LAMADUBO

Volume 7 · LAMADUBO

The Sacrifice

"The Sacrifice", volume 7 of The House of Happiness, tells of the day everything falls apart for Ike, a teenager in Yaoundé. His father locks himself away and talks to invisible presences, a traditional healer steps in, and Ike and his sister Régine must choose between the hospital and the village, a decision that haunts him for years.

The story picks up exactly where the previous volume stopped: a door slowly closing on the father, a whispered line, "Don't worry, son, everything will be fine." Ike warns from the start that twenty-four hours were enough to turn his life upside down. That day the power is out, and the House of Happiness sinks into a half-darkness where every shadow seems to move and the walls themselves appear to be watching.

The father comes out of his room deathly pale and asks for beer, though he had stopped drinking. Uncle Laka returns with the man in black, who turns out to be a traditional healer, and Uncle Sylvain joins them. Ear pressed to the door, Ike hears his father talking to invisible presences and speaking his sister Régine's name. Two young people find themselves alone, facing adults who protect no one and forces far beyond them.

They have to call their mother, who lives away from the house. Hospital or village: the choice falls to Ike and Régine, and that decision, driven by fear, will weigh on the narrator for years. A volume of vigils, candles and dark corridors, "The Sacrifice" is also about a teenager's guilt and the stubborn love of a woman ready to face her own terrors to reach her husband.

"Twenty-four hours were enough to turn my life upside down forever."Volume 7 · The Sacrifice
Told by
Ike, le fils cadet
Characters
Ike (le narrateur), Le père d’Ike, Régine (la sœur), Tonton Laka, Tonton Sylvain, Le tradipraticien, La mère d’Ike
Places
La Maison du Bonheur, Yaoundé, La chambre du père, Le village (Ouest du Cameroun), Un hôpital de campagne, Yaoundé
GuiltMedicine or traditionOccult influenceChildren left powerless

Free excerpt

Behind his father's closed bedroom door, Ike hears him standing up to invisible forces.

His voice trembled with anger and despair, a heartbreaking blend of fear and defiance. A brief silence followed, stretching the moment into unbearable tension, then his voice rose again, louder, filled with desperate fury:

“Leave Régine alone, I will never sacrifice her!”

Those words, spoken with desperate determination, echoed through the stifling silence of the house, slipping through the door and seeping into my mind. Who was he talking to? Or rather, what was he talking to? My heart was pounding in my chest; an irrational fear was taking hold of me, but it was nothing compared to the visceral terror of what those words might mean. The image of my sister, innocent and carefree, merged with that of the invisible forces that seemed to haunt this house.

I felt trapped. An icy shiver ran through me as I laid my hand on the door handle, its surface cold as stone beneath my trembling fingers. I was about to go in, to face whatever lay behind that door, but something held me back — as usual, you'll say. It was as if the house itself were whispering to me not to enter, not to defy whatever was inside, as if it knew that crossing that threshold would change the course of my life forever.

The story continues in the book.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the traditional healer in volume 7?

He is the man in black who came with Uncle Laka in the previous volume. He presents himself as a keeper of the old traditions, shuts himself in with the father and insists the treatment must be finished in the village.

Why is this volume called "The Sacrifice"?

Behind his bedroom door, the father refuses, before invisible presences, to sacrifice his daughter Régine. The title also points to what each character gives up, including the mother, who faces her fears to reach him.

Updated on 17 October 2026 · By Steve Tiambo, author

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