Your Madness Not Mine: Stories of Cameroon

Glossary

Glossary achu Beba traditional food made of pounded tarot root afofo local gin; also known as arki, odontol, kembe fédéral afuondo all-powerful Beba medicine—afu means medicine, ndo means horn—a panacea, preserved in a small horn, usually given to people for protection of any kind and especially, from evil spirits and poison. If a child eats something that could be harmful to his/her health, the child is automatically given afuondo before any other treatment is administered aki mortar asso friend; also complice, kombi Bakassi Cameroonian peninsula, rich in oil, situated in the Gulf of Guinea. Also inhabited by Nigerians, this peninsula has been the source of bitter border conflicts between the two countries in recent years; also bakassi: slang for malaria baluck Pidgin, meaning bad luck; also badluck, for emphasis banga cannabis; also known as Indian hemp bazin West African cotton cloth used to make elaborately embroidered boubou for men and women biebieh Pidgin, meaning hair biscuit bone cartilage bordel brothel; Cameroonian usage: whore; also pute 147 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. boubou traditional West African (wide) gown CFA [franc] Communauté Financière de l’Afrique. Currency used in former sub-Saharan French colonies. Also currently used in Equatorial Guinea (former Spanish colony) and Guinea Bissau (former Portuguese colony) crish Pidgin, meaning crazy; also cresh Duala language of the Douala people DV now in its sixth year (DV-2000), the “Diversity Immigrant Visa Program” is a visa lottery programme that grants persons from countries with lower immigration rates the opportunity to apply for one of 50,000 immigrant visas to the United States eru a vegetable with slightly tough leaves, harvested off vines, that grows in the forest garri West African staple food made from cassava; also tapioca go-for-before- Pidgin, used to denote indecision or the attitude of for-back someone wavering from one decision to another groundnut peanut jigga Pidgin, meaning chigger or chigoe jigida rows of brightly coloured small beads strung together , worn by young women around the waist jobajo another name for Beaufort, a lager beer brewed by the Brasseries du Cameroun kaba ngondo Douala traditional women’s gown. Worn throughout Cameroon, it has been adopted as national attire kanda skin; also, edible cowhide used in making soups, obtained by either burning the hair off the skin or boiling the hide and cleaning off the hair with a knife kombi friend; also asso, complice kpwefo the most important, all-knowing Beba traditional regulatory society. The kpwefo holds the highest powers in the land. It assists the bezofo—the king makers—in crowning the new Fon. Made up of 148 / Glossary You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. bekwop—nobles—this body holds in check the powers of the Fon and any other excesses of power. Although the bekwop assist the Fon in his decision making, the kpwefo can curb or veto some of their rash or radical decisions. The kpwefo also possesses medicinal powers that are the strongest in the land. Among its multiple duties, the kpwefo carries out the sanction of putting ngo’o on someone ’s chest (see ngo’o) laterite a reddish soil found in the humid tropics Maggi cubes chicken- or meat-flavoured bouillon cubes commonly used in soups makossa Douala traditional music and dance mbenge Duala, literally means “west,” i.e., direction; commonly used to mean France, to denote Europe or the West mbu’uh palmwine, also mimbo meker dze small dried peas, brownish in colour mimbo generic term for alcoholic beverage; see also mbu’uh ngo’o literal: a very heavy stone; also used to refer to the ngbalii stone—basalt—used in making huge sculpture pieces for the Fon’s palace. figurative: when the Beba say, “the kpwefo has placed the ngo’o on someone’s chest,” it means the sanction of death—the ultimate punishment for unpardonable crimes—has been decreed for that person and is carried out by the kpwefo. In modern -day Beba, the sanction of death is sometimes replaced with banishment from the land, the culprit stripped...