The Bandjoun museum
Permanent exhibition
The land and the men
Myths, legends and history
Kingdom and society
Secret societies and religions
Creation
Bandjoun yesterday, today and tomorrow
Itineraries of the collective memory
Information

Bandjoun yesterday, today and tomorrow

 

As the support and expression of the identity of Bandjoun, the art objects and elements of the cultural heritage play a fundamental role in its cultural continuity. Bearing meaning and values, these productions simultaneously evoke the past reigns and the vitality of modernity as they are always in step with the concerns of the people, notables and simple villagers alike. Here, the living ancestral tradition presents an apparently contradictory character: a certain continuity and dynamism with changes and innovations based on external influences and internal contradictions. This is why artistic creation oscillates between conservatism and innovation.

The Bandjoun population carries wood for the king

   

The fact of allying tradition and modernity has been mandatory. This situation allows reinventing tradition, namely adapting what is known or what is kept of the past to bring it into line with new rules. The observer of Bandjoun is struck by the contemporary rigour of the customs, even if on analysis, a real evolution can be seen and a certain humanisation of the rituals. The treasures of the king and notables include thrones, masks, panther skins, elephant tusks etc. but also jeeps and objects with cutting edge technology.

 
   

A group of students from the Institut de Formation Artistique of Mbalmayo with the Bandjoun artist Maître Paul Tahbou. Behind them can be seen the doors they have sculpted for the centre of Applied Arts of Mbalmayo


 

On the other hand, titles, rituals and objects associated with them and relating to the power of the king and the notables, the hierarchy of ranks, seem to have resisted to time, despite widespread Western and Christian influence. The regalia, sacred objects, objects used for the cult and related to cultural identity, the representations liked to multiple powers etc. are preserved in Bandjoun, in that all these elements of the heritage are the juridical and religious foundations for Bandjoun royalty and the powers that gravitate around it and recall the real or mythical history of the community.

Exhibition of the artist Jules Wokam at the Cultural Centre of he Musuem of Bandjoun in August 2004.

   

L'initiative de doter Bandjoun d'un musée revient au roi Kamga II, poursuivie par le roi Fotué, concrétisée dans sa dimension moderne par le roi Ngnié Kamga et son successeur Sa Majesté Djomo Kamga Honoré dans le cadre du projet “Formation, tutelle du patrimoine artistique et culturel, développement au Cameroun” lancé par l'ONG italienne COE, Centro Orientamento Educativo.

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