Contemporary families threatened by social pressures

Prof. Emmanuel Yenshu Vubo, a sociologist with the University of Buea, revisits the challenges of today's Cameroonian family.

Q: What difference do you think the International Day of the Family, which is celebrated every May 15, has made since its inception by the United Nations in 1993?

A: Like many of the days celebrated, it is news on the official media and some commemorative activity by officials and activists take place. Beyond that, not much happens. The real challenges of the family remain un-attended to.

Q: Does it suffice to wait for the International Day of the Family to remember the challenges that today’s families face? How can the celebration be given more meaning and significance? Which family are we talking about?

A: The family in its class and ethnic variety is not a single reality. It is varied in scope and faces different types of challenges. The poor rural family, the urban family living on the margins of life, the bourgeois upper class family, the family across continents, etc, do not face the same realities.

The concept of the family itself is undergoing serious mutations from some groups which do not want to live in the traditional understanding of the family, but which want to reap the same benefits.

Families are breaking down from threats of social pressures. A day set aside for the family should be one for serious reflections on the multiple realities around and challenges facing the family.

Q: This year, Cameroon has chosen the theme, “The Cameroonian family: The culture of peace and tolerance.” How can it be used to mobilise people at a time when the family bonds of old are fast falling apart?

A: I do not see an immediate link between the concepts.

Q: Is there an implicit inference to the fact that families face problems related to peace and tolerance?

A: I do not think so. On the contrary, I see a deliberate attempt to bring in ideas that have been floated around and are almost over-used.

Q: If family bonds are falling apart, is it because of lack of peace or tolerance?

A: My opinion is that these ideas my not have the mobilising force that they are meant to possess.

Q: How much of peace and tolerance is still present in today’s Cameroonian families? And what explains the situation?

A: There is a lot of tolerance between parents and children. Children are very much left to live the ideas and fashions of their generation, but also admire the good old days of their parents when they learn about them. That is tolerance.

Many families have members who belong to different religious denominations. That is tolerance. Children can choose their own careers, partners and life trajectories on their own.

As for peace, there is a lot of it. Cases of feuds and disagreements noticed here and there are anecdotal. Let us not exaggerate the situation of our families that nurture the great people of today and tomorrow.

This peaceful situation is thanks to our traditional cultures that promote the ideas of conviviality, peaceful co-existence and respect for others.

An ecumenical attitude that promotes other religions as normal and membership in other religious groups as a matter of choice within a secular State, also accounts for this situation.