Dance in Cameroon is an integral part of the tradition, religion, and socialising of the country's people.

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

has more than 200 traditional dances, each associated with a different event or situation.

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

authorities and Christian missionaries discouraged native dances as threats to security and pagan holdovers. However, after Cameroon's independence, the government recognised traditional dance as part of the nation's culture and made moves to preserve it. Traditional dances follow strict choreography and segregate dancers based on age, occupation, sex, social status, and other factors. Some dances require special costumes and props such as masks or fans. Professional dancers make a living among some ethnic groups, and other professionals perform at national festivals and for

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

. Popular dance, wherein men and women dance together, is found in Cameroon's bars, nightclubs, and private parties. This style is closely tied with

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

, such as

makossa Makossa is a Cameroonian style of urban music. Like much other late 20th century music of Sub-Saharan Africa, it uses strong electric bass rhythms and prominent brass. In the 1980s makossa had a wave of mainstream success across Africa and to a ...

bikutsi Bikutsi is a musical genre from Cameroon. It developed from the traditional styles of the Beti, or Ewondo, people, who live around the city of Yaoundé. It was popular in the middle of the 20th century in West Africa. It is primarily dance music ...

highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (British colony), history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions ...

, and hip hop. Dancing is an important avenue of social protest and political rallying in the country.

History

Under

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

-era governments, German, British, and French regimes banned dances that they deemed a threat to their primacy. Meanwhile, Christian missionaries discouraged all kinds of dancing and forbade dances that they felt represented

paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...

or offended Christian sensibilities. Many of these dances have since died out. Other dances were forgotten when the rituals associated with them were outlawed for similar reasons.Mbaku 190. Nevertheless, traditional dance persisted. People continued to practice dances for purely social purposes or adapted them to Christian worship. Dancing in church became increasingly common as

evangelical Christianity Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

gained popularity and Cameroonian priests and pastors replaced Americans and Europeans.Mbaku 196. After Cameroon gained independence in 1960, the government recognised traditional dance as an integral part of the nation's culture,Mbaku 204. and

non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

promoted its preservation.Mbaku 206. Some villages enroll children in dance groups to teach them about their culture and native dances.Mbaku 205.

Traditional dance

Cameroon is home to more than 200 different traditional dances.West 18. Dance is part of most

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

and

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

s. Such dances accompany

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

s, christenings,

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

s, and

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

s and invoke the spirits of

ancestors An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

to cure the ill or increase fertility.Mbaku 204–5. The

Bamileke The Bamileke are a Central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau of Cameroon. Languages The Bamileke languages belong to the Grassfields branch of the Niger-Congo language family, which is sometimes labeled as a " Bantuoid lang ...

perform

war dance A war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare. Martial arts in various cultures can be performed in dance-like settin ...

s, for example, and the motio of the southwest incorporates the slaying of a goat with a single blow to demonstrate the dancers' prowess. The Baka dance the

luma Luma or LUMA may refer to: Arts * La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia * LUMA Projection Arts Festival, an annual event featuring building-scale projection mapping and light installations in Binghamton, NY * LUMA Foundation, ...

to celebrate a successful hunt. Among some groups, dancers work themselves into a

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

and communicate with the spirit world. For example, members of the '' ntsham'' society of the Kaka people in Cameroon's northwest dance to bring about

spiritual possession Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and re ...

. Typically, traditional dances follow certain restrictions. Most traditional dances segregate participants according to sex. For example, women and men may form concentric same-sex circles, or they may dance in separate areas. Among various fondoms in the Cameroon grassfields, nobles and commoners may not participate in the same dances. Likewise, traditional laws severely restrict the dancing of the fon's wives and daughters, often restricting them to the palace. Some dances are intended only for a specific class of people, such as hunters, jesters, or warriors. Among some ethnic groups, professional dancers make their living performing dances at the appropriate ceremonies. In some villages, a

diviner Diviner, also referred to as the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE), is an infrared radiometer aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, part of the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program which is studying the Moon. It has been used to create ...

dances as part of his or her duties. In modern times, such traditional dance professionals are rare. Instead, professional dancers live in urban centres and perform for

or at national festivals. Many traditional Cameroonian dances follow strict

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

, although improvisation is common. Dancers move different parts of the body independently, focusing motion on more than one area. Dances are often associated with specific regalia or props. Traditional objects used include leather fans and small pieces of cloth. In the grasslands, masks are common. The gourna of the

Tupuri Tupuri (or Toupouri) is a language mostly spoken in the Mayo-Kebbi Est Region of southern Chad and in small parts of northern Cameroon. It is an Mbum language spoken by the Tupuri people with approximately 300,000 speakers. Tupuri was erroneou ...

incorporates long sticks that dancers carry upright in a circle.

Popular dance

Popular dance is within the purview of urban bars, nightclubs, and private parties, although it has grown more popular in rural areas. DJs provide the music as dancers move about and drink beer or palm wine. Unlike traditional dances, popular dancing allows the sexes to mingle. Cameroon's most popular native

musical genres This is a list of music genres and styles. Music can be described in terms of many music genre, genres and styles. Classifications are often arbitrary, and may be disputed and closely related forms often overlap. Larger genres and styles comprise ...

and

, are styles of

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

.Mbaku 197. Cameroon has imported a number of popular dances from abroad, including the maringa from Ghana in the 1850s, the

ashiko The ashiko is a drum, shaped like a tapered cylinder (or truncated cone) with the head on the wide end, and the narrow end open. It is made of hardwood and generally has a calfskin hide. Nowadays, goatskin is sometimes used, in imitation of th ...

from Nigeria in the 1920s, and the abele from Nigeria more recently. Popular non-Cameroonian dance music includes Nigerian

and American hip-hop. In 2000, the government of the

Southwest Province The Southwest Region or South-West Region () is a region in Cameroon. Its capital is Buea. , its population was 1,553,320. Along with the Northwest Region, it is one of the two Anglophone (English-speaking) regions of Cameroon. Various Ambazonia ...

banned

mapouka Mapouka (also macouka,"la danse du fessier", or "the dance of the behind") is a modernized version of a traditional dance from the Dabou area of southeast Côte d'Ivoire originating from the Aizi, Alladian and Avikam people. Mapouka entered the m ...

, a dance imported from Côte d'Ivoire, for its sexual nature. European dance, such as

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, is popular among wealthy urban Cameroonians. Dance has become an important vehicle of social commentary and political protest. While the popular press can be muzzled by the government, dancers in the street are freer to express their discontent with—or support for—government policies or political parties. Opponents of Cameroon's first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, danced to show their disapproval.Mbaku 205–6. Other popular dances commemorate historical events from Cameroonian history.

Notes

References

* Chrispin, Pettang, directeur (no date). ''Cameroun: Guide touristique.'' Paris: Les Éditions Wala. * Hanna, Judith Lynne (1987). ''To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication.'' University of Chicago Press. * Mbaku, John Mukum (2005). ''Culture and Customs of Cameroon''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. * West, Ben (2004). ''Cameroon: The Bradt Travel Guide''. Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press Inc. {{Africa in topic, Dance in Cameroonian culture