CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

While I was living and working as a Catholic priest in the Bangwa area in south west Cameroon between 1982 and 1993 I was constantly struck by the fact that in my pastoral work I had not simply to adapt myself to a society and culture different to my own but, like everyone else there, I had to deal with the increasing amount of outside influences, new attitudes and ways of behaving that sometimes seemed difficult to understand. Even in the short time that I was there Bangwa society changed dramatically. What follows, therefore, is as much a personal search and reflection as it is an academic presentation.

    The principal sources that I have used in the study of social change in Bangwa have been my own experience and the history of the Bangwa people which I have researched for nine years and which hopefully will soon be published. Two anthropologists, Elizabeth Dunstan and Robert Brain, did research among the Bangwa during the 1960’s. Dunstan, whose stay was shortened by illness, was primarily concerned with the Bangwa language, Ngwe, but her account of Bangwa relations with the Germans was useful since it corrects the bias inherent in both German colonial records and in the testimony of my own elderly informant. Brain, on the other hand, has written extensively on Bangwa society and culture, with books on funerary sculpture, kinship and marriage and a number of articles in anthropological journals. He has also written a novel based on the experience of the first European to penetrate the Bangwa hills, an agent of one of the German trading companies.

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Brain’s work will remain the classic portrayal of Bangwa society and culture before outside influences began to have a significant effect. However, the danger inherent in reading the work of many anthropologists, and Brain’s portrayal of Bangwa society and culture can be taken as an example of this, is that one could mistakenly presume that societies and cultures of the past were static entities. This, I think, is due to the fact that many anthropologists working in Africa during the 1960’s and before, particularly those of the British anthropological tradition, tended to focus on the ‘pristine’, ‘pre-modern’ aspects of the societies they studied and largely ignored the effects of colonialism and western influences going on around them. It can be argued that that approach is valid from a scientific point of view and that part of the task of anthropologists may be to ‘rescue’ former world views, but culture is always time-specific and anthropology must be conscious of its historical obligations. Anthropos and historia, man and inquiry, may have developed into separate disciplines of study but only when they work in concert can they begin to authentically present a given society. Brain, to be fair, does give an indication in the conclusions to some of his writings that he was aware of the significant externally-induced changes which were beginning to take place in the Bangwa society of the mid-1960’s. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to briefly expand the picture of Bangwa society beyond that presented by Brain through reference to the events which have taken place there during the past one hundred years.

Chapter two is a presentation of Bangwa society and culture as it was before the social change of the 1950’s onwards began to radically alter its character. I am indebted to Brain here but I have used his work specifically to confirm my assertion that economic motives played and still play a fundamental role in Bangwa social relations, both among the Bangwa themselves

and between the Bangwa and the ‘outside’ world. In recent decades there has been considerable debate among some sociologists and anthropologists about the role of economics in the process of social change. Some, especially those of a Marxist persuasion, would claim it is paramount while others would say that economics is simply a consequence of particular patterns of social relations (see Bloch 1975 & 1985; Firth 1975; Gudeman 1986; Gregory & Altman 1989). I have no wish to contribute to the economist’s version of the chicken and the egg debate but my own position would be to say economic considerations were often the main driving force as far as social change among the Bangwa is concerned. That the Bangwa were, and still are, heavily motivated by economic factors is, I believe, due to the nature of their environment and their struggle to survive in it.

    One question which arises is whether Bangwa society could be classed as ‘closed’, i.e. that it did not have significant relations with any other groups beyond its boundaries. Precise descriptions of a society such as Bangwa can easily founder on the complexity and paradoxical nature of human relations. In some areas of life the Bangwa society of the past was extremely closed. This perhaps was due to the difficulty of the terrain. Many Bangwa lived much of their lives in and around their village and an individual’s social relations usually only consisted of his or her involvement with the members of the extended family and the political hierarchy of the village or quarter. At the same time, though, the Bangwa were also extensively involved in trading with

their neighbours, particularly the Bamileke and the Bayang. Those trading links were part of a chain linking the coastal region with the grasslands. However, each link in the chain remained intact with contact often only being conducted at the border markets. While relations with the Bamileke were often cordial due to historical and family association, contact with the Bayang was often strained and characterised by mutual hostility. Trading was also normally in the hands of the chiefs and wealthy nobles, particularly the slave trade which formed the backbone of the 19th century Bangwa economy. The ‘openness’ of Bangwa society, therefore, did exist but has to be qualified because of the manner in which it was conducted. Where I use the term ‘closed’ in this paper I am using it not in an absolute sense but more to emphasise the almost self-contained, self-sufficient character of Bangwa society and Bangwa villages.

    Like the role of economics in social change, the term ‘change’ and the nature of change was the focus of a great deal of debate during the 1960’s and 70’s. My own understanding would be that the social changes which have occurred in Bangwa did not take place in fits and starts. Rather, it was a gradual process and, more to the point, was constant throughout Bangwa history. It is for this reason that I have included comments about change in the pre-colonial society and to further underline the non-’static’ nature of Bangwa society.

    Chapter three concentrates on the major social changes that have taken place in Bangwa since the arrival of the Germans. Although the social changes which took place in Bangwa society before and after the period of German colonial rule are different in proportion and character, three broad distinctions can be drawn between the different elements that precipitated change. Before the German troops arrived in 1899 the Bangwa chiefdoms were, as I have suggested above, closed in on themselves in many respects. Those social changes that did occur during this period were usually internally induced. The group with which the Bangwa had the greatest social contact,

the Bamileke to the east, was a society and culture of which Bangwa itself was a product. Therefore, even Bamileke influences would be identical in character to the factors which normally precipitated change in Bangwa society. The period from British colonial rule to Independence saw social changes that were external in origin but which did not violate the integrity of Bangwa to the extent that authority, institutions and beliefs were radically altered. The third group of precipitants were those which have made themselves felt since Independence. These are external in origin and the changes they have induced have been at a fundamental level of Bangwa society and culture. The permanent presence of the Catholic Church, the Focolare Movement[1] and, later, government administration, are examples of external influences impacting at a local level. Consequently, they must loom large in any discussion of social change during the post-independence period.

    The limited space available has constrained me to simplify the organisation of social and historical data. Although my presentation of events suggests at first glance that one particular source of change dominates the process of social evolution in a specific period of Bangwa social history, I do not wish to infer that it was to the exclusion of other sources of change. For example, external influences such as the government’s mass education programme may have had a major impact on Bangwa

1      The Focolare Movement was founded in 1943 by Chiara Lubich in Trent, northern Italy. It is an ecumenical lay movement of spiritual renewal with the aim of bringing unity between different Christian churches and faiths. It has also widened its objectives to bring a spirit of unity and dialogue between all peoples who seek the good of humanity regardless of whether they have a belief in a deity or not. Its activities in the Bangwa area, therefore, stem from its conviction that the spirit of the gospel and unity are brought into the structures of society through dialogue and social action. These activities include a hospital, building and carpentry workshops, road construction and a secondary school. See Robertson 1976.