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Eugenia Shanklin, professor, The College of New
Jersey
Research: Anthropology and Archaeology, Revisiting the
Survivors of Lake Nyos, Cameroon's Exploding Lake
Cameroon
September 1999-January 2000
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During
the 1999-2000 academic year, Eugenia Shanklin held her second
Fulbright grant to research local myth surrounding Cameroon's
"misbehaving" or "exploding" lakes. Shortly
after the completion of her first Fulbright to Cameroon in 1985-86,
Shanklin had the opportunity to witness firsthand the impact of
an exploding lake on local populations. The mysterious Lake Nyos
tragedy in 1986 left entire villages with few survivors and no
clear explanation of how it occurred. In 1987, Shanklin was invited
to visit with the Nyos survivors and document the birth of local
myth explaining the disaster. Her most recent Fulbright grant
allowed her to continue to map its evolution. A professor of anthropology
at The College of New Jersey, she is particularly interested in
the origin and development of myth, how and why it is created
and the ways in which it is altered over time.
In collaboration with her host country colleague, Dr. George
Mbeh, Shanklin has, over the years, visited with survivors and
documented their versions of what happened the night that Lake
Nyos killed nearly 2000 people. In 1999, Shanklin and Mbeh interviewed
survivors to document how the local history surrounding the event
has changed. Shanklin is currently preparing to publish a pamphlet
that combines the many different explanations of the Nyos explosion,
those based on myth and on western science. The pamphlet will
be targeted toward the Cameroonians themselves in the hope that
it will contribute to local understanding of the event. All proceeds
generated from the sales of the pamphlet will go to the newly
established Friends of Nyos Foundation. The foundation, created
by Shanklin and her colleagues during her recent grant, will generate
funds for repairing the facilities in the survivors' camps, improving
their water systems and providing general maintenance as needed.
For more information about Lake Nyos and the Friends of Nyos Foundation,
visit http://shanklin.intrasun.tcnj.edu/cameroon.
Of her Fulbright experience, Shanklin said, "The experience
was of great professional value to me, since it allowed me finally
to answer the questions I first asked 14 years ago. . . Finding
the answers to these questions in this particular instance is
for me, a considerable achievement."
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