Childish Utopia

Ngwa Primus, got off the phone with his dad, he had just confirmed his plans to travel to his native village of Bafut, he had agreed with his dad he was going to be spending Christmas in his village, which is about 300Km from the city of Douala where he worked as an event planner and promoter. He was sitting at a bar at a bus station called “Vatican”, with his friends Ngia Ndoh, and Tse Papy. They were drinking a locally brewed Cameroonian beer known as Kadji beer, chatting and laughing hysterically when the loud horns from the 70-Seater bus sounded. He immediately grabbed his bottle of beer chugged it down, grabbed his small backpack, said bye to his friends, and started heading to the bus. Ngia Ndoh was laughing when he said he would be taking over Primus’s girlfriend if Primus gets kidnapped or disappears in the course of the journey to Bafut. Primus gave him an angry stare but laughed too as he walked onto the bus. He took his seat, plugged in his headphones, and started listening to music from his favorite artist Magasco.

The driver made a few announcements, started the bus, and kicked off the journey. Then reality dawned on Primus. He had been living in Douala for four years already, he struggled with learning French which is the major language spoken in Douala and he was getting better at it. He thought of how successful he had been while working in the city of Bamenda, situated about 15Km from his native village of Bafut. Six years ago after earning a Bachelor’s Degree in journalism from the University of Buea in the Southwest region of Cameroon, he moved back to Bamenda in the Northwest region of Cameroon where he started an online news blog, it was one of the most popular news blogs in Cameroon. He recruited two of his classmates and had them working with him. Every weekend, he traveled to Bafut where his parents and his nephews Suh, and Shu, a pair of twins lived. Jasper their dog and Kwifon their cat also lived there. He remembered his childhood, how he always created chaos for everyone in the neighborhood and hadn't ever outgrown his juvenile pranks. Jasper the dog was extremely scared of loud noises so Primus bought a toy that made gun sounds and would leave it in Jaspers cage so Jasper prompting Jasper to run around frantically until he found someone to take it out. Kwifon the cat was extremely good at catching mice and birds, he always acted like he was the alpha predator but had an unhealthy obsession with Primus’s battery-operated toy mouse, Primus had created a small crevice in the wall behind Kwifons little bed and would place the mouse to roll past Kwifon into the crevice every now and then. Kwifon would patrol and watch for hours, waiting for the mouse to sneak out, but it never did, he would try in futility to claw his way into the crevice but eventually gave up. Primus would wait for Kwifon to leave, then sneak the mouse out in order to trick Kwifon later. Kwifon was very miserable there existed a mouse he couldn’t catch, he would wake up almost every night at random hours prowling around the crevice, hoping the mouse would attempt to sneak out, it never happened. Primus named Kwifon after the “Kwifon” a dreadful masquerade associated with almost all villages in Northwestern Cameroon. According to local folklore, it is a human-looking masquerade with supernatural powers and it is strictly prohibited for women to see or approach the Kwifon. It is said to be extremely powerful and violent and serves a primordial role enforcing traditional and cultural norms in villages. In reality, there is a Kwifon in most villages in the Northwest region of Cameroon, but its attributes of superhumanity and strengths are largely exaggerated and based on superstition. Nevertheless, the hyperbolic representation instills fear in the people and helps with upholding and maintaining local traditions and norms since no villager intends to face the wrath of such a scornful creature. Primus also remembered how he would spend part of his weekends playing hide and seek with his nephews, and instead of hiding when his turn came, he simply ran off to a different neighborhood, making it impossible for them to find him. They would spend the day going from house to house looking for him. He also built masquerade looking structures at night to scare them, his favorite was the “Kwifon” it often worked, and they got so scared they had to sleep in his room with him. They got back at him by quietly tying him to his bed at night and waking him with really cold water or hiding his shoes just before he had to leave for Bamenda, and he resorted to paying them to get the shoes back. He did enjoy his weekends acting like a child, it gave him freedom from his otherwise intense weekdays at work.  

Primus loved playing with his nephews who were by far younger than he was, he loved being silly with the pets and enjoyed the thrill of watching people get hysteric. As he traveled home for holidays, he tried but couldn’t resist the urge to start doing the silly things he enjoyed once he reunited with his family. He kept thinking about Suh, Shu, Jasper, and Kwifon. It had been four years since he last saw them and he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to do the fun things he always did with them. He wanted to enjoy the dopamine rush that ensued as a result of his playtime with them. The chances everything would be the same were daunting, not only had time passed, conditions and the situation in his village of Bafut and the entire NorthWest region had transformed completely from lively and welcoming to hostile and dangerous. His life was completely upended four years ago when a civil protest in the Cities of Bamenda and Buea progressively deteriorated and transformed into a dangerous insurgency prompted by repressive government crackdowns. 

Primus was fast asleep on the bus when he was awoken by an intense bright light and a loud unintelligible voice, he immediately started panicking as he opened his eyes, and there stood a man in military fatigue, seemingly angry and unrelenting, he stretched his hand towards Primus. Identity card he shouted. Primus quickly reached into his chest pocket pulled out his National Identity card and handed it to the soldier, he looked at it then keenly looked at Primus’s face before handing it back to him. Now Primus could tell he was at the Santa Checkpoint. Santa is the gateway town into the North West region of Cameroon. It has always been a routine practice for Military personnel or Police to board passenger buses and request everyone present an Identity card in Cameroon, but it became more intense and scrupulous in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon as a result of the violent repression and popular insurrection that started four years ago. The repression initially started with a massive witchhunt that targeted journalists, writers, newspaper editors, bloggers, in general, any person with a strong public following that had a dissenting voice against the government. Primus watched in horror as one of his colleagues was dragged into an unmarked car by unknown people, then another, then one of the schoolmates he had recruited. That was the inflection point for him he could clearly see where the trend was headed. He grabbed a few of his clothes, removed his hard drive from his laptop before packing it into his travel bag. He went to a bus station, and paid for a one way trip to Douala, he never said goodbye to his parents, Kwifon, Jasper, Shu and Suh. He had made arrangements to stay with Ngia Ndoh upon his arrival to Douala. 

Primus finally made it to Bafut and was walking towards his parent’s house. The sight of the village as he walked was harrowing and terrifying, it was nothing like he had known it to be. Most of the houses in his otherwise serene former neighborhood were deserted, lots of the building walls had bullet holes, and for some of the houses, all that was left was ash and cinder. He could hear bird echoes from miles away, found the metal skeleton of a bike that was set ablaze not too long ago, and he could have sworn he could hear some gunshots not too far away. He opened the gate and could see his mum and dad, he ran towards them gave them big hugs just before his child instincts kicked in, he quickly ran off to play with Jasper and Kwifon. When he got to the back of the house where Jasper and Kwifon stayed, he noticed the fence was gone, it was struck by an explosive shell two years ago. Old Jasper was fed up with the endless gunshots and exploding shells, so he abandoned his cage outside, grabbed his blanket, and created his new abode in the living room of the main house. Kwifon on the other hand moved into Jaspers cage, he looked as mischievous as ever, the moment he found Primus, he quickly grabbed a disemboweled toy mouse with his mouth, the wheel shafts were hanging from the torn fabric, the cotton stuffing was everywhere, the tail had fallen off and the batteries lay rusted below the cage. Kwifon walked towards Primus, dropped off the wreck of the toy mouse at his feet, and walked away in a conceited manner without looking back. Primus was shocked and bemused. Apparently, Kwifon knew it was a trick all those years but decided to play along. He finally caught the mouse when the shell struck the wall where Primus had made the crevice, the shell knocked the wall down destroying the crevice and exposing the toy. True to his name, instead of running away from the falling debris Kwifon pounced and caught the mouse and tore it apart. 

Suh and Shu, had just gotten back from church, they were now fourteen years old and unlike in the past when they ran and jumped on their Uncle Primus, they just walked over said hi and had some small talk with him, and left. The horrors of war and violence had transformed everyone that mattered to Primus. Within four years, there had been so much change he could barely adapt to the new reality. He just wanted to annoy old Jasper with the gun sounds, trick Kwifon with the mouse, or scare Suh and Shu with a Kwifon masquerade. It was an entirely new era with completely distinct circumstances, he just wished the old days returned and everything was fine.