FUNERALS IN CAMEROON.

As a kid living in the village, I could count the number of times I heard that someone had passed away and it was always an elderly man or woman. I remember going to a funeral for the first time and seeing the corpse dressed in African wear, lying on a mat on a bamboo bed. The service was for an elderly man who was known as Pa Fondze. I remember stealing my way in because kids were not allowed to see corpse for the reason that they will see dead people at night in their dreams. If a man died in the morning, that person was buried that same day before sun set, and to this day, no burial takes place close to noon. I have never known the reason why, but it is a practice that all tribes in Cameroon follow and respect.

When I was 7 years old, my auntie’s husband, with whom I was living in Bamenda, was transferred to Douala to work as a Police officer. That is where my knowledge of death ceremonies was strongly affected. In Douala funerals are more of a rendez-vous area for meeting friends, drinking, dancing and being introduced to new people. The deceased is kept in the mortuary which is like a deep refrigerator for days depending on how much money the family intends to spend on the burial. In cases where some family members live abroad and have to come home, it can even take up to a month before the service and burial. A day at the mortuary is about $10, but only the rich can afford to keep people for longer than two weeks. In some traditions, when a youth dies when his parents are still alive, the burial is done as soon as possible, because it is considered ill luck to lose a child.