Martin Nkematabong
15 September 2008
Over one kilometre of electricity network has been rehabilitated while the government has already disbursed funds for the Bali-Nyongha-Bawock land demarcation project.
An uneasy calm still reigns in Bawock, an indigenous village community at the outskirt of Mezam Division in the North West province, which was heavily crushed by raiders from a neighbouring chiefdom, Bali Nyongha, last year. Bawock was attacked at the dawn of March 3rd 2007 when both villages disagreed on territorial space through which the Bali traditional masquerade, Voma, should display to grace the Bali annual traditional farming ritual. The raiders slaughtered huge cattle head, cleared off plantain, banana, maize and cocoyam farms, set houses and shrines ablaze and pulled down electricity network and public water standpipes. The Bawocks fled their village, took refuge at the esplanade of the North West Governor's residence, public auditoriums and private homes across the province. Students and pupils stayed out of school for several months. On April 2007, the government ordered for the return of the victims, who were escorted in military trucks to Bawock, yoked in classrooms and community halls and promised indemnity and permanent territorial boundary demarcation. Many families, however, did not return. According to the Fon of Bawock, Quoimon Nana Wanda III , over half of approximately 8,000 Bawock population still perches elsewhere. A team of Cameroon Tribune recently visited Bawock and paints the socio-economic reality of the community.
Precarious Economic Conditions
More than 4,000 victims who returned to Bawock after the raid are hardly sure of their daily bread. Most of them have neither barns nor warehouses. "We are unable to replace the crops and animals which were looted", said a local farmer. "We do not have money to rear chicks and piglets which used to be our main source of income. The piece of fertile land on which our women farmed, njengai, has been forcefully occupied by the people of Bali Nyongha. They scare us. We have rather turned to unfertile pieces of land which we never cultivated before. We therefore need inputs such as fertilizers and seedlings in order to take off" the farmer lamented. The village market, which once boomed with buyers and sellers streaming in from neighbouring towns, is now a monument of desertion, for the Bawocks can neither supply nor buy.
The ongoing situation is an outrageous challenge to Bawock manhood. Many families still look up to philanthropists for subsistence, while children continue to drop out of school for lack of basic necessities. "Some of us cannot withstand the challenges," said a village notable, Menkam Feukwai Isaac. "Many Bawock men have lost their manhood; we have been incarcerated by misery and poverty; we do not have any other means to feed and cloth our wives and children; we lack the means to acquire nivaquine tablets for sick children. It's a nightmare!" he noted.
The repercussions of the current economic stress on family life in Bawock are enormous. Many women have simply abandoned their husbands and children in a bid to face life afresh elsewhere. Some have returned to their parents' home, even after 25 years in marriage, and others have sought protection from more buoyant men. "My wife deserted me and the children a few months after we took refuge in one of the community halls," one of the victims recounted. "She could not bear the shame of sharing a bamboo bed with me and the children in an auditorium. I could not provide food for them; I could not copulate with her in front of children and other room mates; we could no longer discuss any family secrets; there was no hope of ever living in our own home; there is no hope for anything; she had to leave" he wept, burying his face in his palms. This situation is just one of a dozen cases. A sizeable population, mostly men, still perch in the community halls. And, there is no sign that they will ever move out of the clammy buildings.
The burden of diseases, including malaria and malnutrition, is on the rise, especially among women and children. Many victims now inhabit the wreckage of their former homes, which pose like effigies of Arabian haunted houses. Most of the homes are still deprived of their roofs, windows and doors. What puzzles the sight most are the mighty fissures craved on the mud-brick walls by the assailants and the tracks of wild fire that consumed the houses from the living rooms to the roofs. "We do not know where to begin," said the former Mayor of Bali Council, Feukwai Limen Peter, who is also a notable in Bawock. "We have no means to purchase plank or zinc. Yet, we have nowhere to go. We are bound to take refuge with our families in the wreckage, infested by mosquitoes, rats, lizards and even snakes. We can no longer hide from rain and storms. We are exposed to a myriad of diseases. But we have no choice," he sobbed.
Water standpipes constructed through community efforts were shattered. The population now relies on spring water from the valleys. The condition gets more critical during the dry season when the springs dry up. Children and adults cover many kilometres to fetch water from other villages. The electricity network was also completely damaged. Public and private institutions, business centres and individual households have been deprived of energy for the past 18 months.
Ancestral Order Upset
Apart from serving as a temple for porcupines and pangolins, the Fon of Bawock's then palace is now a symbol of lost kingdom. The fire consumed totems, ancestral staffs, talisman, and other sacred artifacts which were reserved in the heart of the palace, and purportedly linked the Bawocks to their forefathers. The Bawock believe that their assailants callously put them and their ancestors asunder, an act which could result to untold calamities if the gods are not sufficiently placated.
"The raiders did not only separate us from our ancestral cord, but also stripped us naked of other traditional values," notable Feukwai pointed out. "They carried away our traditional regalia, and rendered us common men. We now wear shirts and trousers to appear on important ceremonial scenes. We are unable to buy those expensive garments anymore. They also burnt memorial photos of our loved ones. Our generations would never know the faces of their grand parents. It's painful .painful in deed ."
But, the Bawock people have not completely lost hope. They still hope that Bawock will sooner or later be shown its official territorial boundaries; that their houses will be reconstructed and their dignity restored; that they will be indemnified for the destruction done on their property; that their assailants will be brought to justice and that peace will once more reign between them and the Bali Nyongha neighbour.
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