Most Hollywood stars walk away from international film festivals with red carpet photos and a few panel quotes. Blair Underwood walked away from Cameroon with something far weightier. He received a public blessing from a traditional king, dressed in royal cloth, and stood before a community that calls him one of their own.
The Blair Underwood Cameroon visit during the Cameroon International Film Festival turned into one of the most talked about diaspora moments of the year. According to a Facebook post from CAMIFF founder Prince Agbor Gilbert Ebot, the festival presented Underwood to “the proud people of Babungo” with the blessings of His Royal Majesty, Fon Ndofoa Zofoa III. For African readers in the DMV, this is the kind of ceremony many of us recognize from our own villages back home, whether in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, or beyond. A traditional ruler does not bless an outsider casually. The act says, you are family, you are home.
CAMIFF 2026 ran from April 20 to 25 at the Buea Mountain Hotel, drawing filmmakers, diplomats, and cultural figures from across Africa and the diaspora. Underwood served as the face of the 10th anniversary edition alongside Cameroonian-Nigerian Nollywood actress Prisma James. Yet the festival was only the beginning of his Cameroon story.
From a DNA Test to a Traditional Welcome
For African readers wondering how a Hollywood actor ended up in a small chamber in Buea wearing the royal cloth of the Cameroonian Grassfields, the journey started in 2012 on NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” Underwood discovered through DNA testing that his roots traced back to the Babungo people of Cameroon’s Northwest Region.
The Babungo, also known locally as the Vengo, are a Grassfields community of about 14,000 people. Their village sits along the Ring Road, roughly 50 kilometers west of Bamenda, near the city of Ndop. They speak their own language, maintain a centuries old kingdom, and are known across Cameroon for their ironworking heritage and their famous Babungo Museum, which opened in 2003. For DMV readers familiar with kingdoms like Buganda in Uganda, the Ashanti in Ghana, or the Yoruba traditional system in Nigeria, the Fon of Babungo holds a comparable position. He is the spiritual and cultural head of his people.
Researchers on the NBC program connected Underwood to Eric Sonjowoh, a 10th cousin still living in the village. Underwood traveled to Babungo with his late father, Frank Eugene Underwood Sr., a retired Army colonel, and the moment was filmed for American television. Cameroonian press at the time described his welcome as fit for a returning son. Fourteen years later, the welcome went deeper. The Fon himself stepped forward to bless him publicly.
Photos shared by CAMIFF show Underwood draped in Toghu, the iconic ceremonial garment of the Cameroonian Grassfields. For our Cameroonian and West African readers, Toghu carries the same cultural gravity as kente cloth in Ghana, agbada among the Yoruba, or isiagu among the Igbo. It is reserved for the most meaningful moments. Through this lens, the symbolism becomes clear. Underwood was not just visiting. He was being acknowledged.
In a quote shared by CAMIFF, Underwood reflected on the moment with simple words that resonated across African social media: “To know who you are, you must know where you come from.”
Why This Matters for the DMV African Community
The DMV is home to one of the largest African populations in the United States. Cameroonians in particular have built deep roots in Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington itself, with Prince George’s County and Montgomery County hosting some of the largest Cameroonian communities outside of Cameroon. For these readers, Underwood’s story is not just celebrity news. It echoes the same identity questions many African Americans and African immigrants discuss across Hyattsville churches, Silver Spring restaurants, and Beltsville cultural events.
Underwood’s connection to the DMV is more than symbolic. He attended Petersburg High School in Virginia before heading to Carnegie Mellon. Since 2009, his name has been carried by the AHF Blair Underwood Healthcare Center on K Street in downtown DC, a clinic that offers free HIV testing, treatment, and medication. Underwood explained in interviews that he agreed to lend his name because HIV remained a leading cause of death for Black women, a fact that struck him as unacceptable. The clinic, now located at 1701 K Street NW, has served thousands of patients regardless of insurance status, according to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
His Cameroon trip also coincided with the release of his memoir, “A Soldier’s Wife: My Mother, the Marvelous Mrs. Marilyn A. Underwood,” which dropped on April 14, just days before he flew to Buea. The book honors his late mother, who passed in 2020, and the audiobook is co-narrated with his sister Marlo. Standing before the Fon, draped in Toghu, Underwood was completing a circle that involved both parents, even if only one was still on this side of the ancestors.
After the festival ended, Underwood and his wife joined a CAMIFF delegation to the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé, where they met Chargé d’Affaires Robert Barney. The delegation also met Cameroon’s Minister of Arts and Culture, Bidoung Mkpatt, who pledged to establish a framework for state funding of the country’s film industry. Underwood praised CAMIFF’s “vision and execution” and described the government’s engagement as exciting. He also visited Biaka University in Buea, where he spoke with students about resilience and chasing their dreams.
A Story That Speaks to a Growing Diaspora Movement
Underwood is part of a growing wave of African American public figures who have used DNA testing to reconnect with the continent. According to research published by Ancestry and 23andMe, millions of African Americans have explored their roots in this way over the past decade, and a significant number have made the journey home. Quincy Jones, Don Cheadle, Spike Lee, Chris Tucker, and Oprah Winfrey have all reportedly traced parts of their ancestry to Cameroon, a country that genetic researchers describe as a major source of the transatlantic slave trade due to its position along the Bight of Biafra.
For African immigrants in the DMV, this movement has practical meaning. It strengthens the bridge between communities that have historically lived side by side without always understanding each other’s histories. Cultural events like AfropolitanDC, MBACUDA conventions, and the Cameroon Cultural Day celebrations across Maryland increasingly bring together African Americans, Caribbean Americans, and African immigrants under shared heritage. Underwood’s blessing in Buea adds a high profile chapter to that ongoing conversation.
For Cameroonians in the DMV especially, watching one of Hollywood’s most respected figures wear Toghu and receive the Fon’s blessing carries pride that goes beyond celebrity gossip. It is an affirmation that the homeland matters, that traditional institutions still hold meaning, and that the stories of small Grassfields villages can travel as far as Beverly Hills.
CAMIFF organizers captured the broader meaning in their post about the ceremony. They wrote that Underwood’s story is a reminder that African journeys do not begin with the hardships of slavery but with the strength and artistry of civilizations that came before. For the proud people of Babungo, one of those civilizations is theirs. And for the African diaspora across the DMV, his moment in Buea is a reminder that home is always waiting.
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