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BiA SO MENGONG a meaninful return to the roots (Part 2)

Henri Fouman, better known as Zoé la Lumière, the festival’s indomitable master of ceremonies, announces the arrival of the authorities. The patron of this edition, Liliane Libom Li Likeng, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, takes her seat alongside the Ministry of Arts and Culture’s Chief Technical Adviser representing the Minister, the Consul of Equatorial Guinea in Cameroon

9/28/20261 min read

“A tree can only conquer the world if its roots are firmly anchored in the soil.”

Henri Fouman, better known as Zoé la Lumière, the festival’s indomitable master of ceremonies, announces the arrival of the authorities. The patron of this edition, Liliane Libom Li Likeng, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, takes her seat alongside the Ministry of Arts and Culture’s Chief Technical Adviser representing the Minister, the Consul of Equatorial Guinea in Cameroon, the Regional Secretary General representing the Governor, the Prefect of Mvila, and Madame the Sub‑Prefect of Mengong. In the stands, partners are also present: Douala Autonomous Port, MTN Cameroon, Orange, Ultime Light.

The grand parade opens the festivities. On the track, sequences reenact colonization, its violence, its captives, but also the resistance that opposed it. All of Cameroon’s cultural areas are represented, with body painting, storytelling, percussion, and dance woven into a single performance led by choreographers clearly seasoned in the art. Local languages, however, remain in the background, almost accessory to the staging.

Next come the speeches. The festival promoter, the patron, and the representative of the Minister of Arts and Culture take turns at the microphone. Each praises the vision of the festival, the quality of the activities, and calls on traditional chiefs—already numerous in their support—to continue accompanying an initiative whose anchoring in local development is beyond doubt.

Madame the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications then gives the official kick‑off to the Tournament of Fraternity. This is followed by a tight match between National and Pascema, which National ultimately wins with the only goal of the game, to the cheers of a crowd that never left the stadium.