Cameroun/Festival du Mbôl 2024: Women's entrepreneurship at the heart of tradition

In addition to discovering and promoting the culinary heritage of this region of Cameroon, the aim is to encourage women and girls from the East to seek financial independence.

From August 05 to 10, 2024, the National Museum in Yaoundé will be the setting for the ^{4th edition} of the Mbôl Festival, a culinary specialty from the East Cameroon region. Inhabitants of Yaoundé, Cameroon and the rest of the world discover and savor the dish, in all its forms, on display at the various stands. Mangez, mangeons, c'est la région de l'Est qui invite", reads a banner at the entrance to the site.

The aim is to celebrate the Mbôl and benefit from its many virtues, but above all to enlighten the women and girls of the East on the imperative of financial autonomy. Promoter Rolande Agong Miessao explains: "If there's one thing women in the East know how to do, it's cook. It's often difficult for many of them to continue their studies. The idea is to tell them, as soon as you know how to cook, you can earn a living."

The program includes conferences and workshops, as well as training in project set-up and management. " During the first editions, we were just training, with the collaboration of a development consultant. But since last year, with the support of a few partners, we've started to support small projects as far as we can," says the promoter. This explains the choice of theme, " Festival du Mbôl, pour une culture de l'entrepreneuriat féminin " ( Mbôl Festival: for a culture of women's entrepreneurship ). The other objective of the festival is to put the dish on Cameroon's gastronomic map. "We can't understand why this hasn't been done yet. When a dish is so well known and appreciated for its many virtues, we think it's time to give it its own identity card," supports Rolande Agong Miessao, with a broad smile.

Mbôl is a very sticky sauce, made from bark from the equatorial forest, in which meat, smoked fish, shrimps, crayfish, eggplants and pistachio balls vie for the limelight. An enticing array of ingredients! Accompanied by foufou (a paste made from cassava flour), the taste is truly exquisite.

Its benefits are well known: on a libidinal level, Mbôl acts as a stimulant; for pregnant women, it cleanses the belly and enables the child to grow serenely; for nursing mothers, it helps produce abundant milk; for men, it helps cleanse the kidneys... These virtues make it a prized dish in all regions of Cameroon.

Marie Judith Ndongo