THE COUNTRY - A DUAL DIVISION

Having boundaries with the high savannah and the low forest lands means that each chiefdom is able to participate in the advantages and disadvantages of two distinct ecological and cultural environments, which have played an important part in the development of a unique Bangwa culture. Each of the nine chiefdoms may be roughly divided into highland and lowland areas; each has its own market or markets which channel forest goods (particularly oil, dried fish and meat) to the highlands and savannah goods (groundnuts, maize, tobacco, raffia, palm wine) to the lowlands. Dual cultural influences are also discernible: although some Bangwa dynasties trace their origins to the forest the general flow of population and culture traits connected with social and political organisation has been from east to west. From the forest come notions concerning witchcraft, secret societies and magic. On the whole there has be a continuous and subtle amalgam of forest and savannah cultures.  

The Bangwa are conscious of this dual division between the highlands and lowlands. Many highlanders maintain that the real nwe is restricted to the open country of Fontem, Fotabong, Fonjumeter and Foto. The inhabitants of the forest are the ‘down’ people (mba tshen) who produce the valuable oil. The highlanders put a premium on hierarchical political organisation and rank; it is they who traditionally owned the palm groves in the forests, sending their slaves and servants to supervise oil production. Nowadays such master-servant links are becoming more and more tenuous: and the highland chiefs are losing an important source of tribute.

Highlanders are proud and independent; they despise farm work but are consummate politicians, dancers and carvers. Their religious scruples are connected with the worship of ancestral skulls. They consider their lowland countrymen to be steeped in the magic and witchcraft of their Banyang and Mbo neighbours. ‘Up and down’ notions are mostly stereotypes; but as with stereotypes all over the world there is a grain of truth in them.

THE ECONOMY

Two seasons determine the Bangwa farming seasons the wet season from April to November-December, with maximum falls in September-October; and a short dry season from December to April which is never completely without rain. The average rainfall for the country as a whole is approximately 110 inches per annum. In general the soil is volcanic, a tenacious red clay of limited fertility. In the highlands the less dense forests have been cleared for intensive agriculture and some areas of grassland provide grazing land for cattle and horses. Climatic variations within each chiefdom are due mostly to sudden altitude changes: a few hours climb and the topography, climate, flora and fauna have undergone a complete change.

The Bangwa cultivate crops associated with both forest and savannah climates but everywhere the staple is cocoyam and for most people it is the most satisfying, if not the most delicious food, They are of two kinds: the hairy, fluffy white ‘native’ cocoyam and the bigger, waxier ‘European’ cocoyam. They are planted in January or February and intercropped with pumpkins and gourds. After the first rains in March

and April maize, groundnuts and beans are sown. Yams are only occasionally grown and do not appear to do well. Potatoes were introduced by the Germans but only flourish in the very high areas of Fozimogndi and Fozimombin. Sweet potatoes are a valued subsidiary crop. Plantains are less important than they were: once a staple crop, especially in the forest, they have been reduced by disease. Bananas are important as fodder for pigs and delicacies for children. Several kinds of local spinach are grown. Farms are cultivated from three to four years and left to revert to bush for up to ten years.

Subsistence farming is undertaken by women. Each will have half a dozen or more farms given over principally to cocoyams but with beans, maize, cassava, sweet potatoes and groundnuts as subsidiary crops. Clearing is done by the women themselves, usually in groups. Sometimes very heavy bush is cleared with the help of an adolescent son or an obliging son-in-law, in return for a meal. Co-wives usually farm their major farms together, but subsidiary farms on land begged from divers kin will be widely separated. Only farms near the compounds are fenced: further afield there are vast unfenced stretches of farms with only vague boundaries between the farms of individual women. An important hazard is that from roaming livestock (goats, sheep, cattle). During the vital growing periods small boys of pre-school age spend long days in small grass huts shouting off marauding monkeys.

Farming in Bangwa is an arduous if not continuous task. Women have other important activities: such as the making of household articles like pots, mats, rope and bags. In quiet times they collect firewood which is scarce in the highlands. Towards the beginning of the dry season the women form parties to hunt for tadpoles and frogs: there are no fish in most Bangwa rivers. In the past large-scale diversion of rivers was organised by the queen-mother (mafwa) to snare tadpoles in dams. Apart from plantains Bangwa men showed little interest in farming. Recently, however, they have been encouraged to grow cashcrops: cocoa in the lowlands and coffee in the highlands. The production of oil has always been important and forms one of Bangwa’s biggest exports. Other permanent crops, none of which is of special commercial interest, are kola, avocado pears, ‘plums’, Indian bamboo, the ‘date’ palm and two kinds of raffia. The four different types of palm all produce wine but only the raffias and date palm are exploited to any degree. Oil palm wine, although coveted, involves cutting down the trees which is prohibited. Raffia and Indian bamboo provide important building materials and the ‘date’ palm provides fibres for mat- and basket-making.

Land, as such, was not a scarce commodity in Bangwa although fertile land, or flat land was specially valued. On the whole it was people who were lacking: chiefs welcomed immigrants whatever their status or past history, arranging for houses to be built for them and allowing them and their wives equal access to available farm land. Who owns the land in Bangwa? Is it privately owned like most other property: houses, palm groves, etc.? In the first place all the land within the boundary of a chiefdom belongs to the chief: the mountains, the rivers, the virgin forests, the farms. The chief ‘cares for the land’ only. He calls together the ku’ngang society to ensure the fertility of the soil through annual sacrifices. He settles disputes. He allocates land for community purposes. And, as far as the unoccupied forest lands are concerned, any subject of the chief may claim usufruct by

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clearing it. However, within a chiefdom subchiefs also claim to ‘own the land’, subject to the paramount chief’s overriding claims. Within the land of a chiefdom or a subchiefdom a chief has completely private rights only to those gardens immediately attached to the palace. Other farming tracts are controlled by the chief and shared out to his wives and the wives of his subjects. Within a chiefdom a noble or compound head will only own a fenced area attached to his compound: this will be used for garden crops (spinach, garden eggs, etc.), plantains and, today, coffee. Most men’s wives depend on a share of the farming tract divided annually by the chiefs. This will be a woman’s primary plot for two or three years; it reverts to fallow after the cocoyams and subsidiary crops of maize and groundnuts have been harvested. A woman will also have farms in neighbouring quarters or chiefdoms since certain areas are valued for certain crops; and six or seven farms will prevent the calamity of a crop failure in one area. A woman’s rights to her farms are essentially temporary: when they are fallow she loses any rights unless she has planted permanent crops (pear trees or coffee) or has cleared untouched virgin bush herself. In general one can say that land is a ‘free good’: there are no permanent rights to farm land; no payments are made, even in kind, to the ‘owner’ of the land. In some places however conditions are changing. Land beside the new motor roads, around important markets, especially if it is flat, is coveted by traders, who may not traditionally have any rights to land in that area. There is a tendency for commoners to sell land surrounding their compounds, which was traditionally for their individual use. On the other hand there is a fear that chiefs may take advantage of their position as traditional overlord to transfer land at will and for their personal profit. The development of cash crops and new village settlements will exacerbate this problem: up to the moment the administration, while supporting the chief’s rights in principle, has made no general ruling.

Although land could never be sold in the past this was not the case of permanent crops which were sold, leased or pawned at will since they are owned individually and quite separately from the soil on which they are grown. Palm trees, especially, change hands frequently: they may be inherited, sold for cash or pawned and pledged. In the latter cases a palm grove is handed over for a certain period in exchange for an amount of money - usually the owner also claims an annual tribute in oil. The position concerning cash crops is ambivalent but in general they have been treated as permanent crops. Rights to land and crops are thus multiple; sharing rights in one plot will be the chief as general overlord, the sub-chief in whose country the land is located, the owner of the palm trees, the owner of the coffee bushes under the palm trees, and the woman who is intercropping maize and cocoyams among the coffee.

MEN’S ACTIVITIES

The Bangwa men despise farming but they are far from being laggards. They were, in the past, pre-eminently traders and warriors but they were also producers of oil, capable hunters, rearers of livestock and specialised craftsmen. Livestock rearing has taken on an increased importance within recent years. Whereas in the past (vide Cadman Assessment Report) the Bangwa depended on buying their livestock from eastern markets they are now supplying the populous

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Bamileke areas with pigs and goats. Nowadays each household head has a pig or two the meat of which fetches high prices in the local markets: women and children are kept busy providing them with food. Goats roam the paths, often wreaking havoc in the women’s farms: they are mostly used for gift-exchange or sacrifice. Hens are numerous. Sheep are owned by the more well-to-do mainly as a store of wealth. Cattle are kept only in the eastern highlands: the chief of Fontem has a herd of dwarf cattle which is, unfortunately, fast diminishing.

Specialised activities include those of the smith, carver, diviner, priest and healer; nowadays there are also carpenters and tailors. The Fontem blacksmiths are well-known in the Cameroon grassfields. The craft traditionally came to Fontem during the slaving period; one of the chief’s slaves was a smith and he and his family were set up in the palace to make the double gongs for the lefem societies of Bangwa and the Bamileke kwifo societies, and more esoteric instruments for the tro secret society. The Fontem blacksmiths are still nominally servants of the chief. The Bangwa also excel at carving and featherwork which are considered fit occupations for aristocrats. The present chief of Fontem is an excellent carver in wood and ivory. Many masks, stools and drums are sold in the east the standard of Bamileke sculpture having declined in recent years. Stylised, skin-covered masks typical of the Cross River area are also made. Carvings of former chiefs and queen mothers are considered sacred and are associated with the important tro and lefem societies. Unfortunately the drastic German punitive expedition which occurred at the turn of the century resulted in the burning of many chief’s compound and his treasures.

The flourishing Bangwa economy has always depended primarily on trade. A geographically advantageous position between the densely populated savannah regions and the forest zones in contact with the Cross River and Calabar has stimulated the Bangwa’s role as middlemen. Apart from the always important trade in salt, oil and other local commodities the Bangwa traded slaves, guns, European articles, and prestige objects such as flywhisks, carvings, beadwork and the blue and white stencilled cloth which was valued by chiefs and nobles. Various currencies were in circulation in the past: small multi-coloured trade beads, of which the red variety (kpeng) were the most valuable, iron rods, a type of reddish cloth, and to a lesser extent cowries (mbi).

Slaves were bought in the east and sold to Banyang or Keaka traders for sale in the Cross River markets; or towards the south where they were sold in Wouri and Mungo markets. The exact slave routes from the east are unknown: some slaves in Bangwa came from as far afield as Fumban. They were captives in war, criminals; some were kidnapped as babies, as people still alive in Bangwa can testify. Within Bangwa itself persons convicted of witchcraft, murder, or adultery with the wives of titled men were also sold.

Chiefs were the principal traders although individual fortunes were made by commoners. Chiefs’ servants traded for them: they maintained special contacts both in the east and the west. On the whole this kind of trading was conducted outside the markets. Most male slaves were sold; a few were retained as palace servants,

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or to climb the oil palms in the lowlands. The whole structure of Bangwa society depended on the slave trade: to some extent its present day structure is a result of it. Many female slaves were married. Slaves were on the whole well-treated and frequently rose to positions of wealth and political importance. Descendants of slave-retainers are now important subchiefs. Unlike their neighbours, the Banyang, the Bangwa attach little stigma to slave parentage: in fact no Bangwa can say with certainty that there is no slave blood in his family. Children of slaves were technically free, although their children might continue their father’s work in the palace. Some people say that the position of a slave (efwet) or the child of a slave (mwombembe) was more advantageous than that of a man’s free born son: a chief or wealthy man feared his sons, but trusted his loyal slave or servant, rewarding them with political office and women. A childless man could appoint his slave as his successor.

Since German times trafficking in slaves has been forbidden but trading in European goods remained important and could be exchanged in the east, against cash now instead of human beings. Young men, singly or in pairs, travelled to Calabar and Onitsha to buy goods to sell in the Bangwa, Bamileke and Mbo markets. Many owners of fine, European-styled compounds and a plurality of wives owe their position to this lucrative trade. But with independence and re-unification Calabar and Onitsha were cut off and quick profits are no longer to be made. Trade goods are brought into Bangwa from Kumba now, either head-loaded or by road through Dschang. Costs have risen and profits fallen. Bangwa traders also fear the removal of tariff restrictions between East and West Cameroon and the serious competition of highly-organised Bamileke traders.

INTERNAL TRADE AND MARKETS

Most of the internal trade is in the hands of women although young men earn money by trading livestock and oil in the Bamileke markets, and wine in the Banyang markets. Women carry smoked meat and fish from the forest areas to the highland markets; palm wine to the lowlands; and cocoyams, oil and oil kernels to the east returning with groundnuts and maize. There is a general trading pattern from Banyang forest market, to Bangwa lowland market, Bangwa central highland market and Bamileke Grassfield market - all of which a Bangwa trader, male or female, may attend in one eight-day week. Wives of chiefs and nobles, on the other hand, are usually forbidden to carry out these long-distance and strenuous trading expeditions: they earn pin money by trading foodstuffs in their local markets: cocoyams, cassava flour, maize beans, roasted groundnuts, kola nuts and garden eggs. With these small profits they are able to buy small quantities of salt, meat and oil to supplement their husband’s contributions. The women who trade more extensively can afford to buy household articles, cloth and make important contributions to their children’s schooling.

Bangwa is dotted all over with markets, large and small. No chief worth his salt is without one. They are usually on the forest-savannah trading routes within each chiefdom: trade was never north-south. For this reason it was no anomaly that each of the major markets occurred on the same day of the eight-day week (amina):

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this was altered by the British administration. In Fontem (population 7,400 in 1953) there are four important markets, and half a dozen others are attended regularly by the inhabitants. A market was established in the past by a chief planting a ‘fig’ tree (nda) in front of his palace and sacrificing a goat which was buried below it. It was his duty to protect the people attending his market. He himself, however, by custom, is forbidden to enter the market on market days: he sits with his retinue outside the palace and is available to his subjects to receive their compliments or settle their disputes. Nowadays he may collect taxes or carry out local government business. Announcements are made by a royal servant who walks through the market carrying the nkeng leaf, which symbolises peace, or the royal double gong. In one corner of the large and colourful market at Fontem some of the chief’s councillors are available for settling disputes between traders. Ibo traders attend with their fancy-goods and patent medicines. Palm wine is sold in prodigious quantities in many tiny stalls. Cattle and pigs are slaughtered and sold in a special section; livestock is sold in another; smoked fish and game in another etc. Solidly built shops owned by Bangwa traders are slowly springing up around the market squares but sites for such enterprises are difficult to acquire, especially for strangers. Many regulations surround market trading a form of protection exists by which non-Bangwa are forbidden to sell certain kinds of goods such as pork; and all traders are strictly enjoined to abstain from encouraging adultery etc.

TRADITIONAL BANGWA SOCIETY

Both the Bangwa country and its inhabitants have attracted the sympathetic attention of outside visitors. Administrators wrote of the precipitous terrain, narrow cliff paths, wild, dropping waterfalls and the proud, colourful people in their lonely fastnesses: the men with their hair long, dressed in elaborate styles; the women shaven and naked. On ceremonial occasions both men and women brought out splendid clothes and fantastic masks. The Europeans admired the clean well- kept compounds, the elegant houses, the trim hedges.

Each adult Bangwa has his own compound, built away from the main paths; unless it is a modern style house with its shining zinc roof, it is invisible to the passing stranger. When a young man wished to start an independent adult life he was given a length of bamboo from his father, symbolising his consent and limiting the size of the walls of his square house. People did not live in villages, nor even in compounds of extended families. It has been suggested that witchcraft fears sent them off to build their houses in the bush alone. Others say: ‘Should we fear our friends and relations to such an extent that we should live on top of them in case they do us harm?’ Separate compounds tie in with Bangwa individualism and their system of inheritance whereby most of a man’s inheritance goes to his heir: other sons had to seek their fortunes independently.

A private path leads off the main track, winding in what often seems a haphazard fashion before reaching a suitably dignified height to descend down elaborate steps to the open dancing place before the Great House (ndia ndi) which most compounds boast. Visitors, friends and subjects meet in this house which, in the compounds of chiefs and nobles, is often an imposing building. The right to a number of poles,

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granted by the chief, indicates the rank of the owner. In the compound each wife has her own house where she cooks and works and where she and her children sleep. The compound head has his private quarters (if he is a polygynist) usually hidden from view behind a tall fence made of fern poles. Here he keeps his heirlooms, his ancestors skulls etc., and receives his closest friends. He takes his meals and entertains visitors in the Great House.

The tall solid Bangwa house attracts admiration after the squat oblong houses of the forest peoples. Flat sites are difficult to find for building purposes and areas are laboriously levelled by hand: enormous boulders which can not be shifted are left surrounding the houses. The traditional shape of a Bangwa house is a cube on a shallow circular foundation of stones, surmounted by a conical thatched roof. The size and proportions vary according to the importance of the building but the basic shape of a woman’s hut and a large chief’s meeting house is the same.

The dry season is the time for house building, and involves friends, neighbours and relations. The women work the mud and the men make the timber supports. The method of making the walls recalls European half-timbering: there is a wooden framework (here of ant-resisting fern poles) with a lattice between which is plastered to leave the framework revealed. The fern poles are driven into the ground to form a square, about a foot apart. Cross-posts (palm ribs) are lashed to the uprights with flexible vines as ropes. Mud is thrown on to this surface by women. The roof is constructed of four triangular frames which are bound on to a round tray: resting on the building the triangles join in the middle forming the curve of the roof. Thatch is of raffia, not grass as in the Bamileke districts.

The interior of the house is plastered with mud although superior ones are lined with bamboos tied together with vines making decorative patterns. There are no windows, light entering through the small rectangular door, its threshold a couple of feet above the floor. Storage space is inside the roof. Beds and shelves are built into the walls with bamboos. Traditional houses were rebuilt every ten or fifteen years, although some large ceremonial houses have been standing for nearly fifty years.

The large cluster of houses comprising a chief’s palace gives the impression of a village. The palace at Fontem is no longer built entirely in the traditional style: most of the Fon’s wives (he has over forty) live in two long rows of zinc-roofed huts. Previously the palace was a maze of wives’ huts centering on courtyards fenced off with fern poles and entered through porches. There were also the houses of the chief’s servants and for the important associations, tro and lefem. The chief’s sleeping quarters - the nti ma, or heart of the palace - was situated amidst these clusters of wives’ houses. Access to this area was difficult; nobody but a trusted wife or retainer even knew in which room Fontem Asunganyi was sleeping. At Fontem there were two meeting houses: the lemoo where cases were heard and where the chief sat on ordinary occasions, and the ndia ala, or house of the country, where important meetings involving the whole of Lebang were held. At the present time Fontem has a large concrete meeting house outside the main palace gate; inside the palace is a large three-storied -‘rest house’ built by Asunganyi in the thirties. It is used for visitors and the Fon’s adolescent sons. Behind another cluster of wives’

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houses is the large thatched lemoo, a huge traditional structure on a circular stone foundation, supported by weighty poles. Inside the walls are intricately panelled with bamboos. There are special alcoves for subchiefs, noble and commoners: the thief sits with his wives and servants at one end.

Outside the palace there is a large dancing green and beyond is the lefem: a copse where royal children are buried and where the cult association with its harmonious gongs meet on a certain day each week. It had its own servant, Mwo Bu Lefem, a weird unkempt creature who lived in the bush and cared for the valuable gongs. Protecting the palace against witchcraft was a line of stones (ledzü) and as one of the most vital symbols of chiefship a monolith called mwo ala.

POLITICAL ORGANISATION

An elaborate etiquette gives outward cognisance to a ranking system which includes chiefs, subchiefs, nobles, commoners, royals, slave servants, titled servants; also the old and young, men and women, wife-givers and wife-takers. Even within a single class - subchiefs for example - there is a hierarchy determined by the age of the title, whether it was ‘bought’ or ‘came from God’, the incumbent’s relationship to the paramount chief, etc. A subchief’s rank determined his seating in the national assembly, whether his wives wore brass anklets, the number of supporting poles and doors of his ndia ndi (‘great house’), the amount his successor paid to the chief as death dues etc.

The most obvious difference, perhaps, is between the sexes. Men and women co-operate rarely in daily life. A man has his own interests, his own friends; contact between husband and wife is minimal - even travelling together to a funeral ceremony a man walks ahead, his wives behind with their paraphernalia. Women are expected to adopt a subservient mien in the presence of men: they sit only when bidden, rarely eat in a man’s presence, and when a woman meets a man on the farm paths she will slightly bow and stamp her foot in greeting. Even today when an important man visits a compound the old ladies come out, bow down and with a swaying motion sweep the ground with their hands. Nevertheless some women achieve positions of importance; and the ‘hen-pecked’ husband is as common in Bangwa as Europe . Queen mothers and a chief’s ranking wives take precedence over men. Old women, especially the mothers of large families receive tremendous respect. Old age, in general, takes precedence over political or social rank. General courtesy, however, between all ranks and sexes is a marked characteristic of Bangwa social life. The poorest woman, the meanest servant, the tiniest child is shown a serious and respectful attention due to any individual.

THE CHIEF

The Bangwa chief (efwa) is the focal point and strength of the traditional system. It was to his chief that a man owed his primary loyalties in the past - not to his lineage or his age grade. The chief is not divine: neither he nor his ancestors form the basis for a national cult: but he has sacred attributes and performs important rites for the well-being and fertility of his subjects. A subject speaks to him with his hands before his mouth, after attracting his attention by clapping his hands twice three

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times and standing in a stooped position; he leaves his presence bent low and walking backwards. If a chief sneezes one of his retinue calls one of his many praise names: ‘great snake’, ‘leopard’, ‘God on earth’. In the past, and in some respects still today, the Bangwa chief was feared by everyone, and with reason, since his power over his subjects was considerable.

The duties of the chief towards his subjects are arduous and rarely neglected. He settles their family quarrels, their land disputes, accusations of witchcraft; he attends their funeral ceremonies; he directs community projects. The present chief of Fontem is available to his people day and night; he cures their aches and pains, gives advice, settles disputes over succession, conducts witch-proving rituals, attends to matters of local and national politics (he is a member of the House of Chiefs), and deals with his own huge compound and farming interests.

The paramount chief’s wealth can be considerable. Certain articles come to him as his due: ivory tusks, leopard skins etc., which are the traditional symbols of chieftaincy. His harem may be extensive and he has important rights in the marriage payments of a large percentage of his female subjects (his wards or azem’nkap) At the death of his subchiefs and nobles he receives death dues which might be the transfer of a marriage ward, an oil grove, or simply cash. He owns extensive palm tree forests which were cared for by his slaves and servants in the past; nowadays the groves are pawned to men who provide him with an annual tribute in kind. Palm wine is also brought to him by tappers with raffia palm concessions. Otherwise there is no formal tribute or taxation system although subchiefdoms and quarters were expected to bring gifts during annual celebrations at the capital. Conquered areas, such as Mbo, formerly brought smoked fish and game. The services of his servants (tshöfwa) are also an important source of income. The Fontem blacksmith family were originally his slaves: most of the profits from the sale or exchange of their valuable gongs and tro instruments went to the palace. The chief also expects his immediate subjects, the inhabitants of the palace quarters, to provide labour for the building and repair of his palace. The great meeting house (lemoo) is the responsibility of the whole country.

Perhaps the greatest source of wealth in the past was from trading, mainly in slaves. His sons and servants traded for him and he had permanent trading alliances with eastern chiefs and Banyang traders. His special servant in the lefem traded slaves in the west, insisting as the chief’s trader, on prior entry into the market. An attempt, not particularly successful, was made by the chiefs to monopolise the trading of guns.

There is no doubt that Bangwa chiefs frequently showed unpraiseworthy cupidity in the past. The property of childless, wealthy men was confiscated; the property of witches or adulterers sold or hanged was sent to the palace. Fontem Asunganyi had an important source of profit as a marriage broker, arranging the marriage to the highest bidder of widows or disputed wives. More reputable gains were made from fines, ‘thank-you’ fees for settling disputes, and the administration of a nobleman’s property during the minority of his heir.

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Nowadays the resources of a chief are more limited; and this decline in wealth is parallelled by a decline in political power. The chief still has marriage rights in his wards; he still owns palm groves. But his subjects are questioning his rights to a share of the bridewealth of the descendants of slaves; and his resident palm oil producers are no longer willing to hand over the chief’s traditional share. The present Chief of Fontem receives payment as local tax collector, member of the Customary Court , and the West Cameroon House of Chiefs. He also attempts to make ends meet by growing coffee and hiring out his Landrover to local traders. One heavy financial obligation is the education of his many children all of them, girls and boys, attend the local primary schools and some are in the south for further education.

ADMINISTRATION

In Lebang (Fontem) the political pattern does not differ greatly from that found in other Bangwa chiefdoms and across the border among the Western Bamileke . The chief is supreme ruler, owner of the land, father of his people etc., etc.: but important powers are delegated to subchiefs (efwantö) who ruled their own countries with an almost free hand. The paramount chief has direct administrative dealings only with his own hamlets (lepfö) inhabited by his personal subjects (his fumbe) A hamlet is in charge of an Nkem nominally appointed by the chief but the post may inevitably become hereditary. These hamlets surrounded the palace but were also scattered throughout the chiefdom between the territory of the sub-chiefs. The immediate palace hamlets are administered by bakem (pl. of nkem) usually important retainers or ex-retainers of the chief. Other hamlet heads are independent nobles, commoners and royal sons, who do not aspire to the rank of sub-chief: some hamlets are tiny, perhaps a man, his wives and children and a single servant. In these cases the title has been bought by the Nkem and he plays little administrative role. Other hamlets contain a motley collection of people; in the forests they are possibly descendants of people sent to climb the Fon’s palm trees and produce oil for trading. The inhabitants of a hamlet are mostly a mixed bunch since mobility throughout the country is high but there is a core consisting of the family of the hamlet head or nkem.

Chiefs depended very much on a body of servants or retainers who inhabited the palace precincts. They were of varied origins: some were descendants of slaves; others were the sons of female marriage wards (azemnkap) even a free man could become a chief’s servant since palace service often entailed advantages (a wife perhaps) which a man’s father could not provide. Immigrants to the country, exiled from their homes because of accusations of witchcraft or adultery, had no choice but accept the chief’s bounty and become his servant. A slave (efwet) was quite a different status from that of servant (tshöfwa) Even among the body of palace retainers there were ranks.

A retainer’s duties were varied. Some looked after the running of the palace and watched over the Fonts wives. Others supervised community work-parties; collected the chief’s oil dues or traditional payments such as death dues and bride wealth; arranged the marriages of royal daughters. One or two trusty retainers lived in the chief’s private apartments; sometimes they acquired power both inside

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and outside the palace. Loyal service was rewarded by gifts (palm groves, wives) or promotion to the status of Great Servant ( tshö fwa ndi). A powerful Bangwa chief trusted his servants more than his councillors (bakem) or royal sons (ebwo fwa): a servant would be unlikely to wish him harm for political or personal reasons.

Favourite retainers were frequently married to royal daughters: the Fontem queen mothers married, as a rule, their fathers retainers. This enabled them to remain living in the palace, and gave them the required independence not available to the wife of a noble Bangwa. It also meant that the property acquired by a servant and by a queen mother would not leave the royal family: the successor would be a royal.

The Fon’s executive council, tro ndi called ‘the Nine’, consisted of the nine great retainers of the chief. These were palace intimates; their titles were inherited by their sons but the chief had the power to change the succession. The Nine were always associated with the chief, both inside and outside the palace. They alone were allowed to sit with the chief’s wives. They shared the chief’s spiritual activities: together they were transformed into leopards or pythons, joining other paramount chiefs and their retinues in the other world where they performed feats of agility and competed in splendour. For this reason the Nine were feared, particularly by the chief who depended on them while travelling on these spiritual ventures. The explanation of the recent death of a Western Bamileke chief was that his Nine trapped him into falling into a huge hunting pit while exploring the pleasures of the witch world. The political position of individual members of the Nine was not secure because of this: several of them have been accused of witchcraft or plotting against the chief in the past and were hanged or sold into slavery. To the Nine were also confided many unsavoury aspects of government, arranging the hanging of witches and adulterers and carrying out sasswood poison ordeals.

In a sense the Nine were also the Bangwa kingmakers. It was to them the chief confided the name of his successor on his death bed. They protected the palace during the often turbulent interregnum and saved the young chief from possible usurpation. The Nine announce the chief’s death, supervise the ritual preparation of the corpse and announce his successor to the populace. They have other important activities: they make a sacrifice involving the mystic stone of the country which stands outside every Bangwa palace (mwo ala); they play a vital role in the ceremony which follows the killing of a leopard; one of them accompanies the chief when he makes a regular sacrifice to the royal skulls. In Fontem the Nine were originally slaves or retainers; however they frequently married royal daughters so that their successors become relatives, ‘sister’s sons’, of the chief.

THE SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES

The chief was primarily concerned with settling disputes among his immediate subjects (his fumbe); his subchiefs were allowed to deal with their own cases locally. He was aided in this by bakem and his trusted servants, of whom only a selected few attended his council or court (atshem). The chief sits in his meeting house (lemoo) everyday to discuss political questions with his councillors and subjects or to settle disputes, although special days were set aside for the hearing of important cases. Some decisions were taken in the secrecy of the tro house with

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