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African queens and princesses danced for us - wow!

Our first day in the north west, Sunday, and we behaved like tourists. VSO took us to Bafut, about 20 km away, where we were treated to a tour of the Fon's palace and museum guided by his second wife. A well-dressed English-speaking lady, who's a home economics teacher, she explained so much about the local history and culture. These are my words, not hers, so any errors are mine.

Many villages have a Fon, a tribal leader who has a lot of power and respect from his people. The man who became the first Fon of Bafut came to this area about 500 years ago and united several groups of villages under his leadership. Nowadays people come to him for guidance on problems, and there are many traditional rituals carried out by powerful secret societies.

We saw the large stones where criminals - thieves, adulterers - used to be tied naked and executed or given to lions, in a big open area so everyone could watch. This ended in 1914, when the Germans came. An alternative punishment for some crimes was ignoring people - nobody would speak to them at all. The criminal would be so ostracised that they would either leave or commit suicide!

There's a large museum where Gerald Durrell, the English writer, lived and wrote his book "The Beagles of Bafut", which I must read. We saw wood carvings, weapons, clothing, beds. Plenty of animal skins including a massive boa constrictor skin from their land near the Nigerian border, which they keep as a reserve.

The Fon has 4 current wives and plenty of children and siblings, who all live in the houses within the palace compound. When his father died in 1968 he also inherited his father's wives, including his own mother! Our guide explained that this means he takes on the responsibility for looking after them. The queen mother had died a week or two ago aged 80; they say she is "missing" rather than "dead". The Fon still has 3 of his father's wives as well as his own four. 

The Fon himself chooses his heir from among his sons, "the best behaved" according to our guide. He doesn't tell the heir, but the secret society know and they sort it out when the Fon is "missing". Our guide said if the heir knew he might run away, to avoid the responsibility!

The ceremony includes all the women parading naked, to ensure the new Fon has a long life! They

have a big feasting annually for the grass-cutting. The most important building has a thatched roof, and they repair one side each year. People have to go out and collect the grass, and beforehand the men go hunting to get enough food to feed all the roof-repairers.

Yes, it's a very patriarchal society. But we can see benefits in the extended family which we in the UK have lost. Care in the community means care in the family, and the strong social cohesion prevents a lot of the problems we face.