The collaboration between the pastoral nomadic Mbororo, Maloum Oumarou Nduudi and a French Catholic missionary Henri Bocquené led to the publication of one of the first accounts of the Mbororo way of life by the indegenious person. The book"Moi un Mbororo" was published in 1986 and was subsequently translated into English by Philip Burnham as "Memoires of the Mbororo".
Oumarou Nduudi was born in today's Nigeria and spent his early years leading a pastoral life among his family. Severe leprosy disease forced him to settle down in Ngaoundere in the Adamoua Province of Northern Cameroon. During his time in Ngaoundere he became widely known for radio emissions and life perfomances through which he popularized the Mbororo culture.
Father Henri Bocquené dedicated his life to the collection of stories, proverbs and audio-visual documents about the Mbororo and Fulani populations of the region. He had a deep respect for the Mbororo cosmology and culture and suffered intense pain on their behalf, seeing how the modernization process in Cameroon was reducing their way of life. He did everything possible so that the knowledge he had helped to promote, along with Malam Oumarou Ndoudi, would be accessible to future generations of Mbororo ansd others around the world. Before his death in 2000, Father Bocquené donated all the texts, photos and audio-visual material about Mbororo to the Ngaoundere Anthropos programe.
A short film presenting the collaboration of Oumarou Nduudi and Father Bocquené was recently made out of the footage shot in 1980's in Ngaoundere. The film, "Memoirs of a Mbororo" can be watched here.
Oumarou Nduudi and Father Henri Bocquené in photos
