Traditional Tuesday: Cameroon

The Ngondo Festival

Every first Sunday of the month of December, foreigners join the five tribes constituting the Sawa people to gather around the river Wouri in Douala to celebrate “Myengu”, the gods of the waters, thanking them for their protection during the year. The festival begins from the Saturday before, with exciting activities such as Miss Ngondo conquest, Wrestling ( the Sawa Fight), Dance conquest of different Sawa dance groups and religious organizations. The beauty pageant contestants must be able to speak their mother tongue and know their family genealogy. Only Sawa people are qualified to take part in any competitions, but witnessing it is equally so much fun.
The main event which is the more scared part of the festival comes on Sunday morning. A spiritualist is immersed with a sacred pot under the Wouri river with gifts for Myengu who are at the bottom of the river. He usually stays 10 minutes underneath the water, and his mission is to return with Myengu’s message addressed to Sawa people for the next year. When the pot comes back to surface, it is not wet and it contains the message of the ancestors which the initiates will decode before announcing it to waiting crowd.
In the afternoon there is a canoe race where each Sawa tribe sends its best canoe riders.
Even though in recent years, Ngondo has been taking a commercial turn with some companies taking advantage of the its touristic attraction to infiltrate the event, the festival remains the best display of culture in Cameroon.