Fête du Mouton

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Warning: Graphic Pictures Ahead

The other day was a great day: Fête du Mouton or Festival of the Ram.  It’s a Muslim holiday.  I honestly don’t know what this one is about, but that’s true about most religious holidays.  I do know that you have to sacrifice a ram (or other animal, I think) to god.  I went over to my post-mate’s compound in the morning and met up with him before going to the big prayer with his family.  It was pretty much the same as Ramadan; except for at the end they sacrificed a ram.  One of the reasons they sacrifice one at the prayer is because it counts as the sacrifice for everyone there, so the people who can’t afford to do one of their own are covered. 

The ram is sacrificed on behalf of the Lamido – the traditional ruler of Guider.  He’s always got a bunch of guys that wait on him hand and foot.  A few of his running crew, all dressed in red bubus, dug a hole.  This was where the blood was going to go.  They then held down the ram while one of them slit its throat with what looked like a very sharp knife.  It was pretty graphic, but ended fairly quickly. 

Killing the ram

Afterwards we went back to my post-mate’s compound.  All the women in his family were working on cooking.  The men were given breakfast – meat with sauce and pieces of manioc and bread.  We ate with them; it tasted great.  After breakfast, the men took a goat to the corner to sacrifice it.  It went pretty much the same as the other one, except I was a lot closer.  They cut the throat really deep – at least halfway through the neck.  After they cut they poured water over it and rubbed the cut to help let the blood out.  I think the goat died pretty quickly, but it continued to twitch and thrash every once in a while for a long time.  Even after it was skinned and cut up, parts of it still twitched 45 minutes later. 

Decorated horses!  Always a part of big fetes

Not long after breakfast we got invited to another guy’s house to eat there.  My post-mate went but I was still full so I stuck around.  Not long after he returned we were served parts of the goat that had been cooked over the fire.  It was delicious, but a bit too much liver and other organs for my taste.  The ribs were really good though, and there was way too much food, so once again we gorged ourselves. 

Just a couple of hours later we went to another guy’s house.  There were about 20 people there, and we sat around drinking soda until the food was ready.  One of the funny things about Cameroon is how little people actually talk to each other when they are hanging out.  All of us just sat around silent.  When you see Cameroonians at bars, more times than not they will be sitting at the same table drinking in silence.  Any conversation in the room was very muted. 

Cleaning the sacrifice

This lasted about half an hour.  Then the food was served.  It was amazing, a bunch of meat, salad, and bread.  Once again, we gorged ourselves.  

After eating we went back to my post-mate’s house and sat back, satiated and not talking much, digesting for a few hours.  We were invited to eat more with his compound family, but we politely refused.  There was no way I could have had another bite.  It was like Thanksgiving, except no football.  I have to say, I can’t wait for next year’s Fête du Mouton.