Armed horsemen and magic crabs
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 21/Sep/2010 07:06, 34 days ago
Because the road to Maga was still flooded out when we arrived in Maroua we spent a week doing some touristy things in the Extreme North. The fete at the end of Ramadan was very impressive, and a mixture of our white skin and flirting with a gendarme ensured us front row access to see the Lamido’s (big chief’s) armoured horsemen, the whole of Maroua turned out for prayers, and the Lamido himself on his ceremonial horse under his giant red umbrella. All Lamidos have a giant red umbrella- the Sultan at Pouss (who is the equivalent of a Lamido) has one too- I’m not sure why.Me in Nigeria, Imogen in CameroonAt Rhumsiki in the Mandara mountains we got to go to Nigeria, my sister dropped her shoe (accidentally) into the stream forming the Cameroon/Nigeria border and we went to visit the Crab Sorcerer. I was very taken with this sorcerer, who was very smiley and had some nice handwoven indigo robes. He has pet river crabs and when you ask him a question he tells the question to a crab and then puts it in a pot with some magic stones. The crab pushes the stone around and then the Sorcerer interprets the answer to your question. He told me I’d go home to England at the end of this year, but that I would find work there that would let me keep coming back to places all over Africa. He told my sister that she’d already met the man she would spend her life with and they’d stay together until they were old and walked with sticks, so we were both happy!  The crab sorcerer and one of his magic crabs