Intro

Africa is a place of longing and as such surely addictive. After a memorable journey through Mali we then made Cameroon the center of our interest. This country does unite all the landscapes to be found in Africa. Deserts, mountains, prairie, savanna, grassland, rainforest and coastline. Furthermore, it is home to countless ethnic groups who are as different as the swaths of land in which they live.

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Funeral in Rhumsiki 

For three days the inhabitants of Rhumsiki – the town with the holy mountain Zivi – have been taking part in a funeral ceremony. Today is the third day and we get the chance for a photo session. The whole town is on its feet. Drummers and fiddlers don‘t stop playing. They move from one plaza to another, everyone is dancing and drinking bili bili. Some are already in a trance. The dancers raise their sticks, swords, lances and culls towards the sky. Dust swirls up.

The son- in- law of the deceased is wearing a ceremonial outfit which symbolises the deceased himself, so that the latter is dancing among the living one last time. In their exhaustion some women seek refuge in the neighbouring shadows. The children chew on candy or sugar cane rods, which they find in little bags that have been given to them. One of the dancers is wearing a skirt made of leaves and a Jennifer Lopez t-shirt. A swirling festiveness lies in the air. In the Baobab Bar, the village elders have gathered wearing their burnous. Slightly drunk and in good spirit, they dance to the rhythms coming out of the radio.

But Rhumsiki is also an unhurried hike downward into the valley where all the small villages lie. We constantly get new views of bizarre rock formations, passing graves of animists, Muslims and Christians alike, laying peaceful side by side. Over hill and dale we continue our trail downward. The villages are close to the green border to Nigeria, both Cameroonians and Nigerians reside here. Everyone can pass the border and move into both countries. There are no papers. The Kamsiki tribe lives on both sides of the border. In Rhumsiki the indescribable beauty of the landscape reveals itself.

Each view is fascinating, every mood new in its own way.

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