indigenous architecture

Our blacksmiths, weavers and sculptors

The greatest of ironies in our context is that a piece of wood, sculpted by our people even before World War I, holds a value today greater than the whole yearly budget of the Kom Palace could be (if records are being kept).

If you ask me, our society has deliberately killed the professions of our blacksmiths, weavers and sculptors, by switching the transfer of knowledge (education?) to what we think the Western civilized world is doing (and ours is a poor imitation).

Is there a school for blacksmiths, weavers, sculptors…? No. Even the knowledge-transfer method used by the most primitive of humans, recognized around the world (mentoring, or the guru framework), is not active in almost all of our territory. Why?

Distractions. Our people have been distracted by a million unproductive events and circumstances. Add to this a public system with an agenda of psychological assimilation, and it is no wonder the resulting cultural osmosis produces artefacts that would make even the Mother of All our Foyns blush.

I think we can do a little to push the momentum that has already started. A good number of WoinKom are no longer "ashamed" to dress in DalaKom. Our food is slowly being recognized outside Kom. And Foyn Yuh I is now a legendary sculptor at the global level. When I look at his picture (have you seen it?), he looks like our "Abraham Lincoln". I noticed his style of dressing. I want something like that too…

OK, I digressed. I was saying we could help this momentum with our individual decisions, mainly by consuming Kom products. This works best if you live in Kom: wake up in the morning to Kom coffee; breakfast on some Kom ndongsɨ, eggs and corn porridge; dress in a shirt made by a Kom person; and remind yourself that the coffee pot and the porridge pot were made by a Kom blacksmith or potter, and the spoons from Kom wood or our blacksmiths' metal… So many ways to trigger production (through consumption of local products).

I spoke with Bobe Herbert about a shining example: alcohol. Here in Minnesota, I have been to the homes of at least three people who brew their own beer. At one point I asked: why go through all this when you can just stop at a liquor store and buy a 24-pack? The answer: "Yes, it takes some of my time, but doing it myself cuts the price of a 24-pack in half, and I get to make the beer taste the way I want." A typical American answer, isn't it? What I did not tell them is that for me, just understanding the process is a big deal. And one of the MAJOR CONCERNS in brewing is CLEANLINESS. I noted that.

All of the above is to say that nothing prevents us in Kom from doing the same. The goal is to keep capital in Kom. If the breweries keep driving in with beer and driving out with hard-earned cash, there is no way we will be able to evolve from this level to the next. It is not just an economic question. It begins with a cultural revival (a renaissance, as Bobe Boh would say), then grows into a complex economic machine that will need accountants versed in accounting algebra to keep the numbers straight.

Awo ta jvɨ
~wv

What is a PhD for?

Bobe Steve,

That is a good welcome-to-the-club message.

I have always wondered what someone could really do for their KOMmunity after reaching the proverbial peak of academia. I quickly learned that in the context of Kamerunia, this feat was, and is, something to be celebrated, but not necessarily used for the benefit of a KOMmunity. It seemed to be just a piece of paper to put one ahead in the queue, waiting for a radio announcement at 1 p.m. saying: "Mr or Ms So-and-So is, by decree, from now on appointed Director, Minister or Assistant of So-and-So, without portfolio."

"Minister Without Portfolio" sounds like a nice TV drama series.

Apologies for dampening this extraordinary achievement. I am just joining Bobe Steve's train of thought to encourage our "Drs." to rekindle their efforts in shaping the philosophical framework for the Kom Kingdom of the future.

If an outsider can explain algebra to a Nini in itaŋiKom, how much more a Kom person with the PhD of the Europeans? You tell me.

~wv

— Wanaku Verdzekov