Interview : “Opportunity To Keep Our Cultural Values Alive”

What is the idea behind instituting a South West Cultural Festival?
We are very grateful to our Chiefs for this initiative of a South West Cultural Festival. With the sociopolitical crisis that we have in our region, we have observed that the cultures of many villages in the interior of South West are disappearing. If one goes to the other regions, one will see that it is crowded with South West people as internally displaced. Villages are the bases for the production of culture. And when you see that most of our people have left their villages and go to other culture, then you can understand that if we are not careful, we will be disappearing as a people. These people leave their villages, they go to other regions and move with the culture which gradually declines. And when you are not where you produce culture, then the culture disappears.

How important is this cultural festival in the preservation of culture?
This decision of the Chiefs for a cultural festival is saluted. It gives South West people who are all over Cameroon the opportunity to keep these cultural values alive. So every year, they will come and present these cultures. In many Divisions and Subdivisions, cultural values in villages are disappearing. Just having a cultural festival every year instituted by the custodian of tradition is giving the South West people hope that even if we are no more in our villages, we have a venue and platform to come and showcase and preserve our cultur...