Naked People Of 21st Century

 

After the fall of Adam in Eden, he used fig leaves to cover his nakedness, and the nakedness of his wife. During the Stone Age, the Early Man wore leaves for the covering of his nakedness too. As the ages of human existence rolled by, there was a gradual revolution in the materials used for man's dressings from green leaves to quality and durable cotton (textile) materials. While one may not know the exact age of the Earth, it is widely believed that the age of the Earth from the Edenic dispensation till today is above 6, 000 years. Yet, against the imagination of modern man, there are tribes of the Earth where people still wear leaves as it was in  Eden and in the Stone Age. The much orchestrated advancement in man's technology and his dogged quest for quality life have not reached all latitudes of the world. What I saw with my physical eyes during my trip to the virgin world of western Cameroun made my seated heart to beat hard against my ribs. To my utmost consternation, I saw a population of people: men, women, and children living in the middle of a dense thick rain forest cover. It is a total virgin world where nature is seen face to face. The lifestyles of the people are reminiscent of the Early Man during the Stone Age.

The scary journey to the western Cameroun began at Akor in Cross River State of Nigeria. Akor is a small border town between Nigeria and Cameroun .The entire journey which spanned between Akor and Bamenda through the pristine forest glades, was by foot. The movement began by 5.00am. Travelling by road from Akor to Cameroun is truly nothing short of walking through the valley of death. The possibility of death in this terrible route is not subject to equivocation. It is crystal clear to all travellers going to Cameroun by foot from Akor border that anything can happen to them. It is 50% life and 50% death possibilities! Any traveller who dies in this route will surely be buried in the jungle because the distance back home to Nigeria is very far. It is obvious that the corpse will decompose before reaching Akor.

 

The first twenty minutes into the journey cast a spell of silence upon all the travellers because there were clear indications that the weather and topography of the place had changed dramatically to our discomfiture. The weather became contrastive and unfriendly. All of us walking silently in an Indian file in the narrow path between rocky walls in the virgin bush began to feel very cold. We wished that we could see fire to warm our bodies. But, there was none. We all began to hear the chirping (tweetings) of several strange birds. The first village we landed to is called Okuri. But, before going to Okuri, there was a big physical test to all of us. What was the physical test? We must climb a very long S-form hill called Iku Hill or Snake hill. It was christened "Snake Hill" because it is in snake (letter "S") form. I do not know the actual length of Iku hill. But, all I know is that it is very long and almost vertical. It stretches from the level land to a high land where Iku Village is located. We reached the Snake hill by 7am. Anybody who has a clinical history of a respiratory and cardiac challenge cannot climb the Snake hill. Many of us, including me, sat down and rested before reaching the end of the hill. It is an experience that I will always remember in this life. Some fell down once. Some fell down twice because of tiredness. Some were fagged out to continue the journey to Cameroun; but when they remembered the long distance they had covered already, they summoned up courage to continue the journey. Climbing Iku hill brings total physical exertion to the body. It is almost as if one is going to die when climbing the Snake hill. Nobody, no matter how strong or healthy he may be, can climb the Snake hill with ease or tell story while doing so. Neither can anybody climb that hill and forget forever that he once did. It's not a joke! Life at Okuri village was not too different from that of Akor except that it was found in the middle of a natural thick forest. Those Camerounian villages near Nigeria are more enlightened than the others. The chilled streams in Okuri, and the glaring fact that I saw men and women, boys and girls, bathing together in the stream and defecating in the same
place that has no partition to separate genders, confirmed to me that I was in another world outside this one.

 

From Okuri, we went to the next village called Ajaman. Enroute to Ajaman, there is a massive rectangular rock formation in the middle of a large stream. It is an excellent work of nature. It looks as if it was built by a professional and highly trained human civil engineer. At Ajaman, I saw a very small primary school built with red earth and Indian bamboos. The school was nested in a thick forest. All the pupils in that school were not up to forty. They came from adjoining villages and hamlets to Ajaman during week days through slippery roads, hills, and valleys to acquire western education. The whole Okuri, Ajaman, Ekoniman, Mufako, Masaka Mukango, Dipenja, Ekoi, Meboka, Dukumi Ngola and Madie 1 and Madie 2 are all located under a seemingly endless virgin forest covers. Everything about these villages are natural and primitive. They represent clearly what the Earth truly looked like when it was newly created. As one walks from one village to the other through the natural forests, a swarm of bees in very big number will perch on the sweating bodies of travellers to suck or absorb sweat from their bodies for honey making. Any little attempt to ward them off forcefully will immediately attract their wrath and punishment on the the traveller. They will sting the defaulter almost to death. Those bees can only leave the perspiring traveller if he reaches a place where there is sunlight. 

 

In the dense rainforests of western Cameroun, there are innumerable kinds of trees. There are many animal as well as ornithological  (bird) species too. Mahogany, iroko, and acacia trees are commonplace there. These trees are usually exceedingly large in sizes. They are high and possess much branches and lush green leaves. Sunlight cannot penetrate into the ground level of the forest because the leaves from the trees are so much. That is why young plants and shrubs do not survive in the thick forests due to their inability to gain access to sunlight in order to undergo photosynthesis. Oxygen balance is unbelievably in excess in this place due to the surplus healthy trees absorbing carbon dioxide every second of the day for food manufacturing and the resultant discharging of oxygen as a by-product. The whole region is very quiet and full of fresh breeze. This may be one of the reasons that the dwellers in this virgin world are healthy and live long. Some trees have unspeakable circumferences and heights with great fibrous root systems of approximately 36 inches. That is why short people find it hard to easily cross many fibrous roots because their legs are short. Many trees there are much higher than the telecommunications masts in the metropolitan cities. Those big trees are festooned with mosses, lichens, and other epiphytes. The forests have so much foliage to hinder the Sun from penetrating into them. The result is that grasses and growing young plants do not survive due to lack of food, thereby making the ground of the forests to be extremely clear for visibility. So, in the virgin forests, one can clearly see an object that is very far away!

 

Candidly speaking, there is hardly any wild animal that is not found in this virgin world under discussion: diurnal, nocturnal and arboreal. There are gorillas there. There are chimpanzees, elephants, lions, leopards, wolves, buffalos, antelopes, deer, bush pigs, screaming red and green monkeys, black colobus monkeys, baboons, and mandrills etc. There are birds such as sunbirds, grey parrots, hawks, eagles, including white and grey pelicans and spotted waders etc. There are pythons and many other reptilian contigencies there. In fact, the biodiversity (man, fauna and flora) of western Cameroun is par excellent. There are so much plantains and bush meat there too. So, they are very happy and healthy people. However, they are fetish. When they want to bury a dead person, they disembowel the corpse and ensure that nothing to the smallest size of an atom is left in the stomach. This must be done before burial. They superstitiously believe that if the corpse is buried wholly, the dead person will come out again to torment the living. I witnessed a shocking cultural dance somewhere in that virgin world where women danced naked to nature. 

 

In this virgin world, they live in thatch houses. Their houses are not built with cement and mortar and roofed with zinc. Their houses are not painted either. Their beds are made of red earth. Their floors are not cemented or tiled. Their floors are dusty. Hence, bloodsucking ticks under the dusty floors are always on the prowl feeding on them daily. They have native way of fighting the pestiferous ticks in some cases. Therefore, there is another world in our world! In that world where most people do not know the days of the week, there is no air pollution. There is no water pollution. There is no environmental degradation such as oil spillage. There is no electronic and medical waste (the mercury containing waste or red bags) pollution. But, they do not have access to electricity, telephone, television, radio, cars and aeroplanes etc.  Yet, they are very happy and healthy. Aged people of over 100 years are many there. They do not drink refrigerated water because they do not have fridges. Besides, the water from their streams are cooler than water from fridges. You can't get tired of drinking water in that place. It does not have taste, colour, and odour. This is no exaggeration.

 

  Therefore, in the world of technological advancements, there is another world where everything is natural, serene, and peaceful. There is another world devoid of terrorism, hijacking, air pollution, water pollution, and inflation.

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