Crossing Cameroon’s disability market music band
By Nchendzengang Tatah
It was an ordinary day, around the section where onions, tomatoes, dry fish, and other foodstuffs are sold. Sounds from a group of musicians who come by in a while made it unique. Traders like buyers noded to the musical display of six who had stormed this side of the busy Great Soppo Market.
The band of visually impaired men and women, “Les Messagers”, meaning the Messengers is a group you may have seen in your local market in Cameroon. With a guitar, drum, traditional maracas, and speaker, they visit markets with gospel rhythms that get the environment alive and place passers-by into unforgettable fits of good music play.
Based in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, they frequent markets all over the country intending to evangelize, bless souls, and earn a living. This day, at the Buea Great Soppo Market they first installed at the main entrance and later took a spot inside the business center.
“We go all over the country to sing, and our first objective is to share the word of God by our songs and instruments,” Jikissi Arnaud, a visually impaired adult man who handles the guitar said.
For over an hour, the band of six including a woman raised sounds, coordinated by a lad who sees. “We can sing all other songs, with those songs we don’t have anything to share with those who give us something. But with gospel songs, we share the word of God,” Arnaud explained.
They make a living through singing from various town markets and events, he further noted. Their itinerary showed a busy week they had in Idenau and Muea. Kumba was their next stop the following day.
Dressed in their uniform of a sports attire T-shirt branded with the group’s name, they admitted having some challenges. Top among these is the perception of beggars they feel some people have about their craft.
