The Lions of Nsimalen

This is the story of Cameroon's emblem: the lion, symbol of the country's strength and power. What people often do not know is that the lion plays a fundamental role among the Grassfields people. There, the lion is the most powerful totem. A totem is the animal you are bound to at a certain age, after going through specific initiations. If the lion is your main totem and it dies, you die too. In return, you must feed it throughout your life. That is why this totem is reserved exclusively for chiefs and very senior notables, because they used it to protect the people.

Personally, I was always told that my grandfather had the lion totem, and it appeared in the form of white bees. When my grandfather sent you on an errand somewhere, he stayed sitting in his chair. During the ritual of binding with the totem, a chair carved in the image of the animal was used; as soon as you sat on it, you became one with it. So the animal went with you on your travels.

If, on the way, you chose to visit friends before completing your errand, when you came back my grandfather would ask you: “When I send you somewhere, why do you stop at so-and-so's house?” — even though he had never left his chair. You could feel his presence through a growl, but when you turned around, all you saw was a swarm of white bees. And if you were still afraid, he sent little whirlwinds ahead of you to show you the way and calm you down.

In those days, the totem was not meant to do harm, even if some use it that way today; its first purpose was to protect the people. That is why, in times of conflict, men did not fight with their physical bodies but through their totems. When two villages went to war, the totems came out and fought in the bush. The outcome of the battles on the ground depended entirely on this invisible, spiritual war. The lion, being the most powerful and strongest animal, the king of the forest, was naturally the totem of chiefs and great notables. That is the true origin of Cameroon's symbolism.

Today, the lion statues created at Nsimalen for the State show that they watch over the country. One looks towards the airport and the other towards Yaounde. They guard the nation: as soon as you leave the airport and pass between these lions to enter the country, you know that eyes are watching over you throughout your stay. This lion should be the emblem of the intelligence officers who work in the shadows for the security of the homeland. Because the presence of these lions means one essential thing: “We have our eyes on you until you leave, however long you stay in Cameroon.”