The Bassa, a Bantu people living in Cameroon, bring many traditions to life, whether artistic, culinary… or mortuary. In Mondoblog Audio, Ecclesiastes Deudjui tells us about the course of a traditional burial in Bassa country.
« It was the first time I had attended a funeral organized there at the Bassa’s. “says the Mondoblogueur. From the lifting of the body to the burial, including meals and ceremonies, Ecclesiastes Deudjui shares all of the experience he witnessed in Ngambè, Cameroon.
© Ecclesiastes Deudjui
Mondoblog audio – Ecclesiastes Deudjui on mourning Bassa
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Assiko and Mbongo Tchobi dancers
According to custom, during this special day, the tribe of the deceased prepares a vast banquet where the culinary specialties of the people mingle, and where it is essential to consume everything. ” On the menu, there was the Bassa okok, the mongbo tchobi and rice with tomato sauce », Explains the Cameroonian. The atmosphere is full of joy: the jokes fly and people laugh heartily. We even let ourselves be carried away by the dance: Ecclesiastes remembers the young assiko dancers, all members of the same siblings, who demonstrated their talent by carrying filled racks thanks to the strength of their jaws.
Traditional Assiko dance – Youtube (via Infos 267 News)
To die is to be reborn elsewhere
The blogger also remembers a traditional rite, called the ceremony of yegha’mbott (or literally ” look for the founder »). « All the children, sons and daughters as well as all the grandchildren of the illustrious deceased, began to dance with a crown of roses on their heads. “, he says. For the bassa, to die is to be reborn elsewhere. ” Some climbed onto the roof of the house, and they threw bunches of bananas and pieces of meat at their cousins and brothers who had remained dancing on the ground. They explained to me that this whole trance was a kind of spiritual communion, and that the children of the deceased were looking for the missing person. »
@doualatour Scene of mourning in Bassa’a country. This is the yegha’mbott. #low #grief #interment ♬ original sound – Ecclesiastes Deudjui
Under the priest’s preaching in the Bassa language, the coffin was then placed in the tomb. ” They broke his stained glass window and dumped a whole bag of salt on the corpse’s robe. Then they removed the body from its coffin to bury it in an earthen sub-drawer dug for this purpose, with the aim of protecting it from possible mystical profaners of tombs. “Explains Ecclesiastes, who runs the “Blog des camerounaiseries”.