What is "takembeng"

Takembeng or Takumbeng are a female social movement in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. These movements connect with traditional practices common throughout the Western grassfields of Cameroon where groups of women perform ostracizing rituals against individuals in their communities. Toward the end of colonial control and in the early years of independent Cameroon (the 1950s and 1960s), these local practices became a crucial tool for larger political protest, often against agricultural policy. With political liberalization in the 1990s, the Takembeng women became a crucial part of opposition to the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party. The women marched with the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and would use nudity and the social status of older women to prevent troops and security forces from harassing protesters.

The Takembeng practices often involve groups of thirty to a couple of hundred women participating in wider protests in Bamenda (the Northwest Region capital), but separated from other protesters by large spaces. Nudity, public defecation and urination are used, in connection with the precolonial practices, to emphasize the shame of anti-democratic practices and to prevent disruption by police or security forces. These practices have been very effective in providing room for protests and continue to be used in the Northwest Region.