Cameroonian Profiles: Salihou Bouba

Cameroun, 19 Octobre

Salut,

Moi je m'appele Salihou Bouba et j'ai 19 ans. Je suis Camerounais d'origine. Je vie dans la région du Nord, département du Mayo-Louti plus précisément à Guider. Je suis à l'école de formation (ENIEG/GTTC). Je suis Guidar et la vie est belle chez moi. Tous le monde est respecter même le plus petits et les plus âgés. Le mai traditionnel de chez moi est le zazai. Voulez-vous en savoir plus sur mon pais? Dite mois comment est le votre.

My name is Saihou Bouba and I have 19 years. I am Cameroonian. I live in the North Region, Mayo-Louti Department, and more specifically Guider. I am at the education school. I am Guidar and my life here is beautiful. Everyone is respected, both the young and the old. The traditional recipe for us is zazai. Would you like to know more about my country? Tell me about yours. 

Salihou after basketball pratice

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Important Vocab:

ENIEG - These are training schools for soon-to-be teachers. For would-be teachers, the curriculum for ENIEG students is typically two years long after high school. Graduates can be primary or high school teachers and can be assigned to work wherever the Ministry of Education deems necessary (as is customary for all teachers) throughout their careers. 'Affectation,' as they call it in French, is the process by which government workers (or 'fonctionnaires') are moved throughout the country to work based on the demands of each community. This means that a person from the South can be 'affected' to the North (and vice-versa). Given the drastic differences in climates, cultures, and economies between these two parts of the country, it can be quite difficult for a person to adjust to living in a different area. Think of it as being forced to move from your home in New York City to a town with one stoplight in West Texas because that is your only opportunity for employment!

Guidar - This tribe is the namesake for the town where I am posted (Guider). Given how nomadic these tribes once were in the Sahel Region (the transition area between the Sahara Desert and the jungles to the south), there are many different tribes in this area. However, the area in the north of Cameroon was long ago conquered by the Fulbé tribe and as such, most of the population speaks Fulfulde (also called Fulbé) --- though most of the Guidar still speak their language in addition to Fulfulde.

Mai - I couldn't find this in my French or Fulfulde dictionaries, but I'm assuming it is the equivalent of 'repas,' or meal.

Zazai - This is a traditional dish for the local population. Served alongside what the locals call 'couscous,' a ball of starch about the size of your fist made from corn, rice, millet, or manioc, zazai is a leafy-green vegetable that is cut up and made into a sauce with peanut paste and ocra seeds. Saihou's family invited us over to have it for lunch and I can confidently say that the bitter taste could be improved with a little more salt!

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About Salihou - The reason I wanted Salihou to write about himself is that his background is quite interesting for an average American, though not all that much different from many here in the north of Cameroon. Salihou and his family come from a nearby small village of less than a thousand residents where his great-grandfather was the Lamido, a traditional leader. Given the royalty in his lineage, Salihou's Father explained that it was necessary for him to have many children --- 17 in total! While more and more Cameroonians (and Africans, in general) are becoming more progressive about family planning to ensure their children are well fed and well educated, many men still use their ability to reproduce as a sign of strength. Fortunately for Salihou, he has had enough resources to finance his education and he will eventually be a teacher, just like many of the siblings that preceded him. As you can imagine, however, not all Cameroonians are as lucky and families such as this cannot afford to adequately feed or educate all of their children. While some would attribute having many children to his family being Muslim, both Christians and Animists are just as likely to have large families here in the Grand North of Cameroon. 

Cameroonian Profiles: Hawaou

Salut! Je m'appelle HAWAOU. Je suis âgée de 19 ans. Je suis élève au lycée de Guider et je suis dans le Club Journal. Je vis à Guider depuis 20 mois et ma famille est à Garoua. Je vis à Guider avec ma tante paternelle et je suis en classe de terminal allemande. Nous avons fait la rentrée scolaire le 02 Septembre mais pendant la fin du mois je suis tombée malade. J'avais le paludisme sévère donc je n'avais pas le sang. Mais maintenant ça va et je vais déjà beaucoup mieux et j'ai même repris les classes. Si je passe mon baccalauréat je veux devenir journaliste.  

Greetings! My name is Hawaou. I am 19 years old. I am a student at the Guider High School and I am in the Journalism Club. I have lived in Guider for 20 months and my family is in Garoua. I live in Guider with my paternal aunt and I am in my senior year in the German section. We made our return to school on September 2nd, but during the end of the month I fell sick. I had severe malaria because I did not have blood. But now it is ok and I am already doing better and have also returned to class. If I pass my baccalaureate I want to become a journalist.

Hawaou (in red) with her extended family in Guider

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Important Vocabulary:

Garoua - Located in the North Region, Garoua has a population of approximately 240,000 people primary hailing from Cameroon and neighbors to the west and east, Nigeria and Chad. While larger and medium-sized industries exist in this relatively large regional capital city, most of the population is still heavily reliant to some degree on farming and/or raising livestock.

Terminal Allemande AND baccalauréat - Cameroon has a long history of colonization before full independence more than fifty years ago. Visited and named by the Portuguese (Rio dos Camaroes, or River  of Shrimp) in the 15th century, it was subsequently colonized by the Germans and eventually by the British and French after World War I. Fifty years later, the remnants of colonization are clearly visible from the names of towns such as Lolodorf to the States' official policy of bilingualism (English and French). As a result, high school students have a relatively wide range of languages from which to choose from, including French, English, German, Spanish, and Arabic. In the case of Hawaou, she is in the German section, though she also has a firm grasp on English and is able to carry on a conversation. At the end of the school year, she will take the German section baccalaureate exam, which will ultimately determine whether she will move on to university.

Le Paludisme - French for malaria, 'le paludisme' is one of the most debilitating sicknesses one can regularly contract in Cameroon. To the frustration of all, one can only hope to prevent contraction through use of things such as mosquito nets, bug spray, proper clothing, or mosquito coils. In Hawaou's case, she was quite ill and spent five days in the hospital last month. Fortunately for her, we collectively contributed to pay her hospital bills and she received the necessary care in order to fully recover. However, many Cameroonians lack the money to pay hospital bills and thus, cannot go to the hospital, or alternatively, they seek traditional remedies.

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Hawaou helping with our world map project in Guider

About Hawaou - The reason I wanted Hawaou to write about herself is that I believe she is a great example of a typical Cameroonian high school student (though her grades are quite exceptional). As mentioned above, she is originally from Garoua, but is now living with her father's sister in Guider. From a Muslim family, Hawaou is the oldest of five children and has been a critical member of the group of extended family members who provide care to her wheelchair-bound Aunt. As this is the same family with which I share a compound, I have been told stories about how strict her father was with her schooling from an early age, so much so that she had a tutor most days of the week after school, in addition to the extra exercises that her father assigned every day. This sort of discipline has translated into her earning some of the best grades among her peers and rarely, if ever, results in her being assigned manual labor around the school in the form of cleaning up trash or picking the weeds. On the home front, she shares the responsibility of cleaning the house, and can prepare any number of delicious Cameroonian dishes. Though only 19 years old, she demonstrates these fine-tuned culinary skills by turning a freshly-killed chicken into a delicious meal without writhing in disgust or breaking a sweat in a little more than an hour. Provided she passes her baccalaureate exam and can find time to become more familiar composing essays and articles on the computer, we look forward to reading what she has to report as a journalist!