By Bakah Derick in Bamenda
Bamenda: Thursday May 21, 2020 is feast of the Ascension in a typically Roman Catholic city like Bamenda in Cameroon where the feast which commemorates the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven is observed as a public holiday.In normal times many will go to church in the early hours for prayers and Holy Mass. The times are not normal with a three years old armed conflict and now the coronavirus pandemic.
Bakery shelve in Bamenda
The people have stayed home for three days that is from Monday May 18 to Wednesday 20 ordered by leaders of the armed conflict in what is now known as ghost town and lockdowns. They are recurrent and life threatening. City dwellers obey this without a second thought. With the coronavirus pandemic, Church attendance is reduced and so many are home.
"I heard like a rumour on Sunday that there will be a ghost town from Monday to Wednesday. I didn't know why but I can't ignore that. I take it serious because I am a business man and I can't risk my business so I have to stay home." Kevin as he will want to be called said as he walks into a bread shop bakery at Foncha Junction in Nkwen.
He will emerge from the shop a few minutes later with a fallen face. "There is no bread." He said in anger as he walked away to his car. Asked on where he was going to, he said I have to look for bread for the children. This is a story idea so I ask to.join him in the bread search. We will then visit two bakeries before getting to mobile Nkwen; There is no bread.
Then we pass another at cow street with same response to the commercial avenue where we met empty bread shelves. We have to separate here because I need to understand why there is no bread on town.
"The bread we made on Sunday was all bought and we could not make bread because it was ghost town. We only have to make bread this morning. If you can wait then you wait. We may only be through by 10am." The bakery manager tells me looking very unhappy.
Another Bakery shelve in Bamenda
As I returned I made stops where we had passed before. Now I am alone and can spend some time with the bakery owners.
"Derick come behind here and see. This is bread we produced on Monday evening" he takes me to what looks like a store. Bread is packed in bags and he tells me "See for yourself, this bread is bad we have to throw this. It is about 15 bags at least five hundred thousand is gone.... normally we make bread on Monday nights so as to serve our customers on Tuesday morning but unfortunately, when we came here on Tuesday morning we saw places closed and we could not open. We tried to sell some but people kept saying that today was ghost town and we had to lock and pack the bread. Today it is all bad." A bakery owner who demands anonymity explained adding that they may only have bread on Friday.
The bakers are standing nearby looking tired but doing nothing. They seem to share the loss.
"I think one of the things business owners need to understand is their environment. They have to follow information from official and unofficial sources so as to avoid this kind of loss. I was coming to buy bread with the understanding that they came earlier to bake but unfortunately, they didn't foresee that. In their place I know we have security challenges but if they came before 6am at least we should have had bread by now." Terrence advised as he returned home after not being able to get bread.
"Yesterday I had to finish the small flour I had home to make puf puf for my children. I didn't know places will be locked so I bought small bread on Sunday evening to cover Monday since it is a normal ghost town day and Tuesday morning which I don't worry coming out. This morning I can't get bread so I have to get flour to go do more puf puf or something else for their break fast. It is very challenging but we are getting use to already. Belinda Lendzemo tells me as she walks out of a bakery without the bread she came loking for.
While bakery owners need to develop coping strategies, families will also go for ideas that can always make breakfast available, bread or no bread. The no bread days have been many since the start of the armed conflict and there seem to be many in the coming days as the end of the said conflict remains out of sight.
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