Bamum people

The Bamun (also Bamum or Mamum; French spelling Bamoun, Mamoun or Mamoum ) are a West African ethnic group in Cameroon with about 215,000 members, who mostly live in the Kingdom of Bamum. They thus account for less than two percent of the total population of Cameroon.

Settlement area

The Bamun are mainly in the so-called Bamun plateau to the west of Cameroon established, an average of 1,200 m above sea level fertile grassy plain of volcanic origin. Their cultural, political and religious center is the capital of their kingdom Foumban (about 113,100 inhabitants ), which houses the Palace District of the Sultan and the King of Bamun as well as the largest mosque in the region.

Origin and History

The history of Bamun has been passed down orally over the centuries and written in the early 20th century. She describes the development up to the reign of the first king Nchare Yen (1394-1418), who was able to subdue the leader of a small group of people from the north-eastern further former land of the Tikar coming some small states beyond the Mbam river. His successors extended the controlled area further. In today's settlement area the Bamun resident only since the 18th century. They displaced from this area gradually the people of the Bamileke, which had initially settled in what is now Bamun country after a similar hike.

The traditional history of Bamun describes this process as follows: Under the leadership of King Nchare Yen crossed a group of 200 to 300 people the Mbam river and threw seven small principalities around the place Djimom. Nchare Yen then declared the founding of the State of Bamun Djimom and was its first capital. From there, conquered Nchare yen few dozen other small principalities and city Foumban, which he explained to his new capital. He ruled at his death, an area with a diameter of about 30 km, which was populated by about 25,000 subjects. His kingdom he inherited to one of his sons.

His successors were able to defend the empire against the surrounding states. King Mboumbouo Mandu, who ruled the eleventh descendant of the dynasty to the end of the 18th century, is to extend the Bamun area up to the rivers Mbam and Noun succeeded. His face was doing almost quadrupled to about 7700 km ², reaching about the size it is today. The population reached 60,000.

During the reign of King Njoya (1894-1924) it came into contact with representatives of the German Empire. Germany tried then to the colonization of Cameroon. Njoya had recognized the superiority of the new arrivals and sought a compromise with them. He was impressed by the German culture and even convinced to be able to combine with the culture of Bamun. To this end, he founded schools, developed their own script ( Bamun font) and led by political reforms which promoted the economic prosperity of his kingdom. Impressed by pictures from Germany he tore down the old wooden palace of Foumban and build the oriented on the north German brick construction today's palace. As a sign of great respect Njoya gave the German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1908, even the most sacred symbol of his royal dignity, a valuable beaded throne for his birthday. In return he received from the emperor a German Cuirassier uniform of the Imperial Guard. The throne is still located at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.

In the following years, however, the situation deteriorated in Bamun country due to the hardening of colonization by the Europeans. 1924 King Njoya was deposed by the French, who had now taken over the colony as a League of Nations mandate by the Germans. Only after his death his son was enthroned again on 25 June 1933.

Since his death in 1992, the office of the king and sultan dressed the former Minister Ibrahim Njoya Mbombo as the 18th ruler of the dynasty founded by Nchare yen.

Geographer Franz Thorbecke at the court of King Njoya, King of Bamum

The geographer Franz Thorbecke traveled in the years 1907/ 08 and 1911 to 1913 Cameroon. He came up to the court of King Njoya, King of Bamum. Its territory lay to the west of Cameroon. On the second trip Thorbecke was accompanied by his wife, Marie Pauline Thorbecke, a photographer and painter. The highlights of the collection Thorbecke counts the top mask with the ruler Njoya. An elaborately crafted leopard throne from Bamum also was provided by Dr. Theodor Seitz, governor of Cameroon (1907 - 1910) purchased. The collection Thorbecke is a component of the ethnographic collection of the Reiss- Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim.

Society

To date, the Bamun live like most peoples of West Africa in hierarchical structures in which the clan or family plays a major role and in most cases a greater importance for the social relations than for example the state. At the head of a village, district or specific area is a Fon ( "boss" ), which is traditionally only dominated by the king as head of the whole ethnic group. Since the Cameroonian government is now largely centralized organization, the traditional leaders have today but mainly representative and advisory.

The Bamun are predominantly Islamic faith and their king additionally carries the title of sultan. However, there are also Christians and followers of other religions under the Bamun which are respected as long as they recognize the secular authority of the King. The Sultanate Foumban is the southernmost Sultanate in Cameroon. The Sultan of Foumban is in Cameroon over the Bamun - people beyond very highly respected figure whose advice today is still of the substantial public interest.

The maintenance of the cultural tradition and history is of great importance in the Bamun. Under the reign of King Njoya ( 1894-1924 ), which the Bamun state owes an economic and cultural boom due to comprehensive reforms own Bamun font was developed in the Njoya had to write down the history of his people, and founded a national museum which is located in the Sultan's palace of Foumban and today is one of the most important museums of Cameroon.

The Bamun apply throughout Cameroon as excellent craftsmen and are known for their bronze and woodcarving.

Language

The language of Bamun belongs to the branch of the Mbam - Nkam languages ​​of the semi Bantu languages. Some speakers of this language they refer to as Schupamem. The official ISO language code [ bax ]. There are several dialects which are related to the languages ​​Bafanji, Bamali, Bambalang and Bangolan. Around 1895 Sultan Njoya developed their own script, or more precisely, multiple fonts, of which last is also called " A- ka -u- ku " and had some success, until the French colonial administration put on its use punishment and all schools closed, the they had taught.