I must say the government has been doing much. The DO has always been going to Mamfe to get the administration to intervene, and the mayor too had been making efforts to get the administration to intervene. The gendarmerie and the police have also been wonderful; they are always on the alert, working 24 hours to make sure the situation is under control.
In your estimation, what would be the situation of the warring tribes and the surrounding communities in the near future?
It would be very dangerous. The situation might escalate if nothing is done. Now consider this scenario; some of the Yve guys are in Assumbo and the so-called Nigerian allies attack and kill an Assumbo man, then the Assumbos who have been giving the Yve refuge may either send them away or start fighting them.
The Olitis are in the majority and are armed. But the worse scenario is when a Becheve man is killed; it means they will also enter the war. The Becheve people have more relatives in Nigeria who may supply them more arms.
The Tivy people who are said to be helping the Yve are from Benue State and the Becheves who are close to the Olitis are from the Cross River State. So, it may not be a war between two tribes in Cameroon, but a war where two states in Nigeria are fighting and that could be very dangerous for Cameroon and Nigeria.
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Can i please have the address of the NGO group that is taking care of the Akwaya people?. I will like to thank these people for their effort in this region and the country as a whole.