COVID 19 Immunization (Vaccine) Reticence and Traditional Healthcare Resilience among the Mbororos of the North-West Region (Cameroon), 2020-2022

Western societies such as the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom among many received news
of vaccines as a revolutionary phase to complement extant barrier strategies like social distances and respect for
hygienic conditions to curb the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic while some communities cast doubts on
the genuineness of the scheme. Among those who have been reticent to the vaccine solution are the Mbororo Fulani, a
relatively hermitic ethnic group in the North West Region of Cameroon. This paper discusses the perceptions of the
Mbororo Fulani about the COVID-19 vaccines and projects the options they made with indigenous traditional
medicine in the local fight against the pandemic. The article traces the outbreak and spread of the pandemic in
Cameroon and highlights the overwhelming influence of anti-vaccination information in triggering and sustaining an
ensuing characteristic of vaccine hesitancy among the Mbororo communities in the North West Region of Cameroon.
The research relied on primary and secondary sources. Primary sources, mainly oral interviews were collected from
seven Mbororo communities; Acha Tugi, Baba II, Banjah, Nkambe, Nkwen, Sabga and Santa. The data was analyzed
following the qualitative descriptive analysis. This paper argues that misinformation sowed the seeds of an enduring
shared characteristic of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the Mbororos which accelerated a reliance on traditional
healthcare services. The findings revealed that most of the Mbororos did not believe in the reality of COVID-19 and so
associated any public health measure to propagate information on barrier measures and administration of vaccines as
conspiracy theories destined to exterminate the Mbororo communities in the North West Region. More so, the
prominence and relative ease with which traditional medicine was introduced to tackle the COVID-19 related
symptoms sustained the deep state of denial and adherence to anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. On the other hand, it
legitimated indigenous response mechanisms to global health threats in spite of internationally well formulated and
approved scientific protocols