Introduction
According to Swidler (1986), culture does not directly reflect the doing of a set of individuals. Instead, it indicates a set of symbolic and practical resources found in the ways of doing, thinking, and acting that individuals use to shape their actions. This is the case of Cameroon, where customs and tradition play a central role in the social organization and daily life of communities. Among these practices, in Bandjoun, the Houe Todjom[1] occupies a symbolic position, functioning as a rite through which the newborn is socially granted Bandjoun citizenship. It is an ancestral purge composed of two herbs administered rectally to every Bandjoun newborn in order to mark ownership and belonging to the Bandjoun society. Traditionally administered during a ceremonial moment, Houe Todjom[2] is said to be an essential step into Bandjoun society, marking acceptance and belonging. This practice is predominantly carried out by women because of their central role in socialization and the transmission of cultural heritage. However, contemporary transformations linked to modernity, schooling, religion, and feminism increasingly give rise to stereotypes around this practice. These changes reflect deeper processes of negotiation between cultural heritage and evolving social norms.
Scientific rationality and biomedical institutions associated with modernity often oppose African cultural practices. Yet, such a dichotomous reading risks oversimplifying the lived realities of communities like Bandjoun, where individuals often combine multiple forms of knowledge and legitimacy. This practice is both a medical and sacred tradition transmitted from mother to daughter, with women holding primary responsibility for its administration. In modern Bandjoun, society the socialization of women and their openness is the main element leading to the reinterpretation of this ritual. Indeed, the contemporary relevance of Houe Todjom becomes particularly intriguing in an era where modern medical interventions, such as vaccination and preventive health campaigns, offer protection against diseases historically feared within local communities. This context invites deeper sociological questioning: how do modernity, Christian influence and women’s emancipation reshape the transmission, interpretation and social legitimacy of the Todjom practice in contemporary Bandjoun society? How do women exercise agency in negotiating between cultural continuity and personal autonomy?
This study primarily aims to analyze the socio-cultural factors explaining the decline of Todjom practice and the ways women negotiate tradition, religion, and bodily autonomy. It equally explores the significance and contemporary transformations of Houe Todjom within the Bandjoun community by examining the narratives and perceptions of young men and women and a set of a few elders, who occupy a strategic position between cultural inheritance and social change. Using qualitative methods, including interviews and observation, the research highlights the tensions, reinterpretations, and strategies through which women engage with the practice. It aims to contribute to broader debates on cultural continuity and change, gendered roles in ritual administration, and the evolving articulation of tradition and modernity in African societies.
Literature review
This study draws on a thematic literature review focusing on feminist perspectives and coloniality, missionary encounters, and the Christian reframing of ritual practices in order to provide a conceptual framework for analyzing the Houe Todjom practice among the Bandjoun people.
Feminist perspective
The study foregrounds women’s agency, not as passive recipients of external influence, but as actors strategically navigating competing normative orders. Rather, it has developed as a contextual and historically grounded framework that critiques both patriarchy and the universalization of Eurocentric feminist assumptions. Scholars such as Oyěwùmí (1997) have challenged the imposition of Western gender categories onto African societies, arguing that social organization in many African contexts cannot be fully understood through binary gender hierarchies alone. Similarly, Amadiume (2001, 2015) emphasizes that African gender systems of power, authority, and complementarity are quite different from those of Western feminist models. Therefore, African feminists are emphasizing the specificities and uniqueness of African realities in gender studies. The article focuses on how women navigate a modern society with the burden of transmitting an ancestral tradition in an era where negotiation and scientific rationality are at the heart of every interaction.
Moreover, Oyěwùmí (1997) stresses that practices evolve within time and space caused by the interaction between people of different cultures and socializations. Cultural identity in contemporary Africa should therefore be understood as dynamic and continuously reshaped by religious transformation, education, urbanization, and global circulation of ideas. Globalization creates new opportunities for women’s empowerment (Amadiume, 2001). Consequently, the contextualization of gender debates helps to maintain culture and its historical background. Hence, the contextual feminist lens is particularly relevant to the present study because it examines how young women in Bandjoun navigate between the weight of the practice, Christian doctrines, and education. They are as actors and not simple recipients of tradition by questioning and analyzing the pertinence of the use of the Houe Todjom nowadays, which can be seen as a diversion to their role as guidance of this ancestral practice.
Coloniality, Missionary Encounters, and the Christian Reframing of Ritual Practice
The historical transformation of Houe Todjom cannot be examined without situating it within the broader processes of colonial penetration and Christian missionary expansion in Western Cameroon. Colonial encounters were not merely political and economic; they also entailed profound epistemic and moral reconfigurations of African societies. They introduced new rationalities that redefined the morality of the existing indigenous traditional customs and traditions. In many African contexts, Christianity brought by missionaries marked a new perception of purity and spirituality, leading some legitimate rituals to be questioned and rethought in modern colonial African societies. Hence, understanding Houe Todjom within this colonial and missionary genealogy allows us to move beyond simplistic explanations that attribute its decline solely to contemporary feminism or generational refusal. Instead, it situates the transformation of the practice within longer historical processes of religious moralization, epistemic restructuring, and global cultural circulation, religious and gendered reinterpretations. The transformation of Houe Todjom must also be situated within the growing influence of biomedical rationality and modern health discourses.
Methodology
This study adopts a qualitative research design, which is particularly suitable for exploring cultural practices and the meanings that social actors attribute to them. Semi-structured interviews and observations found in the qualitative approach allow for an in-depth understanding of lived experiences, perceptions, and symbolic interpretations surrounding the Houe Todjom ritual within Bandjoun society.
Data Collection Techniques and Data Analysis
Data were collected through a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentary research. Participant observation enabled us to observe the process of administration of the Houe Todjom ritual. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between December 20, 2023, and February 15, 2024. Interview data were interpreted using qualitative content analysis. The analysis aimed at capturing participants’ representations of Houe Todjom, with particular attention to women’s perceptions of its cultural value, its social implications, and its contemporary relevance within a changing socio-cultural context.
Study Population and Sampling Strategy
The study involved a purposive sample of 32 participants, including 28 women aged from 18 to 62 years and 4 men aged respectively 45, 68, 73 and 82, all belonging to the Bandjoun community. Female informants were either married or had given birth, as for male participants, their marital status was not taken into consideration. Women were considered as a significant analytical variable because they constitute the primary social actors and symbolic carriers of the ritual. Men were interviewed in order to comprehend their perceptions on the evolution of the Houe Todjom nowadays and understand the importance of this practice from the men’s view. Participants were interviewed in Bandjoun, as well as in Bafoussam and Baleng, two nearby urban settings where a significant number of Bandjoun natives reside. The geographical proximity of these towns to the Bandjoun and the presence of Bandjoun natives are the reasons which motivated their selection. A purposive sampling was used, based on predefined criteria such as ethnic belonging (Bandjoun origin), age, marital status, and familiarity with the Houe Todjom ritual. Equally, the snowball sampling was used where some participants facilitated contact with other potential respondents who matched the selection criteria.
Documentary Sources
To strengthen the historical and cultural contextualization of the practice, documentary research was conducted through multiple sources. Archives were consulted at the Bandjoun Museum in order to trace the origins and historical evolution of Houe Todjom. To date, no scientific study on the Houe Todjom practice has been conducted. Additional sources included online platforms such as Facebook pages (“Société Bamiléké” and “Bandjoun d’hier et aujourd’hui”), as well as Father Albert’s book (1943). Scientific texts by African scholars were also mobilized to support the analysis, including Simo’s PhD thesis (2007) on Bandjoun cultural practices, as well as broader theoretical works on African oral history and gender studies (Achebe, 1958; Amadiume, 2001, 2005; Oyěwùmí, 1997), as reflected in the literature review.
Theoretical Framework
Exposure to education, Christianity, and biomedical rationality does not automatically result in the abandonment of traditional practices. Rather, it may create a situation of symbolic pluralism in which individuals navigate between competing systems of meaning.
Culturalism and Cultural Relativism
Culturalism emerged in anthropology between the 1930s and the 1950s, largely influenced by the foundational work of Boas (1940), as well as his intellectual successors such as Benedict (1948) and Mead (1978). Culturalists reject cultural ethnocentric thought, which considers some cultures unequal to others. From this perspective, Boas (1940) introduced cultural relativism as a methodological principle that requires the researcher to analyze each culture according to its own internal coherence, values, and meanings. Hence, cultural relativism is relevant in order to understand the dynamism through which culture undergoes in the modern era. From a culturalist standpoint, individuals are shaped by their socio-cultural environment, and their behaviors, beliefs, and practices are deeply influenced by collective norms and symbolic representations (Rozin, 2006).
This perspective is crucial for the present study, since the persistence of the Houe Todjom ritual raises a fundamental question on its wellbeing in modern society with preventive medical cures and vaccinations. Thus, cultural relativism enables a deeper understanding of Houe Todjom not as a practice opposed to modernity, but as a ritual whose meanings may be transformed and redefined within contemporary social realities.
The Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of this study is structured around the concepts of culture and tradition. These concepts provide analytical tools for interpreting the narratives of participants and for understanding how women negotiate the Houe Todjom ritual within contemporary Bandjoun society.
Culture and Tradition
Culture is broader and more encompassing, while tradition is more specific, representing a subset of the customs and beliefs of a group of individuals. That is, culture is a modelised way of thinking and acting, acquired and transmitted symbolically from generation to generation between human groups. Tradition is the core of culture. The two concepts differ in that culture is broader than tradition. Rather than being fixed or static, tradition is continuously reproduced, adapted, and sometimes reinvented in response to social change. In this sense, tradition functions as a cultural resource that shapes collective identity, strengthens social cohesion, and provides continuity between the past and the present. Tradition often serves multiple functions in society. It contributes to the regulation of social behavior by defining what is considered morally acceptable or socially legitimate. Thus, this study analyzes how the practice of the Houe Todjom purge has been contested in the last decades.
Analysis of Results
This section analyzes the historical origins and contemporary meanings of the Houe Todjom ritual. The study draws on narratives and documentary sources to understand the origin of the practice, its administration, and the construction of the Bandjoun cultural identity around it. It also examines the particularities of Houe Todjom, which functions as an identity maker, although the technological advancements in the biomedical sector and the rise of varied religious doctrines nowadays.
Origin of the Houe Todjom Ritual Practice
Findings from documentary review and oral accounts suggest that the Houe Todjom practice emerged during a period of severe epidemic crisis in Bandjoun[3]. Although written sources provide limited documentation on the exact origin of the ritual, the convergence of interview narratives indicates that Houe Todjom developed as a response to a deadly disease outbreak that caused widespread mortality within the community. According to several informants, this epidemic is associated with cholera, although some respondents refer to it as dysentery or severe diarrhea.
The Epidemic Context: “tchoupoû” and “nguema”
Informants expressed varying interpretations regarding the nature of the epidemic that led to the discovery of Houe Todjom. While some described the outbreak as amoebic dysentery or diarrheal disease, Teta and Tabeko (2017) identify it as cholera, an interpretation that appears consistent with local descriptions of rapid death and widespread contamination. In the Ghom’alah language[4], the epidemic is remembered under the term “tchoupoû”, which may be translated as “that which holds one’s hand.” This metaphor reflects the dangerousness of the illness, which usually leads to death. In addition to “tchoupoû”, informants also described another epidemic known as “nguema”, which was considered less deadly but was said to cause facial disfigurement, notably damage to the nose. Oral accounts thus present the emergence of Houe Todjom as a collective response to a period of major health insecurity that deeply marked the community’s historical memory.
Oral Narratives of Discovery and Collective Legitimization
Several interview extracts highlight how Houe Todjom is linked to the figure of Tamo Todjom, described as a hunter and herbalist who discovered a remedy composed of two medicinal herbs. Tamo Todjom’s successor passed away in 2023 at approximately 76 years old. Based on this information, we can estimate that Tamo Todjom was born around 1880 and lived until approximately 1921, a period marked by a devastating cholera pandemic that resulted in numerous fatalities across America, Africa, and Asia (Boloweti, 2021). Also, the remedy is said to have been administered with the assistance of Nkouamou, whose name is interpreted as “child carrier.” The following narratives illustrate the way informants reconstruct the origin of the practice:
Interview 1: There was an epidemic of amoebic dysentery in Bandjoun, and every herbalist and magician gave his own medicine to heal that illness, but none was effective. When it entered a home, it could start on a child, mother, or father, but it killed everybody in that house, one after the other. Todjom, […], brought his own medicine composed of two herbs, which healed his first patient. He gave the medicine of the dysentery to a boy, “his helper,” who went home by home to treat all the people patients. The boy carried the patients. Todjom administered the medicine. The boy called Nkouamou translated “baby carrier”. The news of the Todjom’s medicine got to the king, he took the herbs concreted it, rendered it popular, and ordered that everyone in Bandjoun should receive a dose of this medicine, patients and non-patients and from henceforth every newborn in Bandjoun should receive a dose of the Houe Todjom in order to prevent the outbreak of another epidemic. Today, even if a child is born in “the white man world,” sometimes they send that medicine before the birth of the child so he can receive it before any other vaccine. Because you will sometimes see a child in the village who is just a type, pale, elders will ask if the child has received the Houe Todjom. After reflection, they will realize that it was not the case. The child then received it. After administration, he will regain colors. So, all the Bandjoun girls and boys have received it at birth, that is why they called Bandjoun girls “Gôh Todjom” and Bandjoun Todjom, so Mr. Todjom’s name remains memorable, the successor of that Todjom died recently. So, when they said Todjom is in memory of the medicine he created. The name became famous because of the medicine he saw for the “tchoupôh”. During that period of the epidemic in Bandjoun, there was nguemah and tchoupôh, nguemah was an illness attacking someone’s nose; still today you can see its trace but tchoupôh was the most dangerous. (Interview with an informant in Bandjoun, 2024, 19 January)
Interview 2: What I can add to the version of that father is that Todjom went to the palace with the medicine so that the chief could consecrate it with his powers, all that he narrated about the start of the Todjom practice is also what I heard when growing up, it was a mortal epidemic of dysentery/diarrhea, I use both names because in ghoma’lah there is nearly no difference between both, they have the same name, that is why some people will say dysentery and other diarrhea. The illness, which is called tchoupôh nowadays is cholera. (Interview with an informant in Baleng, 2024, 15 February)
Interview 3: There was an epidemic of diarrhea that devastated infants in Bandjoun […] there was this hunter who took two herbs and discovered the medicine called Houe Todjom today […] It was reported to the chief […] The chief took the medicine and consecrated it […] and it was decided that every newborn in Bandjoun would take the medicine in order to fortify the child and prevent the upcoming of another epidemic.
The first narrative shows that the practice is framed as a community-wide protective solution, and that its value is not limited to healing, […] and continuity. In the second narrative, the respondent explicitly compares the practice to a vaccine, demonstrating how biomedical language is incorporated into local cultural interpretation. The third respondent emphasizes the symbolic role of the chief in legitimizing the remedy. The palace appears as a central institution that transforms the remedy into an officially recognized community practice. These extracts confirm the collective dimension of Houe Todjom. The practice becomes compulsory not through individual preference, but through cultural authority and communal decision-making.
The Houe Todjom Legacy
After the birth of a child and the attribution of a name, a crucial step in the materialization of Bandjoun belonging is the ceremonial rectal administration of Houe Todjom. In local discourse, only those who have received Houe Todjom can fully claim “Bandjoun citizenship.” Thus, cultural identity is not only a symbolic attachment, but also a socially regulated status. This confirms Vinsonneau’s (2002) argument that identity construction is simultaneously a mechanism of social integration and social exclusion. In other words, individuals are socially obliged to pass through this ritual process in order to avoid marginalization and rejection by the community. Refusing Houe Todjom may, therefore, be interpreted as a refusal of cultural belonging, exposing individuals to symbolic exclusion. The results suggest that Bandjoun identity is socially constructed through cultural practices and collective recognition. The administration of Houe Todjom represents a form of symbolic social acceptance, through which the newborn is officially introduced into the Bandjoun moral and cultural universe.
This legacy starts from its administration, according to Teta and Tabeko (2017), Houe Todjom is administered in seven doses, early in the morning, which represent the seven provinces of the Bandjoun kingdom, namely: “Juo Mguo”, Jye Se”, “Jye Lang”, “Jye Them”, “Jye Ngwo”, Jye Tse”, and “Jyse Mbem”. The first four doses occur inside the doorway threshold, while the last three occur outside. This repartition symbolizes the attachment and belonging of the child to the Bandjoun community. This narrative demonstrates that Houe Todjom is simultaneously a ritual of health protection, a rite of belonging, and a symbolic inscription of identity into the body of the newborn.
Thus, the ritual signifies the first step in the formation of citizenship, which means that, in this perspective, belonging transcends biological attachment to cultural and social aspects. Undergoing the Houe Todjom ritual marks membership and represents the intergenerational transmission of Bandjoun cultural heritage. Hence, the persistence of this ritual, despite modern medical advances in contemporary Cameroon, suggests that its relevance is ingrained in symbolic cultural aspects. Rather, the ritual continues to operate as a symbolic and social institution that reinforces cultural identity, legitimacy, and belonging. In this sense, Houe Todjom illustrates a form of medical pluralism, where biomedical practices and traditional rituals coexist, each fulfilling different functions within the community.
A Cultural Bandjoun Identity
Drawing on Dubar’s (2000) conception of identity, cited by Ngouyamsa and Meutchieye (2021), identity can be understood as the product of successive socialization processes. It emerges through a set of continuous “transactions” between the individual and the social institutions and authorities that surround them. Identity is therefore not a fixed essence, but a social construction constantly shaped and reshaped through interactions, norms, and collective recognition. In this sense, cultural identity is a shared set of beliefs and practices that constitutes the collective recognition of the Bandjoun community. Culturally, the name Todjom, derived from the Houe Todjom, has created a unique identity, which today encompasses broader perspectives. It is rooted in the sharing of values, language, geographic space, traditions, beliefs, and historical memory, which together form a symbolic heritage binding members of the group (Théberger, 1998).
Within the Bandjoun community, the intergenerational transmission and the proud recognition of Houe Todjom have long remained central elements of cultural identity and belonging. Several respondents strongly emphasized this pride and cultural attachment: “I am very proud to know I am a Todjom. It is my culture, so I cannot play games with it.” “You can go somewhere, and it is that name Todjom that saves your life. I do not play with my culture; I am happy to bear that name.”
For many Bandjoun informants, the Houe Todjom ritual is not perceived merely as a traditional act, but as a form of cultural protection, legitimacy, and symbolic inheritance. In fact, the term “Houe” literally refers to medicine, and is therefore described as the “first vaccine” a Bandjoun child must receive. It is our heritage given to us by my ancestors, so I cannot neglect it. That is what I transmit to my children.” However, the same participant contrasts this cultural continuity with the changing attitudes of younger generations, shaped by modern institutions, such as news, media, and social media, schooling, and Christianity: “During our time, we did that Todjom purge without any problem. We were very happy to do it. But the younger mothers today, because you see things on television, you have started saying it is witchcraft, sometimes because you go to church, and many other things.” (Interview conducted in Kongouo, 2024, February 3). From this perspective, the Houe Todjom ritual appears as a central marker of collective identity, while also becoming an arena of ideological tension between tradition and modernity.
Stereotypes Surrounding the Todjom Practice
These are some false images built around the ritual sdue to the closeness with other cultural values. This dynamic contributes to the erosion or reinterpretation of sacred cultural values historically embedded in Bandjoun heritage. The growth of stereotypes surrounding Todjom reflects broader social transformations. This aligns with Ortner (1974), who argues that social change and cultural change are circularly connected: “The implications of social changes are similarly circular: a different cultural view can only grow out of a different social actuality, and a different social actuality can only grow out of a different cultural view.” Thus, other reinterpretation of Todjom does not emerge randomly, it reflects changes in social reality, like urbanization, modernization, religious conversion, and women’s new social roles, which in turn reshape cultural perceptions. The following extracts are some common stereotypes about the Houe Todjom ritual:
Interview 1: It is the spiritual aspect of the Todjom practice that I do not know which obstructs me to practice it. I am married, but not to a Bandjoun, so I did not administer it to my children, but even if I got married to a Bandjoun, I could not do it to my kids, because like I said, there is a spiritual connotation of that practice. I do not know. I am a Bandjoun girl, but I did not receive it because my mother is a Christian and refused; she has always told us that Todjom is demonic. My religion does not allow me to do tradition, but the problem is that, since most of those traditional practices.
Interview 2: Those are territorial links and stubbornness that the Bandjoun inject into their children at childbirth. I know that entire thing; they cannot tell you the truth, but I know why it is done only at childbirth. Is to attach the baby, apart from being a Christian, I reason… so no, I cannot allow my children to be part of that practice, I do not honor my faith.
Interview 3: That thing of Todjom I do not know anything about it, I am not really attached to tradition or religion, but I hear that Todjom is a ritual that every Bandjoun, all those things are mystical, so I do not really want to have anything doing with that. I don’t hate religion or tradition, but I do not prepare to believe in those things. Maybe it is because I grew up in town.
From the following extracts, we can observe that socialization and religious conviction are sources of the stereotype surrounding the Houe Todjom, with religion reinforcing negative connotations and cultural rupture justified by Christian rebirth ideology. The prevalence of religious pluralism and the freedom of thought in modern Cameroon society are encouraging factors, which help the growth of stereotypes towards this traditional practice, especially due to the fact that its transmission is actually oral. Individuals are confronted with competing normative systems: ancestral norms on one side, and religious-modern norms on the other. As a result, Houe Todjom is no longer interpreted uniformly as a cultural heritage and protective medicine. Instead, it becomes socially reconstructed as an act associated with mysticism, witchcraft, demonic influence, or symbolic domination by the Bandjoun ethnic group.
Cultural Capital and the Houe Todjom
According to Bourdieu (1990), the cultural capital of an individual has a direct impact on its system of beliefs and its habitus. This is because the set of knowledge that an individual possesses conditions its way of doing, thinking, and acting in society. Thus, an individual is a product of its cultural capital. Hence, educational opportunities for young girls have historically been unequal in many African contexts, a tendency that drastically shifted with modernity, as girls are increasingly encouraged to pursue schooling, professional training, and higher education (Djabou, 2021). This educational trajectory is often presented as a form of emancipation, allowing women to improve their social status and reduce their dependence on family structures and traditional authority (Djabou, 2021).
This phenomenon is clearly expressed by one informant: “I am educated, so I cannot allow my child to receive a purge even if it is medicine at his young age. I am afraid of its eventual damages on my baby.” This rationality, shaped by modern biomedical logic, is not a scientific proof, but it rather emanates from the cultural capital represented by the former education of the respondent. Her perceptions of this cultural practice is determined by her level of education, which, thus, constraints her to think about the harmful outcomes of the medicine before its use.
Religion, Education, and the Delegitimization of Todjom
In addition to modern schooling, religious conversion contributes significantly to the transformation of cultural representations of Houe Todjom. Some respondents interpret the ritual not as medicine or heritage, but as a mystical practice incompatible with Christian identity. This is clearly expressed by another informant: “When I got married, I administered the Houe Todjom to my first son. My mother-in-law administered it, but he is the only child who did that thing. I refuse to let my children go through that practice because it is diabolical. Being born again, I am a new creature not attached to my village nor ancestral demonic roots anymore. You will see all those who have that thing in them are stubborn and attached to their Bandjoun background at all costs.”
This discourse reflects how religion functions as a competing symbolic authority that delegitimizes traditional cultural practices. The ritual becomes associated with “demonic roots,” and rejecting it becomes a marker of moral superiority and spiritual purification. Thus, religious capital can operate as a substitute form of cultural capital, redefining what is considered legitimate, modern, and socially acceptable. Individuals in the modern world are more and more autonomous in their system of belief. Socialized with secularism in the modern era, individuals are free to question, adopt, or reject any ideology or practice that does not align with their beliefs and rationality. Indeed, the intergenerational transmission of cultural practices is becoming increasingly complex due to acculturation and the diversification of socialization contexts.
Knowledge is no longer fully integrated into the habitus of younger women but becomes fragmented and delayed, depending on the presence of elders and their own system of values. This delay in cultural transmission illustrates the fragilisation of cultural socialization patterns and the gradual transformation of Houe Todjom from an obvious cultural obligation into a negotiable ritual. Yet modern education, urban socialization, and religious conversion are increasingly reshaping symbolic cultural values. Thus, yesterday’s unquestionable has become questionable today.
Discussion
The central role played by women in the Houe Todjom practice, combined with broader social transformations, appears to have complicated its intergenerational transmission. Rather than attributing this evolution to a single cause, the findings suggest the coexistence of multiple explanatory factors that interact within contemporary Bandjoun society. Several elements emerge from the interviews and field observations: religious convictions, biomedical rationality, which associate this practice as risky and mystical. Schooling and formal education, which expose individuals to alternative epistemologies and critical reasoning frameworks; Generational change, reflecting differentiated socialization experiences between older and younger women, these factors, therefore, create a context in which Houe Todjom becomes subject to sometimes contestation.
In the contemporary multicultural context of Bandjoun, socialization is no longer culturally homogeneous. That is, before there was a quick socialization to customs and traditions. But today, exposure to diverse educational institutions, religious doctrines, and media narratives introduces alternative systems of meaning. Interviews suggest that younger women with a former school education are more ambivalent toward this practice. This divergence reflects differentiated trajectories of socialization and portrays the changing nature of culture and tradition. Education and religious affiliation do not automatically imply rejection of tradition; they instead give rise to the rethinking of cultural heritage in contemporary society, where the biomedical alternative is predominant. Tradition, therefore, becomes less self-evident and increasingly subject to justification and personal interpretation. Also, the generational transmission of traditional values is retarded by schooling, where young girls leave home early to study, making their socialization with practices difficult. The ideologies brought by formal education in modern society now compete with the traditional systems of beliefs and practices.
Another recurring theme concerns health and bodily safety. The questioning of Houe Todjom may reflect precautionary reasoning rather than cultural hostility, as many are reluctant to undergo the risk of purging a newborn baby, especially in an era where medical alternatives are plethora. Hence, the quick acceptance of this ritual in the early days might still be explained by the lack of an efficient medical alternative. Women’s refusal to engage in Houe Todjom nowadays should not be reduced to passive external influence. The findings suggest forms of strategic agency shaped by bodily autonomy, aspirations to social legitimacy, and negotiation within marital and urban contexts. Our primary informants to retrace the origin of the Houe Todjom were men. Their views suggest a good knowledge of the origin of this practice. However, the feminization of this practice has erased the authority as far as this practice is concerned because these men were not able to affirm with conviction if all their household went through this ritual or not.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the contestation of the Houe Todjom purge among the Bandjoun people of West Cameroon reflects the interaction of several identifiable dynamics rather than a single linear cause. First, the findings indicate that the expansion of any religious dominations helps to the growth of different perceptions of the well-being of the practice. Second, the growing influence of biomedical rationality introduces new forms of bodily awareness and precautionary reasoning, leading certain mothers to evaluate the ritual through the lens of hygiene, risk, and scientific legitimacy. Third, processes of urbanization and schooling appear to weaken traditional modes of intergenerational transmission, thereby limiting early exposure to the symbolic meanings historically attached to Houe Todjom. Together, these factors create a context in which the ritual becomes subject to negotiation, reinterpretation, and selective adherence. Rather than demonstrating a simple opposition between tradition and modernity, the study suggests that Houe Todjom is increasingly repositioned within plural normative frameworks. These different women’s positioning toward this practice is due to different educational exposure, generational location, religious affiliation, and urban experience.