The initiatory book of the Ekang peoples, the Mvet, has left important teachings.

 

On July 25, 2025, festival-goers of Bia So Mengong attended a cultural conference under the theme "Conflict Resolution in the Ekang Community".

A pure didactic and intellectual delight, served by Prof. Abona, Prof. Owona Ntsama, Bingono Bingono and the civil administrator Mr. Akouolo (representing the governor of the Southern region) in a panel moderated by Dania Ebongue.

As if to place the theme in its reproductive context, the ethno-sociologist and initiate Bingono Bingono sings a refrain: "Ekang Bisso éééh", to which the audience responds in chorus "Élan, élan eeeh...". A rallying song that the Ekangs have been singing for 6000 years today.

He specifies, as if to put the audience on track, that the initiatory book of the Ekang peoples, the Mvet, has left important lessons, of which the whole meeting will only strive to evoke a few to better enlighten the lanterns.

 

 

The opportunity is seized by these éminences grises to take the audience to the heart of the truth of the conflict among the Ekangs, its name, its declination, but also its characterization.

To talk about conflict resolution among the Ekangs is to revisit the anthology of conflict, which, for the Ekangs, refers to chaos, to visit the causes of the conflict to understand with Professor Abona that among the Ekangs, all conflictualizations are articulated around 4 groups:

• The Reproductive Group
• The group of non-compliance with what is agreed upon (breaking the oath)
• The metaphysical group materialized by the ivu, the negative sorcery
• The group of heredity, in that one inherits the problems of one's ancestors.

 

 

But knowing the groups of conflictualization points to another level, which is that of the effects of the conflict. And it must be remembered that conflict opens the door to disorder, to be understood as a good order.

And this will manifest itself in:

• The disruption of nature (haunted house, clan curse...)
• Hatred between men
• Quarrels, dispersion
• Illness as the result of breaking an oath

Death, the keys to questioning of which can be found in the essani, a drummed song performed following a death and which questions more the hand that will have delivered the deceased brother or sister than death itself.

Once the conflict has been presented from the point of view of its effects, it remains to address the possibilities of settlement and resolution.

For Prof. Abona, the resolution of conflicts here obeys 4 major moments among the Ekangs:

• The accusation/denunciation, which leads to the characterization of the conflict, or, to remain faithful to the subject, "accuse the word".
• The liturgy of the word: this takes place between people in conflict and an audience gathered according to a given criterion to listen to them.
• Sacrifice: There is no conflict management among the Ekangs without sacrifice. Sacrifice plays an expiatory role, a role of scapegoat to be sacrificed on the altar of reconciliation.
• Re-order: the moment when everything returns to normal and when we can move forward without further conflict, in peace.

It should be noted that, for Professor Abona, conflict resolution among the Ekangs responds to a model that begins with cosmogony, continues with initiation, advances towards social integration, seclusion, and then reintegration.

But any conflict always arises from the presence of a third person. This is what he calls the excluded third model.

 

 

The Ekangs are the warrior people who once mastered the secret of immortality and were stripped of it because of the betrayal of a pact with nature, but also because of many other liberties taken with the cosmic and cosmogonic fundamentals of creation.

It is now clear that, as a result of this neglect, the Ekang people — whom it would be risky to confine to the sole supervision of central and southern Cameroon, since they are present in 24 African countries — have become a people out of step with their culture. However, there can be no developed people that is not rooted in its culture, its language, its spirituality.

 

 

During the conference, scholarly words are often used, but always put back into practice, illustrated by telling examples or practical cases. In this kind of people's university, to use this formula of Professor Owona Ntsama, the students appropriate the notions, recognize themselves in them, and the quality of their interventions reflects this well.

The initiative is welcomed by an attentive audience who think that meetings like this one should multiply and thanks Prof. Belinga for having had this brilliant idea of creating Bia So Mengong as a stone to the building of the Nation.