Pideuma 31, 1985

  THE PALACE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS IN THE CHIEFDOM OF NGAMBE

  DAVID PRICE


  I. Introduction*

  The chiefdom of Ngambe is one of the ten Tikar chiefdoms which are situated to the east
  of the north-south divide formed by the Mbam and the Mapé rivers.  The capitals are shown on
Map 1.  The stretch of the Mbam above its confluence with the Mapé has been a provincial
boundary throughout this century which has meant that Bankim and Bandam have been
administered separately from the Tikar chiefdoms to the south.  In the 19th Century, too, it was
politically important, marking a limit between the spheres of influence of Banyo and Tibati.  The
southern chiefdoms were administered directly from Yoko from the advent of the Germans until
1974 when they were grouped together as the District of Ngambe-Tikar within the Sub-
prefecture of Yoko.  The village of Ngambe then became the headquarters of the local
administration.
  In the second quarter of the 19th century, the Tikar chiefdoms south of the River Mbam
  suffered raids from Fulani-ruled Tibati and certainly by the late 1840’s they had been made
tributary.1  Franz Thorbecke, who was the first ethnographer to visit this region in 1907-8 and
again in 1911-12, spoke with informants whose memories spanned the second half of the 19th
century.  To judge from their accounts, Ngambe’s emergence as a major power amongst the
southern Tikar chiefdoms occurred c. 1860 (Thorbecke 1916: 17; 1919: 72, 75).  At that time,
the capital of Ngambe was located near modern day Mb’çndi   Mbondi (Map 2), at a site now
called MbumQ  Mbumae.2
  According to oral traditions, a conflict arose with Nditam which forced the people of
  Ngambe, led by their chief Mçndji-Djwã Mondji-Djwã, to retreat northwards.  They found
temporary respite


*The fieldwork upon which this paper is based was conducted between March 1975 and March
1977, and sponsored by the Social Science Research Council and the Coca-Cola Company Ltd.
For the sake of economy and simplicity Tikar terms have only been very approximately
rendered, and tones have been omitted.  Ellen Jackson (S.I.L.) who is working on the Bankim
dialect of Tikar has kindly informed me that Tikar has three level tones and three glides, low-
mid, low-high and high-low.  I should make it clear that the present transcription does violence
to semantic distinctions, as will appear, in due course, when Miss Jackson publishes her
material.
The vowel phonemes of the Ngambe dialect of Tikar are:

  i u
  e o
  è ‘ ç
  Q a



  1Barth collected an itinerary from a participant in a slaving expedition mounted by Mohamman Sambo of Tibati
in 1848-9.  It provides firm evidence that the southern Tikar chiefdoms were then part of Tibati’s domain (1857:
507, 624-7).
2MbumQ  Mbumae is a contraction of Mbumi-mb’   ~Q  Mbumi-mbae.  Mbumi means a site that has been

  abandoned and mb’Qis a term used to distinguish a village (   ~çns  nso ) which is a chiefdom capital from other

  villages.


 






map1
Map 1. The Capitals of the Ten Tikar Chiefdoms East of the Mape and the Mbam Rivers in
Relation to the Neighbouring Urban Centres

on an island in the River Kim, now called MbumQ -ngishi     3 , 2 km east of
modern MQ nk   ~Q (Map 2).   The area immediately north of the Kim was then under the authority
of the chief of Tã, a village 4-5 km north-east of Ngambe4  Mç ndji-Djwã   Mçndji-Djwã is said
to have requested his permission to settle at the present site of Ngambe.  This was granted but
Mç ndji-Djwã   Mçndji-Djwã managed to supersede the chief of Tã who eventually moved with
his people to the village of Ngambe.
  Mçndji-Djwã   Mçndji-Djwã is said to have abused his people by taking their children to use
  as tribute for Tibati; in return he was given horses and fine clothes.  His councillors and his
wives conspired to murder him - there is no constitutional mechanism for removing a bad chief
at Ngambe - and on his death he was succeeded by Ngavhe5
  Tibati failed to maintain continuous control over the southern Tikar chiefdoms.  It was itself
  under considerable pressure at times, particularly from the other Adamawan lamidats under the


3MbumQ-ngishi   Mbumae-ngishi, means literally “MbumQ   Mbumae of the fish” (see note 2).  Fruit bats

(budi) roost on this island.  The chief of Ngambe gives permission to people to hunt the bats when the water
level of the River Kim drops.  They are obliged to give hald their catch to him.
4This village is said to have been located on a hill now called Kpa’ Ngw‘’   Kpa’ Ngwe, which is at the fork

in the footpath which runs north-east from Ngambe (Map 2).
5He is referred to by the people of Ngambe as Ngavhe nè du´ we   Ngavhe nè due we, “Ngavhe who fought

the war”.  The war in question is the war against Tibati.  The Tikar name for Ngambe is Ndjwè’-fhlç  Ndjwè’-

fhlo where ndjwè is the name of a vegetable rather like a tomato in appearance, and fhlç   fhlo  is an adjective

meaning “fresh”, “cool” or “calm”.  The Germans named the village and the chiefdom Ngambe after Ngavhe who
was its chief when they arrived.


 




  suzerainty of Yola, who besieged Tibati on four occasions during the reigns of Hamadou Arnga
Nyamboul and Hamman Bouba (c. 1851-88)6.  On his accession in 1888, hamman Lamou
found that Tibati’s authority over the Tikar chiefdoms had dissipated and, in that year, he
embarked on what was to be an eleven year campaign to attempt to bring them to heel.  He
established his military headquarters at Sansani, several kilometres north-east of Ngambe, from
where he directed expeditions against the recalcitrant Tikar chiefs.  Initially, Ngambe
collaborated and provided him with forces.  Having quelled the rebellious chiefdoms, Hamman
Lamou intended marching against the Bamoum to the west, but his plans were thwarted when
Ngambe declared war in 1891 or 1892.  Ngambe was besieged until the arrival of forces of the
“Wute-Adamawa Expedition” led by von Kamptz on 13th April 1899.
  The Germans gave the chief of Ngambe authority over much of the Tikar region south of the
  Mbam, but the French colonial administration gradually reduced his area of command in order
to make it more manageable.  By 1949 at the latest, it had reached its present limits7
  Owing to the low population density of perhaps less than one person per km2 on land that is
  extremely fertile, much of this administrative district is not under human use and precise
boundaries between the chiefdoms have yet to be determined8  However, the points on the
major footpaths where one passes from one chiefdom to the next are well known locally.
Extrapolating from them, one can estimate the area of land to which the chief of Ngambe could
lay claim with some justification to be approximately 1,300km2.  This area is marked on Map 2,
which also indicates the subordinate villages of the chiefdom.





map2






II.  The Village of Ngambe

  The village of Ngambe, the chiefdom capital, is surrounded by a trench (nshi, pl. mènshi)
  of approximately two metres depth for most of its length (Map 3).  It is the innermost in a series
of concentric trenches which are the remains of the village’s 19th century fortifications.  Such
trenches, supplemented by palisades and sometimes incorporating natural watercourses, were a
common feature of Tikar villages in the 19th century, though the inhabitants of some villages,
notably Ina, Wé and Bengbeng, would withdraw to mountain retreats when threatened.
  Though there may well have been others which are no longer readily visible from the
  footpaths, when travelling out from Ngambe in different directions, I never saw more than four
trenches, the outermost being about 2 km from the village centre.  According to local
informants, chiefdom capitals, including Ngambe, had seven, whereas subordinate villages had
three.  This distinction is likely to be notional rather than actual. reflecting the symbolic

6For a full account of Tibati’s vicissitudes during the 19th century see Mohammadou (1965).
7In 1949, Dugast wrote that the following chiefdoms south of the Mbam were independent of each other:
Bengbeng, Ina, Wè, Kong, Ngambé, Ngoumé and Nditam (1949: 129).  She omitted Ga though it was made
independent of Ngambe in  1924 (Geffrier 1944-45).
8The area of the District of Ngambe-Tikar comprising the eight southern Tikar chiefdoms is approximately
6,800 km2.  I lack accurate population figures, but I was told by a member of the administration that this
district has been estimated to support a little more than 5,000 people.


 




  significance the Tikar attach to particular numbers.  There are numerous social forms in which
the appearance of seven, either as the number of units employed or as the times a single
operation is repeated, indicates the special status of the chief; the number three is usually
associated with male authority in general.
  It is the innermost defensive trench which marks the bounds of the village of Ngambe and
  everything beyond it is said to be “outside” (pis   ~ç   ~çpis) the village.  The vast majority of
permanent residents who consider themselves to be Tikar (Mètigè, s. Tigè) live within this limit.
Though they intermarry with the Tikar, the people of Lumu, just outside the village (Map 3:
14), classify themselves as Hausa.  They claim to be descendants of a Hausa marabout who
was sent by Sultan Njoya to convert the chief of Ngambe to Islam.  As a reward, he was given
six Tikar princesses as wives and land on which to settle.  Nowadays, it is customary for the
chief to convert to Islam on his succession if he is not a Moslem already.  The people of Lumu
supply the chief with a northern-style oboe player (lègirè).  He and two drummers are the
chief’s musicians and they are classed as retainers of the chief (mètikpu, s.tikpu).
  The rectangular houses within the village are built close together and there is little to
  distinguish one household (dw   ~)ç dw   ~)ç) from another.  In 1975, the administration divided the
village, apart from the palace precinct, into three “quarters” to serve as bases of the local party
system and for the organization of communal labour.  Earlier, the leading princess, Mwãmbwã
Fhw   ~Q Fhw   ~Q, had been responsible for recruiting the women of the village when their labour
was required.  As work parties in time of peace, or armies in war, those able-bodied men with
no special duties precluding them were divided into two groups according to their relative ages.
The elder men, said to be of the right, were led by a man entitled Mburumb’   ~Q Mburumb’   ~Q; the

younger, of the left, by his subordinate Nsçmburu Nsçmburu.  These titles still endure and it is
widely assumed that, in the event of war, the organization of the armies would revert to its
traditional form.  When Mburumb’   ~Q Mburumb’   ~Q dies, Nsçmburu Nsçmburu takes his place
and a new man is chosen by the chief  from non-royals to take the latter title.  When the
installation ceremony conferring these titles has taken place, the two men are said to be married.
  The chief’s retainers, known as mètikpu (s.tikpu, lit. “possessor of the rat”) are recruited by
  the chief from the non-royal members of the community.  They number approximately 35 and
each has a title which often refers to a specific duty he is expected to perform for the chief.
When the armies of Mburumb’   ~Q Mburumb’   ~Q and Nsçmburu Nsçmburu went to face the
enemy in times of war, the chief’s retainers remained with the chief to act as his personal
bodyguard.  When there are jobs to be done at the palace, it is they who provide the work-force.
Often they are



map3

Map 3: Sketch-map, Showing Features of Interest in and around the Village
of Ngambe (1976)

referred to, perhaps jocularly, as mènQngwo   mènQngwo (s. nQngwo nQngwo, lit. “chief’s
wife”) and this reflects the fact that they are permitted free access to all parts of the palace


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