Nkwen – Land of hospitality or land of draconian traditional laws?

By Wilson Musa

Nkwen is one of the three tribes that makes up the city of Bamenda. It harbors the Bamenda III Council Area and is located on the national road 11, 6.2 kilometers northeast of Bamenda’s city center. It is home to a traditional Fondom and numerous Headquarters.

Since the outbreak of the armed conflict that is ravaging the two English Regions of Cameroon in late 2016, Nkwen remains one of the relatively peace havens of Bamenda as compared to their restive Mankon neighbors. Nkwen is host to hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons from volatile Bui, Ngokentunjia, Fudong, Momo and Metchum Divisions. Many indigenes from the aforementioned Divisions have purchased large fringes of land on which they farm, build and run varying businesses.

Despite the relatively calm that Nkwen enjoys, they have very inhospitable draconian traditional laws that are harsh and difficult to comprehend and abide to. Some are illegally and brutally executed by overzealous quarter heads, with or without the consent of the Fon of Nkwen and his closest collaborators.

1. Horrible “Kontri Sunday” Laws: Nkwen has two days in a week that forbids famers from going to their farms. Given the metropolitan characteristics of the Nkwen, it is common for a Nkwen man or woman to physically assault a non Nkwen indigene for weeding his flower bed on “Kontri Sunday” or for splitting wood! Carpenters have even been reprimanded for roofing homes on “Kontri Sunday” in some neighborhoods in Nkwen! Sometimes they place traditional injuction items on farms or homes and food crops get bad in the farms or people are forced to abandon their homes.
2. To pull out rafia palm plants on a land that you legally bought and owned, the Nkwen Lords charge cut throat and exorbitant prices for a single rafia plant to be uprooted.
3. Funeral Charges: If you acquire land in Nkwen, construct and live on and become bereaved even in the most remorseful of circumstances, a delegation of Nkwen Lords visits you at that grieving moment and charges you with very high bills to pay for losing a dear family member. The worst is when they don’t wink or pity poor widows who just lost their husbands! They still collect hundreds of thousands from them!
4. Non indigenes of Nkwen pay some money to quarter heads for burying their family members on land that they legally bought and owned.
5. Sentiments of regrets and jealousy when they sell a piece of land to non Indigenes: It is so common in Nkwen to see former landowners pesting their buyers with various traditional rites to abide to. They are at your door every day with complaints that necessitates money or expensive traditional items.

What is your experience with Nkwen indigenes and what is your opinion and advice?

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