Dreaded Bamileke masquerades dance groups hijacked May 20th celebrations in Kumba

Despite invasive calls for a massive National Day boycott in Kumba, the May 20^th festivities in the Meme Divisional headquarters recorded relative success, as hired, but dreaded Bamileke masquerades dance groups hijack the celebrations.

Using their numerical and commercial strength in the Division, the masquerades dance groups, other women and youth associations and the ever present militants of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) wrestled to submerge the calls for boycott and Ghost Town that were prescribed for the festivities.

However, in spite of their massive turnout at the Kumba Grandstand, the celebration in Memfe this year fell short of its usual pomp and fanfare.

 Rumours of the dreaded masquerades dance groups, having been ferried in from the West Region by night by some administrative authorities to swell the marching population for FCFA 35,000 each, spread like wildfire in Kumba.
The masquerades dance groups, a few Government schools and some CPDM militants were the few associations that partook in the march past as the population boycotted the event and religiously respected their Ghost Town calls.

According to reports from Mbonge still in Meme Division, the march-past lasted for less than ten minutes with just a few persons taking part in the exercise. There was no school pupil or student at the Mbonge Municipal Grandstand.

Speaking to reporters after the less than ten minutes march-past, the Divisional Officer (DO) for Mbonge, Simon Sombe, said the non participation of students is because examination classes are focused on their end of year’s GCE examinations.