Nigeria and Cameroon may be two separate countries, and may have had one political trouble or another at certain time, but both share common ancestral bonds amongst their peoples.
Countless border communities line up the long stretch of boundary in both countries. They share a lot of natural, traditional and ancestral affinity. Such are still prevalent today.
In Cross River State, there are many of such common traditions and similarities.
Language and traditional practises are two common denominators that bind both countries.
In Boki LGA of the state, there are communities which speak the famous Ejagham language which is also a common language spoken in many parts of Cameroon.
In Danare community of Boki LGA, few kilometres into Cameroon, there are the Bokyi speaking people of Boki LGA with the Bodam and Dadi people of Cameroon.
Not only do they speak same language, they also have the same new yam festival, according to a community leader and one time vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Cross River State, Chief Cletus Obun.
It was gathered that they also have same marriage and funeral traditions.
Obun said: “In most parts of Boki, we have common communal life with our brethren in neighbouring Cameroon. We are the same people who live on the other side in Cameroon. We have common traditional practises and we intermarry. We share same family or ancestral names.”
Bashu is a border community in Boki LGA. It has a population of about 3,200 people, according to the last census.
The community has three villages – Bashu Kaku (Bashu 1), Bashu Okpambe (Bashu 2) and Bashu Bokem (Bashu 3). The community is just 5km from the Republic of Cameroon.
From there, one can access Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, as well as Douala and Manfe town.
Due to proximity, a lot of intermarriages have occurred with Cameroonians. They also share common affinity, including languages.
In communities such as Ajasor and Agbokim in Etung LGA, there are Ejagham speaking people as those in Ekok, Eyamojock in Manyul Division of South West Cameroon.
From the Obudu Ranch Resort through Bumaji, Okwa, Okwangwo, to Agbokim, Etara, Ekuri in Akamkpa down to Ndebeji and Oban, Ejagham is the common language.
An indigene of Becheve
community in Obanliku Local Government Area of the state where the Obudu Mountain Resort situates 11km up the mountains with a common boundary with Cameroon, 40-year-old Festus Hope said they have their kith and kin in nearby Cameroon, and it takes them less than one hour to saunter across the hinterlands to meet them.
He said that indigenes of the surrounding communities in both countries move to and fro without any hindrance. To them, immigration formalities are never heard of.
Festus disclosed that a lot of Cameroonians settle on the mountains, claiming citizenships of both countries. He added that from the mountain top, it is possible to view the Cameroonian countryside.
According to him, it takes only 30 minutes on motorcycles or one hour on foot to snake through the many mountains paths to meet their fellow Becheve kinsmen who also populate the Kalumu communities under Akwaya sub-division in Cameroon.
“We intermarry. We speak the same language. We perform same traditional rites. There are no boundaries between us. Both people cross effortlessly to either side through the many track roads.”
Madam Eme Offiong, a journalist, hails from Akpap-Okoyong clan in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State. She said the Okoyong people are also found in southwest Cameroon.
“We are one and the same people. We speak Kiong dialect, which is a branch of Ejagham. There are also the Ekoi people of central Cross River who are also found in Cameroon and they speak Ejagham.”
In an interview, head of Bishops Forum in the fold of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, His Lordship, Bishop Francis Oru, who lives in Kumba area of Southwest Cameroon, agreed that there are very many common practices in Cameroon which are also commonplace in border communities of Nigeria.
For instance, he said the popular Agbokim Water Falls in Etung Local Government Area of the state is also found in Cameroon and named similarly.
“We also have the popular tourists’ site – the Agbokim Water Fall in our part of Cameroon.
“Ejagham, a language spoken in Cross River State is widely spoken in the Eyumojock sub-division in the greater Manyu division. This is the source of the great river which Cross River State is named after.
“The Banyang and Bolondos dialects in Ndian division which are derivatives of Ejagham came from the Efut people of Cross River State.
“In the northwest of Cameroon, we also have the Badi, Meta and Bikom languages spoken also in parts of northeast Nigeria.”
Bishop Oru also explained that the popular Ekpe traditional masquerade, the Obon, Nkim and Nkanda plays which are believed to have origin in Efik land as well as the Ibibios in Akwa Ibom State, are commonly played in Cameroon exactly the ways they are practised in Nigeria.
A Cameroonian woman from the Manyul division, 94-year-old Madam Esther Mauyi Ndip Awo (nee Yor), is described as an Ekpe cult queen. She visits the Obong of Calabar’s palace during festive seasons.
She explained that there are traditional practises in Nigeria which are prevalent in her country, too.
She said as a water and Ekpe queen, whenever she visits Nigeria, she must find time to pay obeisance to the king of the Efiks because he has traditional influence in her area, too. She said as a member of the Ekpe Society of the Efiks, she participates in the Ekpe activities.
English language is spoken in the South-Western part of Cameroon. It was technically part of Nigeria, according to history, which was the reason we had the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). But following a plebiscite in the 1950s, they opted to join the French speaking part of Cameroon.
However, some of these Cameroonians living in Calabar, Boki, Akamkpa and other major towns in Cross River State, who can be said to be originally Nigerians, have expressed regret over their forebearers’ decision to opt out of Nigeria for Cameroon.
According to Cletus Obun, these are few other border communities in Boki that have family members living on either side of both countries: Bumaji, Okwa, Okwangwo, Abo -Mkpang, Abi-Buanabe, Biajua in Boki LGA, Abia, Etara in Etung LGA, Mkpot, Ndibeji, Ekong Anaku, Ojor, Ekuri, Oban in Akamkpa, Atabong Town, Bakassi, Usagede in Bakassi LGA, Balegete, Anape Amana Kundeve, in Obanliku LGA. He said they also share burial traditions, dances, festivals, deities like Bapong, Ebrambi, Obasinjom, Mgbe etc. in common.
“It is noteworthy that there is no inhibition in movement, marriage or even free use of Nigerian currency on the Cameroon side. Indeed, most of the Cameroon citizens from all these communities do business more in Nigeria and school and work here.”
