MYSTICAL POWERS AND WITCHCRAFT.A THREAT TO CAMEROON.

In many parts of Cameroon, especially the South and South West regions, witchcraft and sorcery is only on the increase, despite the numerous intervention of the government. Most African newspapers testifies and echoes these increase. Many people are slammed into prison innocently because they are being accused of a witch and wizards. Numerous research have been carried out on the role of witchcraft in the society and Cameroon in particular and have equally been examining their aesthetic perceptions and how they live day to day lives, more especially in terms of their individual upbringing and communal education. The bakossi people like any other tribe in Cameroon exercises mystic and witchcraft, as such the practice of witchcraft is a prevalent among the bakossi, they use their mystical powers to harm and kill others. In the early days many people thought it was just a rumor but my interview with the local people in these parts of Cameroon especially Nhia Clan ,Nninong and Muandong in Kupe/Muanenguba division, there is a striking and an alarming sorcery and witchcraft practice. In reality witchcraft among this ethnic group is constituting a major threat to communal solidarity. There are certain moments that these witches bring all kinds of misfortune like diseases,paralysis,bareness,impotence etc.They suck young peoples blood spiritually and causes the mortal frame to weaken and pains and paralysis occur, when the heart is reached the victim dies! The bakossi people believe in what the callBenyameand when they kill someone, they usually say is Benyame because he /she dont give respect to the elders or respect traditional rules. In 2011,about four youths exiled themselves to unknown destinations from Nhia clan, whose parents were suspected of killing one parliamentarian in 2004;and since 2003 more than eight youths have died without knowing the cause of their death,these,the village men say their parents have passed their mystical and witchcraft powers to them to continue their evil. What a paradox. Some of them inhabit animals in order to strip people of their wealth and destroy their lives. Those wizards when their animal is shut or wounded in the forest by a hunter, the person also become ill, and if the animal is killed or dies, he or she too dies soon after. Most bakossi villagers are peasant farmers,tappers,cattle rearers and hunters. Many people and especially the youths suffers on these effects, as most of them are paralyzed and unable to make love with their wives and even unable to make children, some they meet their corpse lying on the bed early in the morning, not even sick, it is an alarming situation. These has made most youths to fled the village and even the country for protection. Witchcraft in these area is not only limited to to kill and people fled the village and country,they also deter other people's progress and draw the fertility of other people's crops in order to have a good harvest for his or herself. Some others who are barely unable to escape with their lives,sacrifice anything to serve their lives. Witchcraft and sorcery are very difficult to control due to its hidden and diffused nature. Cameroon authority tend to characterized it as one of the most dangerous forms of subversion. In the bakossi community they belief that incantation play an important role in the curing of certain illnesses and misfortunes

and the same people are the cause of all these misfortunes,illnesses,disasters and even deaths,a kind of unspoken or implicit,curse by the use of powerful magic. In this part of Cameroon ,there are a group of old men who can make rainfall;they have got groups known to purchase thunder and lightening to strike enemies and opponent to death. Before publishing this article,I have visited the bakossi land for several times,talk with the people and to know,see and weakness for myself -what is actually happening and I definitively say that witchcraft is alarming and alive in that area and if we under estimate this,then in the days ahead................! For many innocent people are paying the price especially those whose parents are not living anymore and those who can not defend themselves,like youths and children. Their population is declining,because death rate and migration is on the increase. Witchcraft in Cameroon at first was a popular imagination but today it is a reality because many people are being accuse of it and taken to court and charge heavy sums of money or sentence to prison between 2 years -10 years and above,according to article 251 of the 1976 penal code of Cameroon. In several cases of witchcraft,witchdoctors are always invited to find out or tell the village people the cause of the death,but most of them are liars and create hatred between families and friends. So this also make many people suffer,the irony in it is that,those witchdoctors who are often called or invited to tell the cause of ailment or death,are equally involved in the sorcery and witchcraft themselves and knows the secret. This always result great uncertainty about what they always say. Elites have tried to stop all these but no avail. Their cosmology is linked to a natural phenomena the shrinein the shrine they take people and pal how to delay progress in the village especially when he or she is an educated person. Also what is unbelievable is, in the court is that,the judges listen mostly to witchdoctors,witchdoctors inspires the judge haste in sentencing the accused in these affairs,it is often said that if the whole village men determine to expel or change the orientation of someone and the person hesitates,in the court the state must in the end of any judgment,accept the community's opinion. Though the Cameroon government is trying to stop at nothing to suppress life and liberty,so bringing a witchcraft matter before the Police or Gendarme and the tribunal in these areas always worsen the situation of victims. In Nhia Clan they say you must obtain the support of of the clansmen before taking any matter to the court,in Nninong that no witchcraft matter should be discussed with an outsider unlike Muandong.So all these are termed useless endeavors because it would not change any situation. Today youths are often accused of being a possessed witchery. In England,UK,witches exist in a little town of Leek and also in Highlane Burslem in stoke on Trent. Many anthropologist who undertake studies of sorcery and witchcraft concentrate only on esoteric knowledge ie books,magazine and articles,they do not have the time to meet the people concerned and even witness the reality of certain actions. What

we should take note is that most students and even researchers do not mostly write or do research of sorcery and witchcraft in their village of birth especially Africans and that is why it is always difficult to bring out the facts concerning sorcery and witchcraft. Lambert Munang Ndikum Journalist