Skip to main content


Ngarum Culture exhibited: Leinyuy is fed with staple diet during perpetual vows into convent


By Mildred Ndum Wung Kum

The culture of the people of Ngarum has been portrayed at festivities marking the final profession of a candidate for the religious sisterhood.

 Immaculte Leinyuy made perpet
ual vows into the congregation of the Holy Union Sisters on October 19, 2019 during a pontifical Holy Mass presided by Bishop Michael Bibi, the auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda Archdiocese Cameroon. The culture was exhibited at St Paul Catholic Church Nkwen during outdoor meriments that added colour to the event. A group of five women dressed in blouses over loinclothes processed in traditional song and dance to the foot of the rostrum in a hall where Sister Immaculte and other religious were sitting ready to receive them.


Sisters eating cocoyam mash and cow pea soup from leaves. Right:Sr Rosemary, left:Sr Immaculate

One of the women were carrying a basket on the head. As they danced up, they spoke a few words in the mother tongue and then opened the basket, washed their hands, took out mash and some vegetable soup which was in the basket.

They served the food in cut pieces of plantain leaves to Leinyuy and all the religious women who were sitting with her. It looked like drama but it was real.

All guests were cranning to the scene. I saw  a guest smiled and then murtered something like " this is the custom of our culture being done here".

After feeding the jubilarian, the women danced back to their sitting positions

"I was feeding my daughter as I used to feed her when she was a child.  The food was cow pea soup and pounded cocoyams. It is the food she cherishes. In our culture when someone has a ceremony like being marreid off or during the coronation of a fon, we feed the person in the same fashion we always feed a child. We give water to drink and we give the food liked most. That's our culture.   In Ngarum culture when a woman gives birth, she is fed too" Iata Nieh, grandmother of Elizabeth told Info Trends.

By feeding somebody who is going on a journey or an adventure, we feel that the person won't feel hungry no matter the situation out there. "He/she would always remember this and never feel bad" added another lady

The basket that was used to carry the food was a source of attraction and a point of culture. The basket is important. We put food in it and cover it. In the past there were no pans. We used traditional bowls carved from wood and we used leaves to hold food or to serve food. Mostly baskets were available in the past. The basket is weaved from fibres gotten from the raffia. We also used calabashes. You wash your hands with water from a Calabash and you eat" Angelica Maujuh mother of Immaculate said.

Many onlookers gazed the showcased culture with awe. The aspect of feeding one of theirs was a thriller and a demonstration of a united spiritedness for a family member.

This culture is just one of many rewarding cultural practices in Ngarum.

To fulfil this culture cocoyam leaves and corn fufu, corn fufu and huckleberry are other alternative diets.

 Ngarum is a village in Ndu Sub division, Donga Mantung Division of the North West region Cameroon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Editor's Picks

THE ROLE CATHOLIC CLERGY AND LAITY PLAYED IN ANNOUNCED NATIONAL DIALOGUE

Priests and Bishops pose for pictures at 67th BAPEC session Cameroon’s president Paul Biya announced a major national dialogue to commence as from the end of this month.  The announcement came in a speech which he addressed to the nation hinged on the throes of the socio political crisis that has gripped the North West and South West region. It is barely a week since the national dialogue was announced and the topic is animating public debates. It is however time to give credit to the clerics and the laity of the Holy Mother Church the for role played in paving the path of dialogue Since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis, the priests, the bishops, the religious and other leaders of the church have often echoed and re-echoed that only profound and meaningful dialogue can bring solution to the problems plaguing the North West and South West regions of Cameroon. In fact memories of 29-Dec-2016 are still fresh, the date when bishops of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conf...
5 comments
Read more
AT PALLIUM INVESTITURE PAROLIN ENTASKS ALL TO PEACE   By Mildred Ndum Wung Kum The mission to hand the pallium in Bamenda was blended with a mission of peace, dialogue and reconciliation. Pietro Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of States of the Vatican and Pope’s envoy on errand to place the pallium on the shoulders of Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea accomplished his task while also calling on an end to violence affecting Bamenda. He prescribed vigilance and serenity insisting that dialogue should be pursued in place of violence. Pietro Cardinal Parolin at St Joseph Piazza Bamenda Pietro Parolin was principal celebrant of a pontifical High Mass to mark the pallium investiture on January 31, 2021 at the St Joseph Centenary Piazza in Bamenda.  He acknowledged that Bamenda is being shattered by division and rioting. His message of none violence in relation to a socio political crisis plaguing Bamenda fell on a heterogonous audience “we are all responsible for peace. All the actors ...
3 comments
Read more
Farewell Mass to His Excellency Julio Murat, Outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea By Mildred Ndum Wung Kum   A farewell Mass to outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea Julio Murat took place at Our Lady of Victory Cathedral Yaounde with all bishops of Cameroon present.  His Grace Andrew Nkea, president of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon who featured in the Mass as main celebrant and homilist was grateful for the time spent by His Grace Julio Murat in Cameroon. Archbishop Andrew Nkea reflected on the qualities of a good shepherd, pointing to Jesus as the good shepherd who served mankind with love and humility. The national Episcopal Conference of Cameroon handed gifts of a chasuble and a statue of Mary to Julio Murat. They wished him well as he continues his ministry. The outgoing Nuncio was expressed thanks for the fraternity shared in Cameroon and the graces received.  Present at the Mass were lay Christians, ...
Post a Comment
Read more