By Ignatius Nji
Prof Norbert PINTCH,
Dr.Senta Maria Anna Siller, Njini Victor
Prof
Norbert PINTCH
German born internationally recognized doll maker, Dr. Senta
Maria Anna Siller who is an expert in the sector with over 20.000 dolls to her
credit says dolls made in Cameroon are widely appreciated abroad. While on a
working visit to Cameroon and North West in particular the doll maker, who has
been coming and working with some four women groups in the Region from 1999 to
2007 on doll making, has it on good grounds that doll making is an alternative
source of generating income for the women especially those in the rural areas.
She explains that a rural woman having learned the art could make extra money
on her spare time apart from doing farm work.
According to her she stopped coming some eight years ago when
the women she was working with had developed the skills and they were fit and
excellent in the craft. Her coming again to meet these women is to ensure that
quality is met which for example a doll sizing 7centimeters and sold at FCFA
1500, requires more skills and challenge to give it a quality shape than a 50
centimeter doll that would be sold at FCFA 18000. When she started working with
these women in the four groups from Nkwen and Mankon, the German Doll maker
said in order to gain confidence, she did not behave like a big teacher rather
like sister and this worked so well, after three weeks the women could make
some money out of doll making to cater for basic needs for their children.
These dolls are made out of local materials like raffia and palm fiber, T-shirt
material from the market and in the beginning they used paint and needles from
Germany to colour the dolls. Every three months there was an exhibition of the
dolls at CAT and other areas where the public did savour the products placed on
sale. Dr. Senta had also met the Director of CICAM to support the project which
he did by making available printed material which is not sold considered second
or third grade which are used for making the dolls.
Doll making is the craft component at the Center for
Appropriate Technology CAT with head quarter in Bamenda working with German
partners (DGFK, SES Bonn). Haven worked in other countries around the world,
Dr. Senta Maria Anna Siller who is a Senior Expert of the Senior Expert Service
SES, says many people in the diasporas especially Germans are very fond of the
black dolls made in Cameroon with thousands of samples displayed in museums in
Germany and that she has been invited severally to carry out exhibitions at
Embassies abroad.
On the part of her spouse, Prof. Dr. Norbert PINTSCH, he says
Cameroon and many other African countries have very rich cultural diversity but
are loosing out on this great art given that many people are getting attracted
to things from abroad. As a partner working with CAT in the last 15 years, he
said the center is out to enable people see better and change their mind set
which is a problem. Appropriate technology is to assist people to develop the
things found in their communities and to live better without needing any
sophisticated appliances from abroad. The government spends much more money on
building infrastructures that they don’t need. To him energy can never be enough
so what is require is to maximize the use of energy that is available by
building structures that require less energy to run. For example a hospital
created in a hot or very cold area does not require a concrete structure for a building
rather it should build with earth blocks capable auto regulation to obtain natural
normal room temperature with very little energy to run only the laboratory
machines. Renewable energy such solar panels can be provided in small
communities to curb the number of rural exodus for city life which is very
costly maintain. Prof. Dr. PINTSCH challenged the young people to pursue education
that can be of use to them on their daily lives than focusing on the hope of
becoming a Minister of State or President of the country. The coordinator of
CAT, Mr. Victor Njini told Eden that the prime objective of the center is to
keep on educating the people on how to do things by themselves and live better
with minimal dependency on the government or other people. The response from
the public he said is positive with the use of solar lamps in most council
areas and so far some Technical schools in the region do send Teachers to come
do Internship at CAT. Prof. Dr. PINTSCH
said success can not be measured on a straight line given that it is a
continuous process of educating the people on mentality change. To him, if a
handful of persons of the 22 million Cameroonians could adhere to this concept
of thinking and doing things then success would have been registered enormously.
Prof. Dr. PINTSCH also elaborated on a Royal University
project that was announced some years back saying they are still in the process
of looking for money to roof the temporary building to host the institution at
Alahnki-Mankon. At the level of the German Embassy they had tabled a request
for funds to roof that structure and provide water and it is still under
process and hopefully in the days ahead something positive might emanate from
that direction. The envisaged Royal University center is to host the Center for
Appropriate technology and other institutions.
The duo spoke to Eden on February 13 2015, Eve of an open
door day of CAT where young star club of CAT, dolls producers, craft producers
registered with CAT and all those interested in renewable energy and innovation
in hand craft work were invited to be part of the occasion at their Bamenda
Station road esplanade. It should be noted that Dr. Senta Maria Anna Siller was
awarded three medals in Menchum by a group of women associations that she
assisted to set up a network to improve on indigenous medicine and others.
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