Youth Day is celebrated in many countries and Cameroon happens to be one of the countries that recognizes this day. Cameroon holds the day as a national holiday every year on February 11th. It’s a day to honor all the youth and embrace the importance of education. Many towns around the country celebrate the day by holding a parade. I attended a parade in Bamenda for Youth Day. Children from all schools in the city participated in the parade. It was not only very interesting to see various school uniform designs, but also how gender plays a role in the march. In almost all sections of the parade, girls and boys were separated. In other words, girls marched together in one group while boys marched together in one group. Almost all girls wore dresses while all boys wore pants. Some school groups got creative by creating party hats or playing musical instruments.

Children of all ages, ranging from preschool to high school, participated in the march.

Some children raised awareness about current issues in the parade.

Note in this picture that these are school girls who are wearing pants. It’s a very rare sight as most girls wear dresses to school

Some children used the march to raise their voice about global issues.

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