If Part 1 was about belonging, and Part 2 about homesickness in the diaspora, this final part is about what comes after both, the moment you realise you no longer have to choose. Because after the shock, the longing, the guilt, there comes a gentler season: one where you stop trying to decide which world…
This is Part 2 (Part 1) of a three-part series exploring the idea of “home” in the diaspora. These are mainly personal reflections and pieces of conversations with friends. Today’s post is about homesickness, or, as they say here in Germany, Heimweh (pronounced haim-vé). Somehow, I think the German word feels more intense, heavier, more…
In the story Eyon, the Name Maker (book here), there’s a moment when the main character receives a sacred stringed instrument from the ancestors in a dream. That scene was inspired by a well known Fang-Beti legend in Cameroon. Oyono Ada Ngone and the birth of the mvet In Fang-Beti tradition, there is a legendary…
Some weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend. He likes to call me Prof, and I like to call him Dear Colleague. He started the conversation with: “Prof, there will be a street renaming in Berlin on August 23rd. Will you be around then?” I replied: “I will be, but probably trying to catch…
As a blogger exploring African legends, myths, and diasporic threads, my recent trip to Baltimore left a powerful imprint on me, not just as a traveller, but as someone seeking to tell connecting stories. The first people in Baltimore Long before the city’s skyline rose over the Inner Harbor, this land was home to the…
When you grow up in a Cameroonian city, traditional masks are something you don’t often come across. Maybe, hanging on a wall at an uncle’s house. In a craft shop. Behind the glass in a museum. Personally, as a child, I found them terrifying. I did everything I could to avoid looking at them for…
The Bamoun people In the heart of the western highlands of Cameroon, the Bamoun Kingdom took shape over the centuries. Founded in the 14th century, it became one of the most powerful and organized kingdoms in Central Africa. Foumban, its capital, was a center of art, politics, and spirituality. Here, symbols were never chosen at…
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