Cry Die
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 21/Aug/2010 06:58, 34 days ago
I had the opportunity to attend a Cry-die with some new friends I met through my godmother who lives in Baltimore. It is such a small world when someone across the ocean can put you in contact with a lovely family right here in Bamenda about 10 minutes by car from my house. I am very happy to have a“family” here in Bamenda now. I can go and visit Susan and Cecelia often and they have even extended an invitation for me to have weekends away at their mansion (house...but very large). I hope they will be able to teach me how to make Djamma Djamma a very nice vegetable side dish that I quite enjoy...but I digress, back to the subject of the blog – Cry dies!What is a cry-die?A cry-die is a Western African death celebration to commemorate the life of the person who has passed away. It is not to be confused with a funeral or wake which are separate events which happen before the cry die. The cry die usually happens a day or two after the funeral.Traditions at cry-diesThe family of the people who have deceased contribute to the celebration by providing food and drink. In addition they will hire dancers and gunmen. The number of dancing groups and gunmen really represent the wealth of the family. This cry die for example had 3 dancing groups and 3 groups of gunmen which is considered quite a lot. However the person who passed away was from a very important family and so an elaborate, funeral, burial and cry die were expected.It was a very loud celebration to attend. The guns are ear piercing and everyone is talking, drinking and the dancers and singing so it was a bit overwhelming.Although death is always sad, it is nice that the Cameroonian culture has found a way to use it to bring communities and families together. It is also nice that everyone has an opportunity to pay their respects and celebrate the person’s life.Here is a short video from the crydie:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QNA9ClJGY