Granddaughter of a queen?
My grandmother, Maveun Tawa III, was the king’s sister and her role was just as important as the king’s.
How is it?
I come from a region, western Cameroon, Grassland, where female lineage is very important.
What do you remember about your grandmother?
My grandmother was very strong, very dignified, but above all very free. She chose her husbands, she had quite a few. At that time in general women were very free, not like now.
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All my aunts have different fathers. Mothers were the ones who sustained everything. In Cameroon, everything that gives life, mother earth, women, is highly respected.
And what happened to that?
Colonization and modernity have changed us, but the descendants of kings are the custodians of a centuries-old tradition.
how does it
We maintain traditions through the Jean Félicien Gacha Foundation, from not forgetting respect for elders to the conservation of our crafts and the boost of local economic activity; ancestral practices in every sense.
You are dressed in that sacred art.
Each of these ornaments has a meaning and also the designs of the royal fabrics, the ndop, I have written a couple of books about this. We have to preserve all this wealth and we have workshops to train young people.
Traditions that are almost lost?
There came a time when everything that was being sold as African fashion was not, it didn’t represent us at all, poor quality, poorly stitched fabrics that had nothing to do with what I knew.
And he started designing and teaching.
Because we have some extraordinary fabrics throughout Africa, but curiously the ones who ended up printing supposed African fabrics and making clothes were the Dutch and they had nothing to do with reality, with the soft cottons of Ethiopia, the dyes of Cameroon; in Africa there are incredible designs and fabrics.
Did Africans wear those Dutch designs too?
Yes, we were their market and the kids grew up with it and forgot the original quality and beauty. The poor, apart from being poor, had to buy things that came from outside, it was a regrettable economic policy.
Tell me stories about necklaces.
They represent values ??and wealth but not material, they are like medals, you can know the importance of a person through the necklace they wear, and also which secret society they belong to.
Secret societies in Cameroon?
There are many things that are not usually explained or disclosed, you have to be an insider. There are African beliefs that can be complicated to understand.
Is animism still valid?
It is underlying, we believe that behind every being or phenomenon there is a spirit that communicates with us, we just need to listen to it.
Has it happened to you?
I remember that when my mother was very ill and I was watching over her with a Bible in my hands, a mosquito landed on her.
And it didn’t crush him?
No, I asked him if he wanted to tell me something, and then he settled on a sentence that said: “Don’t be afraid of anything, trust, everything will be fine.” We believe and live all this, we always listen to nature.
Do they talk to trees and rivers?
Yes, and they answer you. One day, as usual, I went to the market with my husband. When we got home I saw a book on the table in the living room and I opened it, there was a message for me: “Stop eating meat because they are corpses”, I read in it.
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I went back to the kitchen and noticed the smell of a corpse, threw all the meat away and never tasted it again.
Is the Western vision of Africa poor?
In general you did not understand anything. Africa is a large continent with very different cultures but capable of giving a lot to the world, and the West, instead of taking what it needs from our countries, should learn to ask.
A complex relationship.
We are very generous, we give what we have, we are not materialistic and we end up very thin.
Can poverty be alleviated through culture?
It is one of my intentions, African fashion and contemporary art are increasingly sought after.
The health infrastructure is precarious.
For this reason, in addition to educational activities, I cooperate with hospitals, universities and local and international institutions to improve living conditions and access to health resources, which in rural areas are limited.
