Kingdom on Mount Cameroon: Studies in the History of the Cameroon Coast 1500-1970

404 Pages·2003·13.33 MB·English

by  Edwin Ardener

Studies in the Hist07J! of the
Cameroon Coast, 1500-1970
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The Republic of r
Kingdom on Mount Cameroon
Studies in the History ofthe
Cameroon Coast 1500-1970
Edwin Ardener
Edited and with an Introduction by
Shirley Ardener
~
Berghahn Books
Providcnce • Oxford
First published in 1996 by
Berghahn Books
Editorial offices:
165 Taber Avenue, Providence, RI 02906 USA
Bush House, Merewood Avenue, Oxford, OX3 8EF UK
© 1996 Shirley Ardener
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by
any means without the written permission of Berghahn Books.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper.
ISBN 1-57181-929-0
Contents
Editor's Introduction
Shirley Ardener
vii
1. Documentary and Linguistic Evidence for
the Rise of the Trading Polities Between
Rio del Rey and Cameroon
2. Kingdom on Mount Cameroon:
The Bakweri and the Europeans 41
3. The Plantations and the People of Victoria Division 151
4. Bakweri Fertility and Marriage 227
5. Witchcraft, Economics and the Continuity of Belief 243
6. The Bakweri Elephant Dance
Photographs by Moanga Emmanuel Mbwaye 261
7. The Boundaries of Kamerun and Cameroon 267
Bibliography 337
Index
compiled by /an Fowler 373
Appendices
A. The Wovea Islanders of Ambas Bay
345
with S. G. Ardener
B. Preliminary Chronological Notes for the Cameroons
Coast
compiled by E. W. and S. G. Ardener
351
C. Bibliography of Edwin Ardener's papers on Africa
compiled by Maleolm Chapman
365
D. Selected Further Reading
369
Illustrations
1. Joseph Merrick at an Isubu funeral 61
2. The site in Buea where Gravenreuth was killed
83
3. The reburial of Gravenreuth in Douala, 1895
Drawing of Gravenreuth's monument 95
4. Von Puttkarner in full dress, 1895 108
5. Von Puttkarner and Dominik on horse by the Bismarck
Fountain 109
6. The late Chief Gervasius Endeley, Dr E. M. L. Endeley
Chief Manga Williams and Edwin Ardener 226
7. The Bakweri elephant dance 262, 264, 265, 266
8. Wovea whale fisherrnen 344, 347, 349
9. Edwin Ardener 368
Maps
Frontispiece The Republic of Cameroon
1. The Cameroon Coast in 1600 2
2. Bakweri villages around Buea 44
3. The Plantations and the People of
Victoria Division 1897-1899 153
4. The Plantations and the People of
Victoria Division 1914 157
Figure
Some interrelated features of the population 219
Editor's Introduction
The Bakweri people who occupy the slopes of the immense, volcanic,
Cameroon Mountain, a few degrees north of the equator on the West
Coast of Africa, have unrivalled views across the plains, creeks and
shores which skirt their highland. For centuries the waters araund the
shores and up nearby rivers have attracted traders and fishermen from
Cameroon and from Nigeria, as well as men in merchant vessels and
warships from Portugal, Holland, Spain, Great Britain and Germany.
Same have merely completed their business and left; others have stayed
to wage war, establish colonial administrations, to found missions or to
settle and engage in work as farmers or take up a variety of other
occupations. This book by Edwin Ardener tells of some of the episodes
in the history of the peoples of the mountain and their encounters with
strangers.
The Bakweri refer to themselves as Vakpe. Their own name has lang
been modified by others, both Cameroonian and stranger, by the use of
the more common prefix of local Bantu languages, Ba (for people), while
the implosive kp in Vakpe has been rendered as, for some, the more
pronounceable kw, hence Bakweri.1 The heights of the Cameroon
Mountain are referred to by Vakpe as Jako, but as with the name of the
people who use this term, in this volume the more widely known
terminology for both has been followed. The translation of African terms
into English provides many problems. The term 'kingdom' itself may
seem inappropriate, not only to some people who are used to it being
applied to much greater territories and populations, but also because the
term, and its associations, might not be chosen by some Bakweri
speakers. As times change the nuances of words evolve and their
meanings, and ideas conceming their fields of relevance, are interpreted
according to the socio-political environment and the personalities of t.he
day, in a continuing process. When my busband used the tenn for the
text which forms the second contribution below, which was written in
Cameroon primarily for local readers, it did not seem to be especially
problematic when applied to the history of Buea.
As Edwin Ardener explains in his first contribution bere. three
centuries ago the tenn Ambos was used by some for people living on
islands between Fernando Po and tbe Coast. probably on thosc in what
Shirlcy Ardcncr
viii
is still called Ambas Bay. Tbc Dutch who followcd tbe Portugese took
up tbe tenn but, as is shown, its exact applications and ils variants are
difficult to detennine, and one cannot simply assume tbat tbe Bakweri
were ever intended by it. Nevertbeless tbe appellation still ecboes in
Cameroon today, where tbe tenn Ambozania has been coined by
someone, whetber in jest or prophetically I know not, for an imagined
new anglophone poJity. Edwin wrote a brief account of the distinctive
Wovea people when most of them were living on one of the islands in
Ambas Bay. Their recent forebears, who may once have bad connections
with the people of Femando Po, were courageaus whale hunters, and
bis brief study in Nigeria was illustrated by many photographs of their
fishing equipment; the text and some illustrations can be found below.
In the nineteenth century the Germans called the people on the
mountain Bakwiri, but today we hear of 'the Bakweri', 'Bakweris' (thus
anglicized for the plural) and of 'a Bakweri' (for an individual-in place
of their own singular tenn Mokpe). When Edwin Ardener lived on the
mountain in the 1950s and 1960s the total Bakweri population was
thought tobe about 16,000 (see beJow). Though a small group, Bakweri
have held a pivotal position in the area, both Strategie, economic,
military and political, which is striking even today. Their impact on the
bistory of Cameroon-both in its early days in relations with European
traders, those with military power, with administrators and with English,
Jamaican, Swiss and American missionaries, and throughout and
currently in relation to other Cameroonians--derives from their unique
geographical position and the advantages they have grasped as a
consequence. This volume contains eye-witness descriptions ofBakweri
dating back to before the middle of the nineteenth century (see for
example, that of Missionary Merrick and later of von Puttkarner below),
but here we may cite a contemporary account by the German Max Esser,
published in 1898, who said he was
astonisbed by tbeir unusually bandsome figures. They areclever at any task
and intellectually well-endowed. Moreover tbey are outstanding for their
bravery and mettle, and these qualities are seen in tbeir raids. They stood
up to the Germans as fierce enemies in the battles on the Kamerun
Mountain.2
The Battles of Buea are vividly described in the second contribution
here, in a long account originally written in 1969, but published here
for the ftrst time. Spectacular success for the Bakweri people led by the
Kingof Buea, (described by Zintgraff, after visting t11e three Bakweri
Editor's lntroduction ix
villages of Upper, Lower and Middle Buea atthe end of JanUai)' 1887.
as 'wearing his beard in lhrce plaited tresscs,' 3 was cventually followcd
by dramalic dcfeat. As a rcsull t11e populalion of Buca, according to
Esser, dropped from 2,000 (a rather high cslimatc) to 800; lhis was
probably mainly due to relocation. Tbc Gcnnans, including lhc admiring
Esser, immediately Look advantage of Bakweri weakness by acquiring
land for plantalions from lhe people on lhe mountain and around its base.
Tbe plantalion system whicb bas experienced a series of metamorphoses
in various hands, private and public, since Lhese early days, still plays
a crucial economic and social role in Cameroon today. The story of Lhe
establishment of the plantations and lhe overwbelming social
consequences to lhe Bakweri aredealt wilh in Edwin Ardener's studies
below.
Edwin bimself made lenglhy visits to West Africa over twenty years
from 1949 onwards, which for lhe last seventeen were to Cameroon.
For seven years he was based in Cameroon, taking leave in lhe United
Kingdom from time to time to write up bis material. He was financed
by a series of researcb grants, which for mucb of Lhe time be received
as a member of lhe West African, later Nigerian, Institute of Social and
Economic Research (NISER) based at Ibadan University, Nigeria It was
to undertake a three-pronged study, which arose out of local concems,
lhat Edwin flrst came to Cameroon. This involved consideration of the
welfare of lhe workers living in lhe plantation camps, a report of lhe
effects of lhe plantation system and its demographic consequences as
seen by lhe Bakweri, and finally lhe people of lhe grasslands area in
Cameroon from which lhe labour largely came were considered. Tbis
researcb took bim up-country to lhe cbiefdom of Esu, wbere be lived
for the best part of a year.4
Text from lhat part of bis conUibution wbicb deals with lhe Bakweri
and olher peoples local to lhe plantations in lhe resulting Plantation and
Viilage in the Cameroon (1960) bas been included below, as lhis book
has long been out of print. Tbis section takes forward lhe story of the
establisbment of lhe plantations up until lhe 1960s, and lhe resulting
'land question' for lhe Bakweri. It describes Bakweri agricultural
practices and marriage arrangements and other cultural features, lhe
fundamental changes in immigration pattems, 5 and lhe overwhelming
impactthese had on Bakweri village life. By this time many Bakwcri
were afraid t11ey were dying out. The majority of men and many womcn
associated this wilh lhe breakdown in traditional marriage practiccs.
Casual, or long-standing relations with men where no marriage payments
had been made, which were often regarded as a form of prostitution (tllc