Fantasia

This weekend the lamido of Ngaoundéré celebrates the 13th anniversary of his reign as Muslim king of Adamaoua, our province. Idunn, Trude the missionary, Kristin the missionary kid, Thomas the new volunteer, his father and I went to town to watch the fantasia, a spectacular event which is quite hard to explain with words.

There were men riding horses decorated with colourful clothes, people in traditional outfits carrying spears, knifes and guns hailing the lamido, women dancing to the music from at least two different bands playing different songs at the same time, and a lot of people watching.

It felt a bit like being far, far away from modern civilization, as even the main language had changed from French to Fulani, even though we were still in the middle of town. In everyday life, my friends in town do not live so differently from any other modern person, but it is on occations like this I fully realize that Africa is different.

Different, not only as in dark skinned people, dusty roads, food, language or poverty. Different also in the sense of a rich culture developed in way other circumstances. Full of history, music, habits and interesting people. A culture worth experiencing.