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cult of Ngw´mbe performs for three days.  Informants state that, at the turn of the century, titled princesses even donned men’s clothing. i.  Nyè-mèdwi’ - The House of the Men

The present nyè-mèdwi’, the “house of the men”, is a long, rectangular building, which

faces out across the village from just within the palace grounds (Map 3: 4).  Like all the palace buildings, its walls are constructed from mud plastered onto vertical stakes to which cross- members of split stems of raffia palm ribs have been bound with bark rope, and it is roofed with raffia palm leaf mats supported by a ridge-pole.

This house comprises four rooms in a row, but this arrangement is not traditional; it was in

fact built by the people of Ngambe in 1974 to serve as the offices of the administration.  When the first Chef de District took up his post in December of that year, he decided to situate all buildings associated with the administration outside the village15.

I have no information on the structure of previous houses of the men but, the present one is considered to be positionally correct.  I was told that formerly, it would have been rather like a gatehouse at, or forming, the main entrance to the palace in the surrounding fencing.  The present house of the men is just to the left of the beginning of the path for everyone without special rights of access to the palace, which runs through the palace grounds to the chief’s court. The great war drum, Gbç16, is kept in this house, but its principal function is as the meeting house for the cults of Ngwã and Ngw ´mbe, which are only open to men.

Sim mgbe is the high priest of the cult, Ngwã.  He is aided by seven titled officiants and the eight together are known asLã-mb’ (lit. “the people of the capital”).  All males are initiated into this cult at the time of their circumcision, generally between the ages of 8-10 years. Simmgbe and his men conduct the circumcision rites.  They are held outside the village in small bee-hive shaped huts especially constructed for this purpose.

Ngwã is conceived as an animal (ny) which lives in the bush (mb’) as opposed to the

village (ns).  Its powers exceed those of all the other sentient beings therein.  Simmgbe ”invites” (l) Ngwã into the village for cult meetings which are generally held as part of the chiefdom.  The meetings start at dusk on the third night of the candidate’s period of seclusion (the seventh in the chief’s case), and cult members feast, drink and perform music until dawn. At intervals, Simmgbe lectures the youngest members on sexual and moral matters.  Three times in the night, the members leave the house of the men in order to take Ngwã to meet the candidate whose spokesman, a princess called Fhwu Mmgbl, is hidden with him or her in a small hut made of plantain leaves at Dwçshili (Map 3: 5).  Ngwã is believed to be able to voice its approval of the candidate through the medium of a friction drum manipulated by Simmgbe and his men.  If Ngwã fails to “roar” (fhwã) its approval at the appropriate moments, a new candidate must be sought.

Ngwmbe, sometimes known as Ngwmba , is conceived as a “spirit” (mpü) which falls

from the sky at cult meetings and enters the bodies of the people dancing.  It is said that should a non-member witness a cult gatheing, Ngwmbe will enter his stomach causing it to swell, and he will die within three days.  It is not the only possession cult at Ngambe, but it is the only one which, like Ngwã, involves all Tikar men.  Each Tikar male is formally initiated into this cult around the time of his puberty and this marks a chnage in his social status from “child” (mwas’) to “young man” (bba’).  Thereafter, he is legally responsible for his actions, whereas, previously, his father was responsible for his misdemeanours. 15Temporary offices and accomodation (Map 3: 17) were built to meet the needs of the administration while permanent buildings were being constructed from modern mateials on the site of the old Catholic Mission on the other side of the village (Map 3: 15) from mud-blocks and an aluminium roof provided by the missionairies based at Ngoro. 16This name is a homonym of the word used for the substance of which the spinal cord is composed.

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As mentioned above, Wmbl is responsible for organizing the cult meetings which he

does at the chief’s command and with the help of two junior retainers, Djsi’ and Ndudjwã. Meetings are usually held to mark the death of an adult within the community.  The music peculiar to this cult can be heard throughout the night and intermittently in the day over a three day period for a man’s death, four for a woman’s.  When the music begins, men make their way stealthily to the house of the men and women and children lock themselves indoors.  In the case of the chief’s death , it is his councillors who order the meetings and they continue for seven days.  It is believed that, if the person who caused the death is present, Ngwmbe, or those possessed by this spirit, will kill him; so there is a constraint upon individual members to attend at least once during the period of mourning in order to avoid being suspected of murder. Indeed, attendance is regarded as proof of innocence.  It is also believed that the meetings provide the chief with an opportunity to have his enemies secretly executed by the cult members. ii. The Palace

Map 4 shows the palace, built in 1974, in relation to the houses of the chief’s wives.  The

interior was drawn from memory and should not be regarded as entirely accurate.  Most of the rooms are used as bedrooms by the chief’s adolescent sons who are old enough to sleep away from their mothers.  They spend a lot of their time out of school in the company of their father; they listen attentively to his conversations with important people and they perform small tasks for him.

One room in the palace is used as an amoury (Map 4: 3).  An old, crippled retainer of the

chief, who acts as the palace guardian (timgb) sleeps there.  He never leaves the palace; he receives visitors and keeps an eye on the chief’s wives during the chief’s absence.  The bag containing the chief’s ceremonial chinstrap is hidden somewhere in the palace, but most of his insignia are kept at the royal cemetery, Shimwã (see later).

The chief takes his meals in the largest room (Map 4: 4); sometimes he invites visiting chiefs

to eat and to drink with him there.  When he wishes to meet secretly with his councillors or his retainers, it is to this room that he summons them.

One room in the palace, mbushili (Map 4: 5), is of special interest because of its unusual

indoor position.  It is the private room in which the chief urinates.  Informants recall that in previous palaces, contrary to normal practice, a hole was dug in a room to serve as the chief’s latrine.  This room was always called mbushili; a guard was kept on its door and a drum was played whenever the chief entered.

A long veranda, p-ntw (lit. “the veranda of the chief”; Map 4: 6), runs along the front of

the palace and faces a steep bank of about two metres in height.  The term p-ntw is usually used more loosely to refer to both this veranda and the ground between it and the bank.  This area serves as a court and it is the only part of the palace precinct that most members of the population are allowed to enter.  Even then, they should have a valid reason for appearing before the chief.  However, when dances are held here, those not involved are allowed to watch from the top of the bank.

The chief’s wives and retainers serve maize-wine or palm-wine to all who attend court,

having tasted it first.  When there are large formal gatherings, they give a quantity of wine and kola to a representative of each of the social groupings present, who then share it in a specific order amongst his or her people.

Everyone must cover his eyes while the chief drinks.  When he has ceased, all respond by

saying mu, a term only used to express gratitude to the chief.  If the chief should then pass his calabash of wine to someone, that person is obliged to finish it.  Though he must drink it eagerly in acknowledgement of the honour, for most people this is a frightening experience because it is thought that this is the way in which the chief administers poisons or other medicines to his enemies.

The court is reached by the footpath which starts to the right of the house of the men, then

skirts the site of the previous palace (Map 4: 7).  Shoes must be left at the top of the bank before descending.  The chief sits on a chair towards the south side of the veranda.  When people arrive, they sit on the ground in front of the chief and cough gently.  Once the chief’s attention

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has been attracted, they perform greetings which vary according to the individual’s particular social rank.  They then arrange themselves on either side of his chair.  Men sit to the chief’s left; women and Pygmies, to his right; and the proximity of an individual to the chief indicates his status relative to the others present.  Chairs are brought from the palace for chiefs from other Tikar chiefdoms and non-Tikar dignitaries.

The chief holds court every Friday morning and this is heralded by the sound of his

musicians playing as they make their way through the village to the palace.  The princesses arrive in procession, led by Mwãmbwã Fhw.  The chief’s councillors and the heads of patriclans (yng’) are expected to make an appearance when they give their news and listen to his proclamations.

During the period of mourning which follows death, Simmgbe, the high priest of Ngwã,

visits the relations of the deceased in order to learn their attitudes and to try to ascertain the cause of death.  Three days after the death of a man or four days after the death of a woman, he and the other Lã-mb’ lead these people with other representatives of the patriclans involved for a rite called mèyè-jhwi.  He sits with his men in front of the chief and explains the circumstances of the death as he sees them.  He also reports what accusations have been made and he suggests what action, if any, should be taken to render the death “cool” (fhl).  Wine and kola are then shared by all present, apart from the chief to show that they accept Simmgbe’s conclusion. The chief then counsels his people to accept the death and to refrain from further accusations.

The only time that princes make a formal appearance at court is for this rite when it involves

a member of the royal patrilineage.  The antipathy between them and the chief surfaces even on these occasions.  The princes do not remove their shoes, nor do they greet the chief on their arrival, and they sit apart from everyone else with their backs to the bank directly opposite him. While others maintain expressions of grief, the princes murmur and smile amongst themselves.

If someone should happen to kill one of the royal animals - leopard, lion, eagle or python -

he must take it immediately to Simmgbe.  Simmgbe and his men carry it on a pole to the chief and perform a propitiatory rite which is also called mèyè-jhwi.  Simmgbe enacts the killing of the animal and claims that it was he who did it.  Apart from the whiskers in case of the leopard, the head is given to Simmgbe; the rest of the meat is cooked by particular chief’s wives and a morsel is sent to each member of the royal patrilineage.

After his umbilical cord has dropped, the son of a prince or a princess is taken by the

princesses to the chief to receive his name.  The chief either gives his own name or that of a previous chief.  At the end of the rite, the princesses dance with the baby.  A similar ceremony, again conducted by the princesses, is held for the naming of any twins born in the village.

The pregnancy of a chief’s wife entails a series of ceremonies and dances, known

collectively as b’è kwãzi ngzzi (“they bring out the pregnant chief’s wife”), which endure for seven days.  The principal participants are the pregnant wife, the princesses and the Pygmies, who come to live at the palace in the chief’s wives’ houses for the duration.  After the child has been born, the Pygmies are called to the palace again for another week-long series of ceremonies, this time referred to as b’è kwãzi mwange’.

A Special relationship exists between the Pygmies and the royal patrilineage which is

worthy of attention.  Within the chiefdom of Ngambe, there are two small settlements of Pygmies (Mèdzã, s. Ndzã): one in the proximity of Ngandie, the other, 3-4 km south-west of the capital (Map 2)17  Most Tikar regard the Pygmies with a mixture of fear and contempt, though they admire certain of the extraordinary abilities they attribute to them.  They are said to be the best dancers, singers and hunters.  The Tikar credit them with the power to make themselves invisible and to have outstanding knowledge of the flora and fauna of the bush. However, non-royal Tikar tend to avoid them and they do not invite them into their houses.  A derogatory phrase often heard when they make an appearance in a Tikar village is Mèdzã bi 17In the 1976 National Census, 42 Pygmies were counted at the settlement near the village of Ngambe and 38 in the one near Ngandie (quoted in Barbier 1978: 1).  For further information on the Mèdzã Pygmies, see Barbier 1978.

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ny, “the Pygmies are animals”; and it is supposed that, like animals, they commit incest, they are all sorcerers, they make love on all fours and they do not live in villages18

With regard to the palace, the Pygmies play a supportive role.  The ceremonies referred to

above are concerned primarily with the fecundity of the chiefly line (the Pygmies are also summoned to dance for the chief when his wives have been failing to conceive).  Much of the symbolism of these ceremonies stresses an interdependence between royals and Pygmies which is echoed in two myths shared by both these groups.  They refer to the period when the founder of the Ngambe dynasty arrived in this country which was then inhabited solely by Pygmies. One relates how the Tikar offered “culture” in the form of plantain cooked in oil: those who accepted it were the ancestors of the Pygmies of today, whereas those who refused it took to the trees and became chimpanzees.  The other explains how it was the Pygmies who taught the Tikar how to impregnate their women.

The Pygmies provide other services for the chief.  They are expected to visit his pregnant

wife once a month in order to monitor her progress and to take remedial action if necessary. They are rewarded by the chief and the princesses with palm-oil, salt, pepper and plantain. They are responsible for instructing the chief’s son to dance - the Tikar consider it to be important that their chiefs are the best dancers amongst the Tikar.  Another of the Pygmies duties is to inform the chief when they discover that he is under attack and to use their powers to help him.  With respect to this, they are known as ndntw, ”the sorcery of the chief”.

The avoidance one observes between Pygmies and non-royal Tikar is in marked contrast to

the behaviour exhibited between Pygmies and members of the royal patrilineage.  In the latter case, they joke together, share their pipes and drinks, and join each other’s dances.  At court, the Pygmies do not display the defence normally due to the chief and the elderly Pygmy women mock and tease him openly.  Further, the Pygmies can freely pass beyond the court and mingle with the chief’s wives. iii. Mènyè-mènngwo - The Houses of the Chief’s Wives

Behind the main palace buildings lie fruit trees and small kitchen gardens cultivated by the

chief’s wives.  They and the living area of the chief’s wives are strictly forbidden to all who live outside the palace precinct, apart from the princesses, the chief’s retainers and the Pygmies.

The chief does not sleep within the palace, but in the house directly behind it.  His bedroom

is called mbu (Map 4: 8), a term whose normal meaning is “animal’s lair”.  It is one of the many words and phrases which distinguish objects and actions relating to the person of the chief from those of other mortals.  Some of the terms in this royal lexicon appear to have no other meanings, but of those that do, many make analogies between the chief and animals, most commonly the leopard (nw).

In the main room of this building (Map 4: 9) lives the most important of the chief’s wives,

Fhwu Mkpr.  She directs the others.  She informs the wives who are to sleep with the chief and to cook for him.  These tasks are generally done for two days in a row, though not simultaneously and never during menstruation.

The other wives live two to a room in the houses flanking the palace (Map 4: 2).  Each

young wife is paired with an old wife.  She calls her “mother” (m) and this idiom is extended to her children who will call her “grandmother” (gbe). 18For the Tikar, the conceptual opposition between “bush” (mb’   mb’  ) and “village” (ns ns) is of great structural importance as it divides the perceived horizontal world of objects and actions into two orders which may be glossed as the “natural” and the “cultural”.  The Tikar do not term a Pygmy settlement ns nso, but mb’   mbo, and they consider it to be part of the bush.  The Tikar regard the Pygmies to be above all part of the “natural”, as opposed to the “cultural” world and this receives ample expression in the myths and rituals concerning them.  The term mbø is a homonym of the name of a spirit of the sky which manifests itself as forked lightning and the claps of thunder that accompany it.  Sheet lightning and distant thunder are attributed to the spirit that causes rain.

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