Cameroon celebrates end of sex ban

BBC News, Tuesday 16 December 2003, 20:05 GMT

Couples in Cameroon are in a frisky mood following the end of a two-month strike during which women refused to have sex with their husbands.

The 6,000 women in the north-west of the country were protesting against the destruction of crops by cattle.

Acting through the local women secret society, they also took seven traditional rulers hostage.

The strike was called off after a commission was set up to investigate their grievances and propose solutions.

The BBC's Randy Azeng in Cameroon, says a traditional cleansing ceremony of the village of Aghem, in Wum region, and the village's rulers has been conducted.

The cleansing ceremony is very important because the gods of our land are angry with the evil that has gripped the village, said Elizabeth Ewi, a spokeswoman from the Ndouh Fumbwi secret society that called the strike.

During the cleansing ceremony, the paramount chief of Aghem, Bah-ambi III, slaughtered specially-bred fowl and invoked the ancestors of Aghem to pour blessings to the village. The women had spent days and nights in the open with their traditional rulers as their prisoners, an act considered to be an abomination in the community.

Men in the village who include the paramount chief have fully resumed their matrimonial obligations after being deprived of sex.

Our correspondent says some men told him they stayed faithful to their wives in fear of contracting HIV.