Preface

This is not a book conceived and written in one mould but a collection of arti-
cles, which have been published in various journals. From the outset it was
not my intention to write a book about the Yamba of Cameroon. As I got more
and more interested in the rich ritual heritage of the Yamba and my research
material increased in volume I thought it would be helpful to the students of
the Cameroon Grassfields and to the Yamba people themselves to share my
findings with a wider public by writing a few articles, especially since Yamba
is ethnologically still a rather blank area.
In January 1996, Sally Chilver, whose encouragement and enthusiastic sup-
port has made my ethnographical scribbling possible, suggested that it would
be a good idea to bring together in a single volume the articles which had
appeared in various journals and any future ones I was intending to write.
Thus I present here eight previously published papers, with only few
changes due to additional research. These changes do not invalidate what I
had originally written but supply further information on the topic discussed.
However, to avoid unnecessary repetitions, I have brought together in a first
introductory chapter some historical, geographical and linguistic material,
which introduced some of the earlier articles. The chapters in the book are
arranged in the order the articles had been published, which does not neces-
sarily mean the order in which they have been written.
In addition, I include an unpublished paper, viz. ‘Notes on Yamba Kinship
Terminology’, as Appendix A.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the help of all those who, in one way or the other,
have aided my efforts in realising this study. As already mentioned, I owe a
huge debt to Sally Chilver for her encouragement and assistance. She has
guided my research right from the outset and has been an invaluable source of
ideas. I am most grateful to her for the patience in correcting my English and
for sharing her data and her reactions to my work. The extent of my debt to
her can be measured from the fact that without her help I would not have
dared to publish anything.
I am also indebted to David Zeitlyn whose work on Mambila divination
inspired my research into Yamba divination. I am grateful to him for having
edited my paper ‘Yamba Spider Divination’ for publication. He also read a
Preface x

first draft of the ‘Notes on Yamba Kinship Terminology’ and gave valuable
suggestions and criticism.
In writing Chapter Nine (‘Crying the Death’. Rituals of Death among the
Yamba), I have benefited greatly from my correspondence with Michael Jin-
dra who at the time was writing his thesis on death celebrations in the
Bamenda Grassfields (Jindra 1997). I am sincerely grateful to him for sending
me excerpts from the concluding chapter of his thesis.
The most profound gratitude is felt towards my two regular informants, Pa
Monday Kongnjo and Sam Kobuin who have become my friends and steady
companions. It was their wisdom and ability, which helped me to understand
the more subtle aspects of the Yamba way of ‘doing and seeing things’. Their
information has been invaluable. This book is an extension of my conversa-
tions with them. In more than one sense this is their own book. Many other
people have contributed to this study in important ways. It is impossible to
mention them all. I extend my gratitude to them all.

ORTHOGRAPHY
The Yamba language has a number of different dialects. The degree of mutual
intelligibility varies according to the distance between villages. When using
Yamba terms in this book I follow the Bom dialect in Chapter Four (‘Yamba
Spider Divination’), the Mfe dialect in Chapter Six (‘Yamba Twin Ritual’) for
Upper Yamba, and the Gom dialect in the rest of the chapters for Lower
Yamba, the reason being that I did my research mainly in Gom village, Lower
Yamba, except for spider divination and twin ritual. Where necessary I give
the Yamba terms for both Lower and Upper Yamba. The orthography I use
approximates to the one approved for the Yamba New Testament translation
by S.I.L. which follows the Mbem dialect. Four special symbols are
employed: e as in let, ´ as in learn, u as in the German word für (Umlaut), and
N as in song. In Yamba speech initial and end consonants are often lost
through elision, e.g. ta fak (tap fak), nda rum (ndap rum), soNgoN (nsoNgoN),
etc. In the text I use the elided form. Although tones are important in Yamba
speech I only indciate them where a difference in tone changes the meaning
of the word e.g. t E! ’ts ´ (father-in-law), t E~ ’ts ´ (mother’s father/brother,
matrikin).
Chapter 1: Introductory
The Yamba
The Yamba people live in the north-eastern corner of the Cameroon Grass-
fields (Map.1). Administratively they are part of the Nwa Subdivision of the
Donga Mantung Division of the North-West Province of the Republic of
Cameroon. Nwa Subdivision was set up in 1963 with headquarters in Nwa. It
comprises three areas of almost equal size: the Mfumte area in the North (473
square kilometres), the Yamba area in the centre (491 square kilometres), and
the Mbaw area in the South (490 square kilometres) (Yaoundé 1973: 8).
According to the last National Census conducted in April 1987, Nwa Subdivi-
sion has a population of 52,896. This was not broken down by ethnicity but
the 1970 census gave the Yamba population as 20,555 (ibid.). This census fig-
ure does not include Yamba speakers outside their native area. It is now esti-
mated that more than 50% of the Yamba population reside in other parts of
Cameroon and Nigeria.
The reasons for this exodus are many but can be reduced, in the main, to a
lack of infrastructure: the few motorable tracks are impassable for the greater
part of the year, including even the main road to Nwa, the regional headquar-
ters; several villages are still without any road connections. It can be attrib-
uted to lack of employment and economic prospects; to shortage of fertile
farmland; to the search for an easier life, especially by the young people; and
last but not least, to the fear of witchcraft - all conduce to the pressures on an
increasing population. Yet most Yamba abroad keep regular contact with their
native villages and return there for the annual dances, for funerals, family and
marriage matters, rituals, and because of sickness.
The Yamba, formerly lumped together with their northern neighbours, the
Mfumte, and known under the common name ‘Kaka’ and later, since 1933,
referred to as the ‘Mbem’ by the British colonial administration, are a patri-
lineal1 and patrilocal people. They have been largely isolated from the rest of
the world because of the inaccessibility of their land and by inter-village hos-
tilities (Jikong 1979: 17; see also Buinda 1987). The name ‘Kaka’ seems to
have been given to them by the Fulani slave-raiders from Banyo. Migeod
writes (1925: 134):

1. Gebauer (1964: 20) is mistaken when he states that the Yamba are ‘matrilineal and
matrilocal’ (cf. Chilver and Kaberry 1968:29), misled, perhaps, by the long period of
uxorilocal bride-service which precedes the establishment of an independent house-
hold.
2 Chapter 1. Introductory

As to the name Kaka, the Lom (Rom) people are said to be Kaka because they
are settled in the Kaka country. When the Germans first came to Banyo,
Tonga (the chief of Rom) said they asked ‘Who are the people who live on
those hills?’ And the Fulbe said, ‘Kaka’, meaning the nasty fighting people.
E.H.F. Gorges, in his assessment report on the Kaka-Ntem area states: ‘The
very name Kaka was originally merely a Fulani nickname derived from the
frightened utterance of a captured native - Ka! Ka! (No! No!)’ (1932: par. 29).
The nickname was adopted by the Germans and the British. The Baptist
missionaries, who have been working in the area since the early 1930s, pre-
ferred to call it the Mbem area2 because the name Kaka was repugnant to the
people, having been imposed on them by their former enemies and by outsid-
ers. In 1960, the educated élite of the Yamba decided to change the name for
the people, their language, and the area to Yamba. The word is used to call the
attention of others when somebody wants to speak and can be translated as ‘I
say’ or ‘Listen to me!’ (Jikong 1979: 20; Scruggs 1980: 3). Yamba is now the
official name for the people, their language, and the area.
The language of the Yamba presents certain analytical difficulties. T.R.
Scruggs, who has made a study of this subject (1979, 1980, and 1981), writes
(1980: 6):
The high degree of independence and separateness of each village, coupled
with the different times of arrival of different groups, has led to a large
number of dialects…The degree of similarity and mutual intelligibility var-
ies according to the distance between villages and possibly the time of set-
tlement.
Roger Moss, a Cambridge student acting as a Plebiscite Supervisory Officer
in the 1961 plebiscite, 3 gave Chilver and Kaberry a brief vocabulary of
‘Mbem’ (Yamba) which seemed to place the Yamba language fairly clearly in
the northern section of the Mbam-Nkam or eastern group of the Grassfields
group of Bantu languages on lexical grounds (Chilver, personal communica-
tion; Nkwi and Warnier 1982: 18; ALCAM, 1983).
Geographically, the Yamba area is an extremely broken country with hills,
shallow depressions, and deep valleys alternating with monotonous regularity.

2. Mbem, one of the largest Yamba villages, was chosen by the Baptist missionaries as
their base.
3. In the plebiscite of February 1961, the Southern Cameroons and the Northern Cam-
eroons, both under British trusteeship, were asked to choose between achieving
independence by joining either the Federation of Nigeria or the Republic of Cam-
eroon.
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 3

Along every valley flows a stream, which eventually finds its way to one or
other of the tributaries of the Donga River. Upper Yamba is high savannah with
an average elevation of 1,400 m which in the east meets the Mambila Plateau.
Lower Yamba lies at an altitude of about 800 m. The extremely difficult terrain
makes any attempt to build roads an almost impossible task and even trekking
on foot is hazardous and exhausting. E.H.F. Gorges, a British administrator
who visited the area in 1932, aptly remarked, ‘The size of Kaka bears no rela-
tion to the time the traveller must be prepared to spend in it’ (1932: par. 16).
The Yamba area can be divided into two unequal parts: the forested lower-
lying western part, Lower Yamba, where palm trees abound, and Upper
Yamba, which is mainly grassland. The people of Lower Yamba, i. e. those
living in the villages of Gom and Nkot (Ngang, a sub-chiefdom of Rom, is
sometimes also included) refer to themselves as bwin nfu’ nte (people of the
palm tree area) and they call Upper Yamba bwin nfu’ ka’ (people of the grass-
burning area).
The Yamba people, a closely related group living in seventeen independent
villages4 (Map 2), are linguistically and culturally closely related. These vil-
lages are made up of a number of rather independent quarters or hamlets
which are often situated at quite a distance from each other. A.B. Cozens who
travelled through southern Yamba in the late 1940s was struck by this. He
wrote: ‘As in most of these villages there is no true village, but a series of
“quarters” which may perch on a hilltop or cling to the side of a hill near a
cluster of raffia palms’ (1949: 163). Each village is headed by a chief (Nkum),
but there are strong indications that the institution of chieftainship is an inno-
vation, a result of German colonial policy at the beginning of this century if
one aged informant in Nkot, who has since died, is to be believed. ‘Formerly,’
he said, ‘there were no chiefs as we have them now. When the Germans first
came all people ran away. They would get hold of the first man they could
catch, give him an arm’s length of cloth, and put a cap on his head. Then they
would tell him that he was “chief”. From then onwards he was their contact
man in this village’ (the late Ngwanya, Fai of Makat). All attempts by the
British administration to make the chief of Mbem, the largest village, the par-
amount chief of all the Yamba met with fierce resistance.

4. The ‘Donga-Mantung: Gazetteer of Villages’ (Yaoundé 1973) lists the following 17

villages under the Yamba Customary Court which comprises the Yamba area. The
population figures in brackets are taken from the April 1976 census: Bom (2.420),
Fam (595), Gamfe (258), Gom (2.767), Gwembe (804), Kwak (1.144), Mbem
(5.870), Mfe (2.389), Ngung (2.631), Nkot (2.057), Ntim (1.407), Ntong (2.990),
Nwa (1.835), Rom (2.493), Saam (734), Sih (1.415), Yang (808).
4 Chapter 1. Introductory

C.R. Moss (n.d.: 41), saw a similarity between the Yamba and the city-states
of ancient Greece: ‘The Kaka people are best described by analogy with the
Greeks of the great age. Their villages differ slightly in language, custom,
political organisation and religious practices, but they have broadly the same
pattern.... They are as the city states of ancient Greece, who whilst warring
against each other, having differences of dialect, and dissimilarities in politi-
cal order, religious practices and legal code, yet felt a “togetherness” in rela-
tion to states and peoples beyond the confines of their own mountain and sea
fringed homeland.’
Yamba chieftainship lacks the political institutions one can find among the
Wimbum or the Nso’, especially the use of masquerade associations as instru-
ments of chiefly power, e.g. the regulatory society NweroN, nor do the Yamba
have a military system like the manjoN and mfu’ in Nso’ or mfu’ in Wimbum,
whose leaders are answerable to the chief. The nzu‚r society (red feather soci-
ety) lacks the offices and organisation of manjoN or mfu’. The absence of such
developed institutions, according to C.R. Moss (n.d.: 42) ‘is due only to the
comparatively small size of the village chiefdoms, which in turn is the result
of the geography of the country’, and one would add, the separate move-
ments, from different directions, of small pioneering groups into the area.
Even now chiefs have little authority in their villages and are often referred
to as ‘government chiefs’. Each quarter, which invariably has its own ‘chief’,
consists of several sub-quarters which in Pidgin English are often called
‘compounds’ and which are the settlements of minimal patrilineages (bu’lak,
or sometimes also referred to as boatE’, children of one father). Several ‘com-
pounds’ of a quarter are usually exogamous. Formerly, the lineage heads
together with the chief of the quarter formed a sort of gerontocracy exercising
their authority through the most important secret society or cult of the Yamba,
called Nwantap. Nowadays each village has its village council headed by the
chief where important matters concerning the village are discussed. Lineage
heads also control the marriages of their dependents, either as bride-givers by
‘marrying off’ female dependents or by providing wives for male dependents.
The Yamba live as cultivators growing cocoyams (now the main staple
crop), maize, yams, cassava, groundnuts, plantains, bananas, beans, egusi
(pumpkin seeds), and vegetables such as huckleberry, cowpeas, okra, etc.
Agricultural duties are shared by men and women. In the villages of Lower
Yamba palm trees abound: they provide enough oil for domestic consumption
and for sale in the markets of Upper Yamba and those of Wimbum bordering
on western Yamba. Oil palms also provide the greatly valued palm wine (up-
wine). In Upper Yamba there are extensive groves of raffia palms which are
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 5

tapped for palm wine and also provide material for housebuilding and local
furniture. Palm wine (ruk) plays an important part in all Yamba rituals, mar-
riage transactions, funerals, fines, and social occasions. As domestic animals
the Yamba rear fowls, goats and occasionally sheep. Nowadays, a number of
well-to-do Yamba own cows.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s coffee was introduced and has since
become one of the major cash crops. But the scarcity of suitable plots for the
cultivation of coffee (Arabica in Upper Yamba and Robusta in Lower Yamba)
has been another reason for the exodus of many Yamba to the Tikar Plain
(especially the area between Magba and Bankim) and to other areas to the
South where they cleared large tracts of forest which they turned into coffee
plantations.

History
Little is known about the original inhabitants of this area, but judging from
the iron slag and broken clay tuyêres which can be found in many places in
Lower Yamba, it is clear that the area was inhabited long ago and that these
original inhabitants were skilled iron smelters. No information could be elic-
ited as to who these people were. It seems impossible to get behind the devas-
tating period of the Fulani raids from Banyo in the second half of the
nineteenth century.
The Yamba are a closely related group. When asked about their origin the
stock answer is that their ancestors came from Kimi (present-day Bankim).
However, there is strong evidence that the Yamba are a mixed population of
Tikar, Mambila and local origin (Nkwi and Warnier 1982: 16, 154). Migra-
tory movements into the Yamba area seem to have continued right up to and
during the Fulani wars. Small bands of people moved into Yamba from differ-
ent directions. Although some informants claim that they moved into an unin-
habited area, this was clearly not the case. It is quite evident that there were
people living there although the population may well have been sparse. These
small bands who were in time culturally and linguistically assimilated, can, to
a large degree, still be identified since they are the ones making up the differ-
ent quarters of the villages today.
Nkot, for example, the westernmost village of the Yamba area has four quar-
ters — Ndu, Makat, Nkeng, and Bomgot. All claim Kimi origin but all
entered Yamba by different routes and at different times. One can summarize
their movements as follows: Ndu quarter claims a connection with Mfe
(Upper Yamba) and with Sang quarter of Gom. According to Fo-Ndu, the
6 Chapter 1. Introductory

chief of Ndu quarter, they came together from Kimi, passing through the Mbo
Plain and ascending the steep escarpment to present-day Yang in eastern
Yamba. They crossed the Mantung river and stopped at Mbinse where Mfe
settled. Ndu and Sang continued their journey westwards beyond Nkot. Ndu
settled at Mendu and Sang at Muwa. Because Sang had problems with the
people of Nkeng, who lived nearby, they moved to Gom. At the beginning of
the Fulani raids Ndu took refuge on top of Nkot hill where they are still today
(Fo-Ndu, 21 January 1993). Bomgot claims to have come from the direction
of Sinna, a Wimbum (Tang) chiefdom to the south of Nkot. Nkeng points to
Mala’. Mala’ was traditionally an important centre of dispersal and claimed
as the former home of some present-day Tang and Wiya chiefdoms, namely
Sinna, Wowo, Mbipgo, Tala, and Kup (Solomon Kokwi Nyongu, chief of
Nkeng, 26 March 1993; also Jeffreys 1962b: 176f., Chilver and Kaberry
1967: 27). Finally, Makat claims a family connection with the Wimbum (War)
chiefdom of Sop. They arrived in Nkot only towards the end of the nineteenth
century. As one informant put it, ‘They only came yesterday.’
The village of Gom has six quarters. Their historical background is similar
to that of Nkot except that one of the quarters, Nkwi, does not claim Kimi ori-
gin but instead points to the Mfumte village of Lus as their original home.
Ngang, a sub-chiefdom of Rom, which has steadfastly asserted its independ-
ence from Rom since the beginning of colonial times, has the most interesting
history since its dispersal from Ma-Jop in the Mbo Plain. From Ma-Jop they
moved to Mbiame and up to Nso’.5 Later they travelled north. They passed
east of present day Ndu (Wiya) and settled at Ko-Ngang, leaving behind their
‘brother’ Se (Sen, Wise) on the way. From Ko-Ngang they went across to
Bomgot in Nkot. After a short while they crossed the Massim river and settled
at Yeya. While at Yeya, the Fulani came and Ngang took refuge up near the
mountain ridge at Malim. At the turn of the century, just before the Germans
arrived, they crossed over to the Marom valley and settled there (Dan Taku
Taabi, 19 May 1993).
Migration myths are still alive in some villages in Yamba. I select the one
from Mfe which was told to me by the chief, Martin Kumbongsi (interview,
26 December 1992):

5. Chilver and Kaberry (1967: 23) mention that five Nso’ clans, Taangkum, Menjey,
Mbite’e, Nkim and Nggang claim to originate in the Mbo’ Plain. It is tempting to
suppose that the Nggang clan in Nso’ and Ngang (Yamba) are two branches of the
original emigrating group from Ma-Jop in the Mbo’ Plain.
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 7

‘One of the chief’s sons of Kimi, Temnoh, told his father that he wanted to
leave and build his own compound elsewhere. The chief agreed and sent a
girl to fetch water from the lake in an earthenware pot. Temnoh gathered
his immediate family and some other people who wanted to join him. At
their departure the chief told them that, as they go, they should carry the
pot of water along, drinking from the pot whenever somebody was thirsty.
The water in the pot would not diminish. They should continue their jour-
ney till the pot broke. At the place where the pot broke they should build
their compounds. So the group left, an elderly man taking charge of the
pot. They had no specific track or road to follow. They passed through
grassy plains and forests making a trace as they went. (Mvwe, the Yamba
name for Mfe, means ‘track’ in the language of Kimi). They came to the
bottom of the escarpment leading up to present-day Yang and then climbed
up the steep hill. On top of the hill the man carrying the pot wanted to
break it by force by throwing it to the ground because the people were tired
and said that they had suffered enough already. But the pot bounced like a
football and did not break. So they continued their journey. They crossed
the Mantung River and came to the edge of a large forest. They sat down
and discussed what to do. It was decided that they should try to pass
through the forest. As they reached the middle of the forest a creeper
tripped the man carrying the pot. He fell and the pot broke, spilling all the
water. Having trekked all day the people were very thirsty, but as it was the
dry season there was no water anywhere near. They decided to spend the
night in the place. In the morning they woke up and to their surprise they
saw clean water seeping up from the ground where the pot had broken. The
spring later on became a small lake (its location is still shown at Kukak
quarter of Mfe). Remembering the words of the chief of Kimi they cleared
the undergrowth and began to build their compounds. This was the origin
of Mfe village. The forest no longer exists and the lake, too, has disap-
peared.’
The Fulani raids from Banyo, which had a devastating effect on the Yamba
area, intensified around 1875 (Chilver 1981: 470). Especially during the first
attacks some villages were decimated. In later raids the Yamba were more
successful in beating off the raiders. To escape from these attacks people took
refuge on inaccessible mountain tops (e.g., Kop Jui, to the west of Rom), in
pockets of mountain forest (e.g., Ma-Kop, north of Mfe), and in caves. With
the advent of the Germans in the area at the beginning of the present century
the Fulani raids came to an end and the Yamba left their places of refuge to
resettle in their old locations.
In March 1908, Lieutenant Werner from the military station in Banyo con-
ducted a military expedition against the ‘Kaka’ (Werner 1909: 219-222). The
reason for this expedition was to secure the cattle trail which had been opened
through southern Yamba (Hassert 1917: 13). The Yamba objected both to
admitting their former raiders, the Fulani, and opening their farms to cattle-
8 Chapter 1. Introductory

damage. A flag-post was established at Mbem. Its main aim was to obtain
labour and food from the interior of Yamba for Banyo Station. Shortly before
the Germans left a road was dug through southern Yamba linking Ndu (Wiya)
with Banyo. After the First World War campaigns, Yamba came under French
administration until it was ceded to Yola Province in 1920. The French
ignored Yamba almost completely. The ‘chef de la circonscription de Banyo’
visited Yamba once. As from 1 January 1924, it was transferred to Bamenda
Division (Gorges 1932: 7-10). The early British colonial period can best be
characterised by what D.C. Dorward called a ‘working misunderstanding’. It
was only in 1932 that a Native Court of ‘D’ Grade was opened in Mbem.
Before that the whole area, including Mfumte and Mbaw (Ntem), was admin-
istered as part of Nsungli Native Authority (Newton 1936:1). Up to 1930,
Yamba — and Mfumte — was declared a restricted area, unsafe for travellers
and traders (Gebauer 1964: 20).
From this historical summary it becomes clear that the Yamba were rela-
tively unaffected by the colonial powers and other outside influences right up
to the 1930s. Their traditional way of life remained intact for much longer
than in other parts of the Grassfields. Despite the diversity of their historical
background the Yamba as a whole show great social and cultural coherence.

3. Methodology, Research Experience and Informants

It may be helpful for the reader to be told how I know the things I describe in
the subsequent chapters of this book. From the outset I have to say that I have
had no formal anthropological training. I have never had a chance to follow a
course in its methodology. But by reading a number of monographs in which
the authors explained the methods they used in collecting their data I did gain
a general idea of how to conduct interviews, engage people in discussions,
and in general to be observant about people’s daily life and activities.
I have lived and worked in different parts of the Western Grassfields of
Cameroon for more than thirty years (since October 1967). Right from the
beginning I had a keen interest in people’s customs, local history, rituals and
beliefs. In the early years I learned Pidgin English, the lingua franca of the
former West Cameroon which was also the language used by the Catholic
Church in Church services and religious instruction, but I also made an effort
to learn local languages. I made good progress in Tangikom, the language of
the Kom people, in the two years I worked in Njinikom Parish, my first
appointment, which comprised the Fuanantui valley, Abasakom (the Fundong
area) as far as Achain and Ake. But I had no dealings with Belo valley since
that part of Kom was looked after by the priests teaching in St. Bede’s Col-
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 9

lege, Fuli. In the beginning of November 1969, I was transferred to Widikum

Parish where I worked till January 1973. Widikum Parish was a huge parish in
terms of its geographical extension comprising the Moghamo, Bifang,
Menka, Amassi, Ambelle and Betieku areas, as well as Upper Bayangi (Ban-
yang) as far as Mile 20 on the Widikum-Mamfe road. During the first year I
was more or less constantly on the move, touring one area after the other, only
to come back to the main Station in Widikum at the end of the month for sup-
plies and to draw up a new treklist for the following month. The following
year I was permanently stationed in Menka, looking after the Menka, Atong,
Amassi and Ambelle areas.
In January 1973 I was transferred to Nkambe Parish, another vast parish
which included the northern Wimbum area, Mbisa (Bansobi, Kamine and
Akweto), the Misaje area and part of Bum (Fonfuka, Mungong and Subum),
Dumbu and the whole of the Mbembe area. I worked in Nkambe Parish till
1980. During these eight years in Nkambe I became quite proficient in Lim-
bum. I even produced a small dictionary of Limbum. I became a member of
the men’s societies samba and mfu’. I joined weekly rottating credit clubs
(njangis), one of them a masquerade drinking club (mkuN), and I participated
in the yearly communal hunts.
In 1980 I was again transferred, this time as Parish Priest of the Cathedral
Parish in Mankon. I worked there for two years. It was then that I started to
build up my personal library collecting books, articles, dissertations, docu-
ments, and maps — anything published or unpublished on the Western Grass-
fields, in German, English and French (of which I know very little), from
early colonial times up to the present. Through reading and re-reading this
material, coupled with my own personal experience, I gained a good back-
ground knowledge of the Western Grassfields.
In 1983 I was back in Nkambe for a few months before being appointed
Bishop’s secretary and financial secretary of the newly created diocese of
Kumbo. During my two years in Kumbo I was able to increase the volume of
my library. I made good progress in Lamnso’ and had the luck to witness the
installation of the new Fon of Nso’ and that of the Shus Faay of Lun (Kiti-
wum), a palace councillor of old standing.
In September 1985, I was appointed to the Wimbum (Tang) parish of
Tabenken (which included the whole of Nwa Subdivision). My first task was
to prepare Nwa Subdivision with a view to establishing a new parish there.
During the first year I trekked extensively around the area, getting thoroughly
acquainted with its geography, the different ethnic groups living there, and
10 Chapter 1. Introductory

some of its local history. Sabongari Parish was opened officially on 25 June
1987.
After five years of living and working in Nwa Subdivision, more or less
constantly on the move, I felt I was ready to do more serious and systematic
research. I was prompted mainly by two things: firstly, having read Paul
Gebauer’s monograph ‘Spider Divination in the Cameroons’ (1964), my ini-
tial inquiries suggested that it needed a thorough revision; secondly, I had
read David Zeitlyn’s paper on Mambila divination (1987) which contained a
number of interesting findings which I could use as guidelines for my
research into Yamba spider divination.
I was lucky in getting to know Pa Monday Kongnjo of Gom (Ill. 1), a
widely acclaimed diviner. Actually it was he who found me out first. On one
of my visits to Gom, Pa Monday came to see me because, as he said, ‘witches
were worrying him in his house at night’.
Illustration 1: Pa Monday Kongnjo (1994)

During that first meeting, Pa Monday had shown me his leaf-cards and we
had agreed that he would make me a replica of his set. Later that year he took
his fourth wife Odilia with her four children to Sabongari because he was
afraid ‘that the witches of his agnates would kill her remaining children’
(Odilia had already lost six of her children). From then onwards, Pa Monday
was a frequent visitor to Sabongari, often staying for several weeks or even
months. He would come almost every evening to my house and, over a bottle
of beer, he would explain to me the names and the meaning of the leaf-cards,
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 11

the setting of the sticks, the principles and process of interpretation, how a
case was presented to the spider, and many other things. He was a diviner
much sought after. On many an evening he would be called away from our
discussions to divine for one or other client. He would then invite me to wit-
ness the divination. We did not have to go far. There were several spider holes
in the Mission compound with which he would engage.
I always taped our evening discussions using a small microcassette
recorder. When transcribing the interview the following day, new questions
would crop up which I would put to Pa Monday at the next opportunity. All
my interviews and our conversations were conducted in private, without an
interpreter. We talked exclusively in Pidgin English of which Pa Monday had
an excellent command since he had been a member of the Customary Court in
the early 1960s. My interviews never too the form of a ‘cross-examination’. I
nver forced him to answer my questions. In fact, it was quite impossible to
conduct a straight interview with him in the sense that I would prepare some
questions to which I wanted to get his answers. Once I had asked a question
would be off on his own. He only needed a catch phrase or word which would
get him into a mental track that he followed to the end. Although it was I who,
I thought, conducted the interview, somehow I felt that it was always Pa Mon-
day who was in charge. In the beginning I got quite frustrated. But later on,
re-reading the transcripts, I found that in them there was a wealth of informa-
tion which I would never have got by direct questioning. Pa Monday gave me
what anthropologists, I think, call ‘texts’, spontaneous, unelicited informa-
tion.
He was a prolific storyteller. It was only occasionally that had I to coax
him on with another question or to bring him back to the subject about which
I wanted information. He was most interesting when he talked about his own
life. He always had a story ready to explain a point he made. He was least
helpful when asked to give a blow by blow account of a ritual sequence or the
meaning of a symbolically informed action. It was clear that he never gave
much thought to such matters. Ritual specialists knew what they were doing
and as long as they did it correctly, all was well.
Pa Monday was in his mid-70s. He was short in stature and always on the
move. He appreciated good company, especially when there was something to
drink. He could get vexed very easily and he was fond of bringing cases to the
police or to court, a legacy of his stint as a court member. Pa Monday was a
bit of an outsider too. I felt that he was not quite integrated into his descent
group. He still spoke the Bom dialect which he had acquired in his childhood
while he was staying with his matrikin in Bom. His father died when he was a
12 Chapter 1. Introductory

boy. Thereafter his mother took him and his two sisters to Bom where she
died soon afterwards. Pa Monday stayed in Bom till he reached the age of
marriage. His descent group did not bother to get his children back.
From his youth onwards Pa Monday had taken up petty trading. He would
buy groundnuts or corn in Bom and sell them to Hausa traders on the Mam-
bila plateau to the east. He would come back with salt or cloth and sell it in
Bom or Gom. Later on he switched to animal traps and dane guns. For a time
he took up wood carving, but his family stopped him (‘since nobody in our
descent group had been a carver’). His darling son Benjamin got seriously ill
and divination blamed his agnates for having caused the illness. Pa Monday
had to swear by licking the double bell that he would never do any carving
again. Still, Benjamin died. He never really got over the death of his son.
Pa Monday’s married life had had its ups and downs. He had married four
wives. One wife died in Nwa while he was a court member of the Customary
Court in the early 1960s. His third wife divorced him. He took his first wife to
her relatives in Mayo Binka (Wimbum) because of his fear of witchcraft. She
is still living there with her children. His fourth wife, Odilia, and her children
he first took to Nwanti in the Mbo’ Plain, then back to his in-laws in Nkwi,
and finally to Sabongari. This means that Pa Monday is now regularly com-
muting between Mayo Binka, Gom and Sabongari. In all he has had 32 chil-
dren by his four wives, 17 of whom have died. Is it surprising, then, that he
took his remaining two wives away from Gom to live as strangers outside
their natal area? It was a desperate move to escape from the witches of his
agnates.
When Takayo, the old and blind lineage head of Ngwen, Pa Monday’s
descent group, died in 1992, there was a lot of tension as to who would be the
next lineage head. In the end Pa Monday was ‘put on the chair’, although he
always told me that he did not want it. But the tension, rivalry and uneasy
relationship between himself and some of the senior members of the descent
group continues to the present day. Pa Monday is constantly in search of ways
to protect himself against the alleged witchcraft of his agnates. Most of his
meagre gains from the sale of traps and the payments he receives from divin-
ing go to this purpose.
But my main and most trusted informant became Pa Sam Kobuin, a native
of Nkwi quarter of Gom in Lower Yamba (Ill.2). In 1992 he settled in Ngom-
kila, a quarter of Sabongari where the Catholic Mission Station is situated,
with his wife and five children. Like Pa Monday, Sam, too, had left his natal
village because of fear of witchcraft. First he stayed for some years in Ngom-
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 13

kaw, just north of Sabongari, before building a house in Ngomkila where he

acquired a piece of land in the gallery forest nearby which he turned into a
coffee plantation.
Sam grew up in his natal hamlet, Nkwi. His grandfather Bokin Kayu who
was the lineage head of Mbak´N lineage (see Fig. 1), had a surplus of mar-
riage shovels (bridewealth was paid in so-called marriage shovels — see
Chapter Two) but no son then for whom he could buy a wife. His sister, who
had married to a man in Nchak quarter of Gom, had a son called Giya whose
family did not provide him with a wife. He came to complain to his uncle who
showed him a tract of palm bush where he could harvest palm nuts and tap
wine. Giya built a house in Nkwi and his uncle acquired a wife for him. Her
name was Ngwec´p, a woman from the Sang quarter of Gom. Giya had three
children by her. Then, at the instigation of his family, Giya abandoned
Ngwec´p and her children and returned to Nchak where he died soon after-
wards. Yani Nkeyko, the son of Bokin Kayu, inherited Ngwec´p and she bore
him three children, the first one being Sam Kobuin. Then Yani Nkeyko left
with his first wife and settled at Daga, in what is now Nigeria. The senior
brother of Yani Nkeyko, America Njiku, who succeeded Bokin Kayu as line-

Illustration 2: Sam Kobuin (1994)

14 Chapter 1. Introductory

age head, took a liking to Sam and he became like a son to him. Sam accom-
panied his ‘father’ wherever he went carrying his bag. Thus he was
introduced into the different rituals, cults and customs of his people from
early childhood. After the death of his wife Yani Nkeyko returned to Nkwi.
With the help of his family he married a young woman by whom he had three
children. When America Njiku died Yani Nkeyko was enstooled as new line-
age head. He died when Sam had already moved to Ngomkaw.
Sam married a woman from Lower Nkwi. When their first child died, he
and his wife went to Hamajoda, a quarter of Sop (Wimbum) and they took up
arming there. When their second child got very ill they returned to Nkwi, but
this child died too. They stayed in Nkwi and had three more children. Then
the oldest child, a girl, fell sick and died. Divination ‘caught’ the aforesaid
America Njiku for having ‘eaten’ the child. This angered Sam so much that
he took his wife and children to Ngomkaw and later to Sabongari. But he
never fails to return to Nkwi for the annual cults and dances, for death cele-
brations and family matters. In 1998 he built a three-roomed house in his
compound in Nkwi. Since his children are now grown up he wants to return
there in a few years time.
Sam is in his mid-50s. He is a hardworking man but he also enjoys his
occasional cup of palm wine. Although he does not want people to know it, he
is a diviner of sorts using sections of the wild garden egg (Solanum sp.). Since
he was staying near my house I had met Sam several times. But it was only in
the beginning of 1993 when I was doing research into Yamba marriage sys-
tems that I happened to ask Sam about certain things I was not clear about.
His answers surprised me. He could explain things in a clear and systematic
way and he volunteered additional information which I did not get from other
informants. He would have been a good teacher had he gone to school.
Although nominally a member of the Baptist Church he was at heart a tradi-
tionalist. He was firmly convinced of the efficacy of rituals and cults, and he
believed in the truthfulness of divination. (‘If it were not for this thing there
would be no Yamba left’). In terms of ‘native law and custom’ Sam is by far
the most knowledgeable person I knew among the Yamba. But what was more
important to me was that he could explain things in a coherent and systematic
way that one rarely finds.
Thus began a long and fruitful relationship. Whenever I was in Sabongari
Sam was a daily visitor. He would come in the evening and we would, over a
bottle of palm wine which he himself often provided, discuss the different
rituals, cults and beliefs of the Yamba. Our conversations, which were con-
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 15

FIGURE 1. Mbak´N Lineage of Nkwi/Gom

ducted in Pidgin English, were always in private. I taped all our interviews
and discussions and he had no objection. Several times I had the opportunity
to test his reliability as an informant. I had him describe in detail a ritual or
16 Chapter 1. Introductory

cult performance I had not seen and explain the meaning of the different sym-
bols and symbolic actions. Later on when I had a chance of witnessing such a
ritual I was surprised to find how accurate his descriptions were. I could fol-
low the sequence of the ritual in every detail. Sometimes he may have left out
one or other minor detail but all the main features were there. Sam rose more
and more in my estimation as a most reliable informant.
There were few things which defeated him. Only very occasionally he
would say, ‘That is how it was done since the beginning’, or, ‘That is how our
“fathers” did it’. When I asked for the meaning of one or other symbolic
action or why a certain herb was used, he would sometimes reply, ‘Yes, I
asked my old people this same question.’ He was never satisfied by knowing
only the correct procedure of a ritual or the different things and payments
which had to be given. He was keenly interested in the meaning of what was
done. Occasionally when I confronted him with some problem or other to
which he had given little or no thought and I felt that he was evasive and was
avoiding giving a direct answer, I did not force the issue but changed the
topic. When I brought up the subject again some weeks or months later his
answers were precise and to the point. Obviously he had been thinking about
it or discussed it with other people. If he was not sure about something he
would say quite frankly, ‘I don’t know about this. I cannot tell you a lie.’
On my monthly tours around the western and central Yamba area, staying
the night in different villages, I would chance, time and again, on interesting
ceremonies, performances of rituals or cults, family meetings (‘judging a
case’), death celebrations and dances. Sometimes I was forewarned of an
important ritual, which was going to take place in a certain village, or I was
invited to a seasonal dance or cult performance. Then I would try to change
my programme so that I could go and witness the occasion. Merely wander-
ing around the villages, I would come across something that would turn out to
be vital to my understanding of the Yamba people and their customs. With
time I became much more observant about significant localities, shrines, and
ritually important sites, which a casual visitor would scarcely have noticed
because they looked so ordinary and insignificant. I would take note of all
these things and discuss them in detail with Sam and Pa Monday in the pri-
vacy of my sitting room.
Although Pa Monday and Sam Kobuin were my principal informants, they
were by no means the only ones. Pa Njikwi, Lawrence Nsangong and Peter
Jinsak of Mfe helped me to understand the Yamba twin ritual as practised in
Upper Yamba. Pa Njikwi not only invited me to witness and photograph the
twin ritual, but he also took me on as his apprentice. He showed me all the
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 17

leaves used in the ritual and provided me with the ‘medicine bag’ with all its
contents, including the twin pot. In his words I had ‘finished everything’ and
if I had been a Yamba man I could have performed the ritual on my own.
There were many other people, mostly men, who gave me valuable infor-
mation. In almost every village in central and western Yamba I knew some old
people who would be willing to discuss their ‘country fashion’ with me.
There were, of course, some who were suspicious of my motives and inquisi-
tiveness and would not tell me anything. But many older people were glad to
have found in me a sympathetic listener, complaining that most young people
had lost interest in the old ways of life. Adherents of world religions were
often hostile, condemning anything traditional as a ‘pagan’ or ‘Satan thing’.
I found it very difficult, indeed almost impossible, to get women to talk
about Yamba customs and their way of life, with the exception of two women
from Mfe, Angelica Dzebaa and Philomena Lamfuen, who introduced me to
Yamba notions of twins and from whom I got the words of the twin mother’s
song.
Only on very few occasions did I conduct group interviews, and when I did,
it was more in the form of an informal discussion. I would neither tape the
interview nor take notes. It was only later on, when the people had left, that I
would jot down a few important points and discuss them with Sam or Pa
Monday when I next met them. I never made use of research assistants or sent
out questionnaires. I had all the time in the world and no deadline to beat.
When writing up my material I would take one topic at the time. If I found
myself confronted with an obvious gap I could go and ask one of my inform-
ants to clear up the point or give me the needed information. In some ways
this compensated for the lack of a good library which I could consult. All my
articles were written in the field.
One of the difficulties which I encountered especially in the beginning of
my research was the regional variations that existed not only between Upper
and Lower Yamba but even between the hamlets of the same village. There
was clearly no one ‘Yamba way of doing things’. This was most forcibly
brought home to me when, after having witnessed the twin ritual in Mfe, I had
the opportunity of witnessing one in Bom. To be sure, the similarities between
the two performances were striking but so were the differences. Several epi-
sodes included in the Bom ritual were absent in the Mfe ritual and vice versa.
The same holds true for the annual cult performances which differ from vil-
lage to village in terms of timing, of combination of cults and dances, of dura-
tion, etc. In describing the various rituals I have found it necessary, therefore,
18 Chapter 1. Introductory

to limit myself to Nkwi, a quarter of Gom in Lower Yamba, the place where
Sam Kobuin, my principal informant comes from, and which I know well,
except for the twin ritual which I observed in Mfe, the Yamba spider divina-
tion for which Pa Monday Kongnjo was my main informant, and the chapter
on Yamba marriage systems in which I have tried to make a comparison
between Upper and Lower Yamba. In the chapter on Yamba witchcraft I have
tried to give a more global description of Yamba beliefs. Still, I have my
doubts as to whether there is any unanimity of opinion or collective view
among all the Yamba on the issues discussed in this book. But I am confident
that most of the older Yamba, the traditionalists, would agree that what I
describe is a fair representation of their customs and beliefs.
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 19

Map 1
20 Chapter 1. Introductory

Map 2
 Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland 21

Map 3