The Blacksmiths (Les forgerons)

Filmmaker: Guimaye Juvintus

Year of production: 2019
Location: Cameroon
Duration: 26 minutes
Sound: mono
Language: Mafa, French
Subtitles: English

“Ngwazlazlihi” or “the Blacksmiths” is a film produced in Djingliya, a village in the district of Koza located in the department of Mayo-Tsanaga in the Far North of Cameroon precisely among the Mafa, an ethnic group sometimes called “Matakam”. This film shows the socio-cultural dynamic between two social groups: the Ngwazla (the blacksmiths) and the Vavi (the Non-blacksmiths). The film is guided by Blacksmith Ltikof and his nephew Haigama, through whom a generational conflict arises. The parent protects and still preserves the tradition and wants it to continue so that we can always talk about the Ngwazla in Mafa country. But, his nephew thinks that the tradition is already losing its place in Mafa society because young people, including him, no longer give time to exercise the practices that define them: he goes to school and to church and there below, we teach them that there is no difference between human beings.

Copyright: 2019 Visual Cultural Studies, University of Tromsø

Watch Film

You may also like...