In May, I traveled to Cameroon for two weeks to give orientation to a group of Tutsi refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). The refugees will be resettled in the U.S. in late July. Along with another trainer from the IOM office in Nairobi, Sasha, my job was to provide 10-hour orientation classes over two days to prepare the refugees for life in the U.S.

The refugees live in a camp outside the small town of Garoua in northern Cameroon. The camp was formerly an army base so there are some concrete homes in which some of the refugees live, but most of them live in tents provided by the UN. My classroom was at the camp and consisted of walls made of grass mats and a tin roof. The temperature reached 100 degrees everyday and the camp had no fans, certainly no air conditioning and no refrigeration. The camp did have snakes and scorpions. I made it through the two weeks without seeing any scorpions, but I saw two snakes shortly after they had been killed by the people who found them.

Hyena Hijinks

If you needed any convincing that hunting was dangerous, here you go. From Cameroon's bizarre mixed English and French daily newspaper, The Cameroon Tribune, 18 May 2000 (typos preserved as written):

SOUTH WEST

A Shut Animal Transforms into Man

Mbonge (Meme) - A professional hunter by the name Moto Mokoli of Dienyi village in Mbonge Sub-division, Meme Division, is reported to have gone out for hunting when he clearly saw the eyes of an animal which he detected to be a hyena and he shut at it. On going to collect his game, to his greatest surprise, the animal had transformed into a human being.

Mr. Moto is said to have been invited to Big Butu by his friend, the Chief of Big Butu to attend his installation as chief of Butu. When pa Moto arrived the village, he thought of going hunting in order that he can present his friend some bush meat to entertain his guests.

Consequently, he decided to go out at night for a hunting spree which unfortunately became a night-mare for him. When Pa Moto left the house for the forest in search of game, little did he know that the animal he had focussed his night light at and later shut was going to become a human being, else he wouldn't have gone out for hunting.

According to Mr. Moto who fired at the animal which he realised was a hyena (Bush Dog) he only discovered a man in a pool of blood. He immediately ran back home to alert the villagers and later went to Mbonge to lodge his report to the Police about the incident.

Sources close to the deceased person revealed that he had been a perpetual criminal, who after having heard of the chief's installation was finding ways and means of involving the chief and his subjects into trouble, that was why he decided to transform himself into an animal so that if he is shut, the chief and his people will be arrested. He is said to have been ousted from the village because of bad behaviour. He is said to have sold a piece of land given him by the village to cultivate food crops, which land he later sold to another person without the concert of the chief and villagers.

When the villagers discovered his illegal deal, the piece of land was seized from the buyer and he could not refund the man's money.

The 58 year old Pa Moto is languishing at the Kumba prison helping the police in their investigation.

Joseph EBENKI NZENJE
(CAMNEWS)