Remembering the Great Drought: An Oral Testimony
A firsthand account of the 1972–73 drought, preserved from the recollections of Ma Veronica Nkwenti, then aged 18.
The following is an edited transcript of a recorded oral testimony collected in 2019.
"The rains did not come. Not in April as they should, not in May. By June, my mother was rationing the grain she had stored from the year before. The elders met in the Fon's compound every three days, and after each meeting they looked more worried than before.
"What I remember most is the dust. It coated everything — the leaves, the thatch, the insides of your nostrils. And the silence. The birds left first. Then the frogs. When the frogs go, you know the land is truly thirsty.
"But what I also remember is the sharing. Our neighbour, who had a deeper store than most, opened it without being asked. That was Mbiame. That was who we were."