Royalty and ancestry venerations: commemorating the death
of palace children (princes and princess), examines the different ceremonies
and rites which are performed during the death celebration of princes and
princess or palace children. Children in the Grassfields of Cameroon in general
and in Kedjom Keku in particular are treated differently, that is, those of
free birth and those of royal descent. Such differential treatment is seen
during the funeral and death ceremonies of
the palace children. The questions this paper seeks to answer are: what are the different ceremonies and
rituals conducted at the death celebration of princes and princess? What
are the cultural significance of these rituals to the Kedjom man and the
fondom? The methodology of this paper is purely qualitative. We employed
techniques such as direct observation, in-depth interviews and life histories
to collect data. Data for the article were analysed during and soon after fieldwork was over.
Data interpretation was done using the
interpretive anthropology approach. Findings revealed that there are two
categories of palace children; those born when the fon had not yet ascended the
throne and those born when the fon was already crowned fon.
The second category constitutes who real palace children. During the
death celebration of these real palace children, special rituals are conducted.
Findings also show that during the death
celebration, these palace children wear special attires. This aspect of
culture like many others should be documented
so that generations to come should actually understand the social,
political as well as religious organisation of their people.
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