The Bangwa of Cameroon pt 1

THE BANGWA OF WEST CAMEROON

The first European penetrated the Bangwa mountains in 1898; he was Gustav Conrau , a German trader and colonial agent who was seeking trading contacts and supplies of labour for the southern plantations. He recorded his impressions of the country with some enthusiasm and many of the features of the environment strike a visitor in the nineteen sixties as they struck him seventy-five years ago: the awe-inspiring mountain scenery, with its accompanying steep, sometimes perilous paths, crossed by rushing torrents even in the dry season; high tumbling waterfalls; isolated compounds behind plantain groves and hedges, the imposing lines of the tall Bangwa house; the wealth of material culture and the quiet dignity of the chiefs and the deceptive subservience of his wives. The situation is slowly changing: zinc roofs are steadily replacing the conical thatches, a few years ago there was opened a motor road linking Fontem with Dschang in East Cameroon and a dry season road is being built from Fontem to join the Mamfe-Tali road in the west. But in 1965 it was still an arduous two-day trek from the road terminus to Fontem, the capital of the largest of the nine chiefdoms, Lebang. The path traverses the Banyang forests, passing through their villages strung out on either side of a sandy street; crossing fast-flowing tributaries of the Cross River by means of woven swing-bridges or on the shou1der of a stalwart Banyang, accustomed to the rivers’ treacherous currents and deep pools. Steep, boulder-strewn paths indicate one’s arrival in Bangwa. Inside the country there is a complicated interlacing of paths and tracks which wind tortuously up and down precipitous slopes or along escarpments. These paths connect the separate chiefdoms, the numerous markets, and the savannah country of the east with the forest country of the west. The main road leads from Biagwa (Banyang) to Fontem, where the chief palace and market stands. But since each of the nine chiefdoms has a boundary with the forest and the savannah a series of parallel paths pass through each chiefdom. From the muggy heat and closed-in feeling of the forests one climbs five thousand feet to the cool, open country of the highlands. Most of the Bangwa inhabit the middle regions (at about three to four thousand feet), where the sparseness of oil palm groves indicates the beginning of a highland climate: but compounds are scattered all over the region, the highest inhabited point being about 7,000 feet, the lowest about 1,500 feet.

THE NAME ‘BANGWA’

The name ‘Bangwa’ conveniently describes all the inhabitants of this cluster of nine chiefdoms although they do not, in any sense, constitute a tribe or a single political unit. The word derives from the stem nwe (or nwa in the northern dialects) which refers to both the country and the language. ‘Bangwa’ therefore correctly refers to the people who speak nwe and inhabit the narrow strip of country in West Cameroon which forms the foothills of the section of the East Cameroon plateau inhabited by the Bamileke. It is however, doubtful whether all in the inhabitants of the nine independent chiefdoms ever thought of

themselves as ‘we, the Bangwa’, before they were grouped together as a unit of local government by the British administration. Each Bangwa chiefdom maintained much closer links with its neighbours, the Bamileke chiefdoms to the east, than with their Bangwa neighbours to the north and south. The term nwe is, moreover, used more specifically to describe the highland areas of the four chiefdoms, Fontem, Fotabong, Fonjumeter and Foto Dungatet . Another term, Mok, describes the country of the two northernmost chiefdoms Fozimogndi and Fozimombin, which are linked geographically and historically with other Mok chiefdoms among the Bamileke. Nowadays the term Bangwa is convenient since it describes this cluster of centralised chiefdoms, speaking a language closely related to their Bamileke neighbours but cut off from them by the accident of European rule.

THE LANGUAGE

The Bangwa speak a Bantoid language which is closely related to languages spoken by the Western Bamileke , particularly around Dschang and Fondongela. Important dialectical differences, however, occur among the Bangwa and the Bamileke. On the whole the degree of mutual understanding depends on proximity: the inhabitants of Fontem, Fotabong and Fozimogndi have no difficulty in understanding dialects spoken by their immediate Bamileke neighbours (Fongundeng, Fongo Tongo and Foto: all in East Cameroon ) with whom they have close economic and social links. Greater differences occur between the southern Bangwa chiefdoms and the northern Mok chiefdoms, which were cut off in the past by geographical and economic factors: most links were east-west, not north-south.

There are noun classes. The plural is formed by addition or change of prefix, but some make no distinction. There is concord with the possessive. There is no clear distinction of gender classes. A word may stand for several nouns depending on the change of tone. There is a considerable lexographic resemblance to Bantu*. According to local speakers Bali (Mungaka) and Ngemba languages are akin to nwe. It appears that Bangwa is linked to other Bamileke languages even as far as Fumban through a chain of mutual intelligibility.

The languages of their western and southern neighbours are distinct although there is a considerable amount of word-borrowing, especially between the Bangwa and Banyang. Few people apart from those living on the boundaries, speak Mbo or Mundani but Banyang is spoken by male traders and members of the popular secret societies imported from the west. Nearly all Bangwa, both men and women, speak pidgin English, evidence of their keen trading propensities.

THE CHIEFDOMS - POPULATION FIGURES

The nine chiefdoms, the northernmost first, are: Fozimogndi, Fozimombin, Fonjumetor, Fotabong I, Foto Dungatet , Fontem, Foreke Cha Cha and Fotabeng III . The names given are the ones in current use and are in fact the chiefs’ titles,

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* Dr. Elizabeth Dunstan is making a descriptive study of nwe at Ibadan University.

Fontem, for example, is in fact the chief’s title; his country is called Lebang; and the capital where the palace and market are situated is called Azi. Most commonly Fontem is used to cover all three cases, The population figures given below are the official figures of the 1953 census; they should, in my opinion, be almost doubled to give a more exact picture of the present population. It will be noted that females comprise sixty per cent of the figure since an important number of persons, mostly males, are working and living outside Bangwa.

Fozimogndi and Fozimombin (together) 4, 047

Fonjumeter 2,432

Fotabeng 1,909

Foto 1,546

Fossungo 767

Fontem 7,400

Foreke Cha Cha and Fotabong III (together) 1,462

NEIGHBOURING PEOPLES

The Bangwa inhabit a somewhat inaccessible region but they have always maintained contacts with their neighbours on all sides: the Bamileke to the east, the Mundani to the north-west, the Banyang to the west and the Mbo and Nkingkwa to the south. Links have been economic, cultural and historical.

The Mundani, who claim to have migrated to their present position from the west are very different in language, social organisation, and material culture from the Bangwa although they have adopted elements of the latter’s political organisation: titles, chiefship, secret societies. Bamumbu, the most important of the five independent Mundani chiefdoms, has one or two small Bamileke enclaves and the two languages (Mundani and Bamileke) are spoken along the watershed area. At the time of German penetration Fozimogndi and Fozimombin, the two northern most Banga chiefdoms, were at war with their Mundani neighbours over the ownership of extensive palm groves and there are still Mundani areas within the territory of these two chiefdoms. The Bangwa and Mundani today share a council and treasury, but the two peoples lack basic common interests and there is a good deal of mutual suspicion. To an average Bangwa the Mundani are people who marry young girls of tender years; to an average Mundani the Bangwa are the sort of people who marry their prettiest daughters to the most senile elders.

The Banyang. The Bangwa have always had vital trading links with the Banyang, in whose markets they bought, or exchanged for slaves, such necessities and luxuries as guns, cloth, currency beads, salt, and miscellaneous European goods. The Bangwa were the middlemen in the savannah slave trade. Consequently, for the sake of smooth economic relations, the Bangwa and Banyang had an uneasy alliance, with occasional disturbances. Legend recalls that the son and heir of Chief of Fontem was captured and enslaved by the Banyang; he was only released through the intervention of the wife of the Chief of Tali to whom a payment of seven slaves was made. This story is used to justify Fontem’s annual tribute to the Tali chief, on the other hand it could hardly symbolise Fontem’s political subordination to Tali. It may have been a tributary recognition of the importance of the Tali market in Bangwa economy. The Bangwa also remember

with bitterness that it was the Banyang who aided the Germans in their punitive expedition against Fontem after Conrau’s death.

It is interesting that a detailed study of the dynastic origins of Bangwa chiefs and subchiefs, both in the highlands and the lowlands, reveals much closer links with the Banyang. Of the paramount chiefs, Fonjumeter and Foto both claim Banyang origin, a claim attested in the village of origin. In the present century Bangwa-Banyang relations have shifted. The Banyang no longer purvey European goods to the Bangwa since the latter are the better traders and have traded directly to the source of European goods. But the Banyang offer interesting bargains in the form of effective anti-witchcraft medicines (mfam etc.); witchcraft proving societies; and, in the past, powerful war magic (ajia). They also market the most colourful and prestige-ful recreational societies which originate in Calabar and Ekoi. Mortuary celebrations nowadays consist of rowdy exhibitions from members of these societies (nyangkpe, angbu, alungatshaba) which are slowly replacing the more restrained societies and dances of the highlands.

The Mbo. To the south of Foreke Cha Cha and Fotabong III live the Mbo sturdy warriors with whom the Bangwa have a long tradition of enmity and warfare, stemming from disputes over boundaries, oil palm groves and the kidnapping of each other nationals for cannibalistic or enslaving purposes. The Bangwa admire the Mbo (they have never admired their allies the Banyang) whom they drove from the lowland areas of Lebang (Fontem) under the generalship of Chief Asunganyi , towards the end of the last century. Since the turn of the century the Mbo have been restricted to the southern banks of the rivers Betse and Betenten, A fig tree in the large Mbo market, Elumbat, is supposed to symbolise the Bangwa victory. According to the Bangwa the Mbo also brought an annual tribute in smoked fish and game to Fontem.

The Mbo of West Cameroon originate from the Sandjou area in East Cameroon , and they played an important part in the early dynastic history of Bangwa, but especially Western Bamileke , chiefdoms. Foreke Cha Cha has historical connexions with Mbo; Fongo Tongo , Foto, Foreke Dschang , Fondongela, all Bamileke chiefdoms, claim origin from the Mbo. In other Bangwa chiefdoms minor subchiefs claim Mbo ancestors.

The Nkingkwa: A small, but interesting people inhabit the mountainous area to the south, between the Bamileke and the lowland Mbo. These are the Nkingkwa, divided into chiefdoms on the Bangwa pattern but with a very different culture and language. They are linguistically related to the Mbo; but they are inter-marrying with the Bangwa and adopting their institutions, They all speak nwe from an early age. Their present chiefs are of Bangwa or Bamileke origin but there is a kind of dual chiefship since their ritual leaders, the traditional ‘owners of the land’ are Nkingkwa lineage heads who relinquished political overlordship to invading northerners. I believe the Nkingkwa represent an important intermediary stage in a process of Bamileke-isation which has been going on for centuries throughout the area of my study. It eventually involves the loss of a people’s original language, the adoption of savannah culture and political institutions, the individuation of compounds etc. They may provide a hint of explanation for much Bangwa history

which is lost in the past. The Nkingkwa are therefore half-way along a developmental line which has been completed in the Western Bamileke chiefdoms and the highland Bangwa areas; but not yet completed in the lowlands. Thus Foreke Cha Cha , the southernmost Bangwa chiefdom, borders Mbo and has a dialect laced with Mbo words, and traces dynastic connexions with Mbo lineages.

The Bamileke: There is no doubt that the Bangwa have closest linguistic, cultural and social affiliations with their eastern neighbours the Bamileke. The name Bamileke, is an administrative term (derived, perhaps, from the Bangwa words mbe m’leku ‘people of the Savannah’) used by the Germans to describe a very mixed grouping of independent chiefdoms, well-nigh a hundred of them, scattered over a vast fertile plateau and centering on Bafang, Bangangte, Bandjoun, Bafoussam and Dschang. A common language (but with important dialectical variations) and some wide-spread shared cultural elements give them a degree of unity in which the Bangwa share.

Trading contacts with the Bangwa’s immediate Bamileke neighbours have always been important. In the olden days chiefs had trading alliances involving the exchange of guns, slaves and European goods. Today the Bangwa provide the eastern markets with oil, foodstuffs (cocoyams mostly) and livestock in return for raffia wine, groundnuts and maize. Even the international boundary between the former British and French trusteeship territories, involving different currencies, customs duties, laissez-passers etc., did not prevent a continuance of close commercial and social links. Many Bangwa families originated in the east and close links are still maintained. Fotabong I is connected with the important chiefdom of Foto near Dschang. Inter-marriages are common - the Bangwa and Bamileke of the west share a similar pattern of marriage payments.

Like the Bangwa the Bamileke are great traders; many of them have become very prosperous and scattered throughout the Cameroon in positions of economic influence. Their political ambitions, however, have never been satisfied; this, plus a general anti-colonialist sentiment, may account for the general outburst of terrorism which involved attacks on traditional chiefs and expatriate administrators with harsh reprisals by the gendarmerie. The Bangwa felt only slight repercussions of these troubles between the Bamileke and the East Cameroon administration in the late fifties and early sixties. The British colonial administration, often through necessity, interfered far less in the internal affairs of the Bangwa chiefdoms which were cut off from the administrative centre, at Mamfe; the British relied heavily on indirect rule, and local government has remained firmly in the hands of the traditional rulers. In the east things were different: there were no customary courts, chiefs were often dismissed or appointed by the administration. Certain customs which were considered heathen or inefficient were prohibited. Forced labour was the rule until recent years; and the chiefs who had been deprived of their traditional source of power (the respect and tribute of their people) were obliged to round up labourers for the coffee and cocoa plantations belonging to Europeans. In Bangwa, after the first unfortunate experience of German attempts to recruit labour for the plantations, the Bangwa. were never asked to organise labour gangs. Thus although the Bangwa lagged behind their brothers the Bamileke in acquiring European technological benefits their social transition from the pre-colonial world to the modern one has been less violent and characterised by slower change.

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