Plundered kitchens and empty wombs: Fear of infertility in the Cameroonian Grassfields

Abstract

In Bangangté, a Bamiléké kingdom in the Grassfields of Cameroon, local understandings of reproductive illness contrast with standard demographic indicators of high fertility in this region. Bangangté are preoccupied with threats to reproductive health. This article explores the culinary metaphors of building kitchens, choosing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, and slow and skillful cooking in Bangangté notions of procreation and infertility. The violent imagery of plundered kitchens, cannibalistic witchcraft, and theft permeates Bangangté women's accounts of infertility and child loss. The analysis suggests that infertility anxiety in Bangangté reflects women's feelings of vulnerability in the context of rural female poverty and the gender-specific consequences of political change in Cameroon.