descent/graphics

fortune to men in their enterprises - hunting is the typical example - though the mechanism

whereby this is achieved is unclear.

Killing is morally acceptable if it is for common good. While I was at Ngambe, the

chief made a public appeal to all witches: for the sake of the community they were requested to

use their powers to hunt down and destroy the people who, it was believed, had brought down

a severe disease upon the Chief de District. This appeal had a precedent in traditions concerning

a famous chief who called upon the witches of Ngambe to attack the besieging Tibati forces. It

is said that, subsequently, there was a sign that the witches were willing: a cat was seen with a

red feather stuck in the fur on its head, and, that night, the witches slew many of the enemy.

They continued to do so throughout the war and the chief rewarded them with copious

quantities of palm-oil. The successful outcome of it is attributed in large measure to the part

played by the witches.

The expression “my ndu’-nlã”, which is usually translated into French as “ma famille”,

means literally “my cord of witchcraft”. Nowadays, it is used by an individual to refer to the

group comprising himself an everyone else with whom he traces a genealogical connection, i.e.

both his patrilineal (“behind my father”) and matrilineal (“behind my mother”) relatives, but not

his affines: hence only siblings have the same ndu’-nlã. Local informants state firmly that this

is a modern usage and that its proper, or original, usage was to specify a group of people united

by common matrilineal descent from an ancestress known to have been a witch, and having the

witchcraft substance inside them. If they are to be believed, there have been matrilineal descent

groups amongst the Tikar in the past, though matrilineal descent does not currently form the
basis of any descent groups within the chiefdom of Ngmbe.³

Clans and clan heads

An individual of either sex automatically belongs to his father’s descent group and in

theory this aspect of his personal identity is unalterable. I shall refer to this group as a “clan”,

though the Tikar themselves lack a specific term for it. Each clan has a name and the total

membership of a clan can be specified by using the prefix lã, which means simply “the people
of ...”, followed by the clan name”.⁴

This is not the sole meaning of the expression. Each clan has an estate, administered by

the clan head, and this expression can equally well be used to specify those people who depend

on the cultivated and wild produce of the clan estate for their subsistence which will become

apparent, there is a third possible meaning: it can be used to designate those people, grouped by

common residence within the village, who acknowledge the authority of the head of the clan of

³Siran has reported the presence of matrilineal descent groups in the Tikar chiefdom of Kong
(1981:266).
⁴The prefix gbe- can be used interchangeably with lã-, but at Ngambe there is a regional
preference for the latter. Bwü- may also be used, but this term is not exactly synonymous as it
may be used alone when it means “people”.

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