The Head ( part 6)

Instead, they held their heads in their hands and started begging their gods, by making sacrifices and other rituals. The gods of my great grand parents were nothing but animals, bird or trees in the forest. And in spite all the many gods that my great grand parents had, they (those gods) were unable to come to the aide of my great grand parents, when they (my great grand parents) needed them and this was very pathetic and disappointing. However, since the God of Christians is always so kind and forgiving, he nevertheless came to the aide of my great grand parents, especially when he saw that, their problems was crumbling them down. In fact, my great grand parents were worshipping Satan the devil, for he has this great unrivalled capacity to disguise himself and make people think that, he is the true God. Satan attracted my great grand parents because; in some occasions, he selected a few people amongst them and bestowed them with powerful super natural or mystical powers. These selected few, had the demonic power to transform things and other objects. It was such powers that, Nyoglifanda had, for he could transform himself into a leopard.

Some selected few could even transform themselves into crocodiles or perform some positive as well as negative things. During my great grand parents period, people or some selected few, chosen by Satan and bestowed with mystical powers could performs things that, today, many people will not believe. But since I know that, this world is governed by Satan, I am equally aware that, he can operate many things. But when the White men came, they brought with them the bible, which is a book that has the teachings of God. But it was first written by men with God’s inspirations and secondly via the teachings of God’s son Jesus Christ. In fact, the book called the bible is divided into two parts: the old and new testaments. As the White men came with their book, which thought us the teachings of God. It was discovered by my great grand parents that, many things written in bible resembled what they already knew and it may explain why, even though they liked to hear the teachings about God’s son called Jesus Christ, they never wanted to abandon their own practices.

My great grand parents continued to have their amulets and continued to practise their rituals, because, they were gods that they could see and speak to directly. My great grand parent’s own gods were not an abstract God, as it is with that of the White men. But as time when by and the White men who came were not leaving but developing tap roots, my great grand parents had a revelation and in that, revelation, the spirits of the great grand parents of my great grand parents informed them that, the strangers who had come into their land won’t leave any more. It also informed them that, the world has changed and their own world was about to change. Hence, it instructed them to follow the teachings of the White men. But the spirit added that, they (my great grand parents) should follow the new teachings of the White men intelligently, for the spirit asked my great grand parents not to make the new teachings which is Christianity, brought by White men act on them like rain water does to palm wine in a calabash. My great grand parents followed to the letter the instructions of the spirits, which were in reality recommendations from their ancestors.

Hence, while they converted into Christianity, they never abandoned their ancestral worship. But my grand parents were not as intelligent as their parents, for they fell into the trap of the White men and abandon their ancestral god and took the new teachings of the White men as theirs. Some became even more zealous than White men. And since they became more zealous, they threw away their amulets, they stopped having shrines and they got baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. As a consequence of my grand parents’ abandonment of their ancestral traditions and worships, they were instantly punished. Some were kidnapped by foreigners and taken to foreign lands.
They could not do any thing because, they had no protections, for they could not transform themselves into trees, snakes, crocodiles to escape or frighten off their aggressors. They were vulnerable since they had become Christians, for they had to pray to the God of the White men not directly as before, but through the son of the God of White men called Jesus Christ. And my grand parents recalled in pains that, although, their parents and great grand parents were not Christians and were therefore not worshipping the God of Christians, brought to us via the White men, they had a far better life. Their country which was Bassa and Bassa Badem land was peaceful. It was not called Cameroon, because Cameroon is the name given to the assemblage of countries that existed on this part of the world by White men. What is Cameroon? It the name of a river call river Wouri.

But since the White men came many raining seasons ago or according to their own counting, in the year 1472. They had large canoes, which were 100 times bigger than that we have always fabricated, and one White man, leading others by name: Fernao do Po from Portugal, decided to call our river, the river of prawns. And from that name, came the name of what is called today Cameroon. But even the White men in all their intelligence, don’t still agree on who discovered and decided to change the way we were living. Some say the year when our river Wouri became known as the river of prawn was in 1440 and those who gave her that sort of name was still a Portuguese. Well, they are arguing on the exact year, but what I can’t understand is that, they are also disputing on whom first reached on our land. Some claim that, it was a Portuguese by name Fernao do Po, while others claim it was another Portuguese with a strange name: Henry the Navigator.

Perhaps his mother knew that, he will like to go to other peoples land, hence she gave him such a name. But the real name of the other man disputing the discovery of Cameroon was: Henrique, Duke of Viseu. It appears Henry the Navigator was just the sponsor of the expeditions or the father. But Henrique, Duke of Viseu was born on March 4th 1394 in Oporto, Portugal. He was a Prince and the third son of King John I, the founder of the Aviz dynasty and of Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt. Henry encouraged his father to conquer Ceuta in 1415, the Muslim port on the North African coast across the strait of Gibraltar from the Iberian peninsular . Rio dos Camaroes or the river of prawns is a funny name, for how is it possible that a county be named after food stuff? And prawns are even small foodstuffs that are eaten by crocodiles and fish in water. Our country was called Bassa and Bassa-badem land and we even allowed the Doualas to stay on our land and we decided to go in land because, the Doualas had no place to go. But I suspect the Doualas brought us these White men, for it appears they liked and followed them like a fly follows rotten beef.

All this I am telling you are what my grand parents told me. But since I am a Christian, I tend to doubt my grand parent’s story about the peacefulness of Bassa-Badem land, as also told them by their own parents. Because I can’t understand how people who did not fear God, the God of those of us who are Christians, can be better than us today, where Christianity has brought civilisation and hope for eternal life. Perhaps my country which I must insist was Bassa and Bassa-badem was best before it was amalgamated by those I have mentioned above and others from Europe, to produce what is today called Cameroon. Perhaps it was best because my great grand parents were receiving the help of our God, the God of Christians and also the help of their god, Satan via the woods and birds and other objects they considered as their god.