The Bafaws
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Bafaw community has for the past years organised cultural jamborees in the ten villages that make up the clan to uphold their cultural heritage. This year, the cultural group has decided to hold this great event in the nation's capital to better sell their image to the national and international communities. The Grand Bafaw Cultural Festival to hold at the Younde Conference Centre from August 20-21 aims at showcasing the rich cultural diversity and dynamism of the people of Bafaw.
Speaking at a press conference to announce the event, the General Coordinator, Mrs Lydia B.Efimba, said it is a custom, period of stock taking, feasting and above all an occasion to attract and promote cultural tourism as well as boost economic exchanges. The festival will hold under the theme, "The Bafaw in Unity and Development". To Dr. Col. Ashu Balimba, adviser to the Bafaw Cultural and Development Association, BAFCUDA, unity is engrained in the fabric of the Bafaw people. Before independence, one of the shining stars of Cameroon's Independence and Reunification who fought with logic and steadmanship was a paramount chief of Bafaw, he said.
To further justify the theme, he said the community is blessed with fertile land and is the first to get involved in large scale cocoa farming. They further moved from cocoa to rubber and to coffee and timber exploitation, he continued. By so doing, the Bafaws have and are still contributing enormously to the development of Cameroon, Col. Ashu concluded. At a time of strife in Cameroon, the Bafaw people played the role of "trouble shooters", the General Coordinator corroborated. However, the plight of the Bafaw people like others in the different corners of the country is to see the area better developed. "As Oliver twist who asked for more, our wish is to see more roads constructed in this part of the country", she underlined.
For two days, a lot on Bafaw cultural heritage will be on the spot light. They include; an exhibition of the Bafaw artefacts, their past in music in all its forms; traditional, choral and modern. Theatrical display by the Dramatist, Victor Elame Musinga, of the famous Musinga Drama Group International, and a display of traditional dishes.
The Bafaws, a Bantu people, covering a total area of 247.8 square kilometres, found in the 10 villages of North Kumba, Meme Division, in the South West Region of Cameroon, have a rich culture that is fast being windswept, and need urgent revival, reason for a grand cultural jamboree.
Labels: Bafaws, Cameroon Culture
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 3:10 PM,
0 Comments:
Post a Comment