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Reconsidering Patrimonialization in the Bamun Kingdom Heritage, Image, and Politics from 1906 to the Present

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Reconsidering Patrimonialization in the Bamun Kingdom Heritage, Image, and Politics from 1906 to the Present Reconsidering Patrimonialization in the Bamun Kingdom Heritage, Image, and Politics from 1906 to the Present Alexandra Galitzine-Loumpet ehind the photograph depicting the facade of the royal museum, its importance also resided in the crystallization palace of the kings of Bamun in west Cameroon, of multiple parallel patrimonialization processes, which char- reproduced at two-thirds of its real size, the Chi- acterized the emergence of a “Bamun modernity” between 1895 cago Field Museum also presents a vitrine dedi- and 1933, during the long reign of King Njimoluh, and up to the cated to the Palace Museum.1 The photograph is present. These processes derive from the existence of Bamun not a representation of the original structure cre- script and historiography; the large-scale circulation of photo- ated by King Njoya (ca. 1860–1933) in the 1920s, or of the later graphs and printed materials; means of self-representation; the buildingB established at the palace entrance by his heir King Nji- continuous presence from the end of the nineteenth century moluh (r. 1933–1992), but rather it encapsulates the fourth ver- of external third parties, namely Muslim proselytes, Protestant sion produced by a Swiss expert during palace repair works in missionaries, colonial administrators, researchers, and even 1985 (Bosserdet 1985). Another restructuring was carried out in internal opponents who stimulated creations or reactions; and 1996 and the latest, involving the construction of a new museum, the personality of protagonists, specifically that of King Njoya. is ongoing.2 The Field Museum vitrine is therefore obsolete and The reciprocal influence of the diverse actors and vectors must has always been incomplete. It does, however, acknowledge the be viewed in a synchronic manner in order to bring out the con- existence of an endogenous patrimonial process, presenting tiguous and often antagonistic patrimonial arenas and, conse- objects presumed representative of it, namely masks, a portrait of quently, the modalities of articulating politics and patrimony in King Mbuembue (r. first half of the nineteenth century), objects the Bamun kingdom. associated with King Njoya, manuscripts in Bamun script, and products of the encounter with the European world. As artificial BAMUN CONCEPTIONS OF PATRIMONY as it may seem, this mise en abyme of an “African” museum in a The existence of patrimonial processes seems to be integrated “Western” museum is therefore significant. into a social organization founded on the capitalization of bor- In the mid-1920s, there already existed a museumlike institu- rowings. From the founding of the kingdom, probably in the tion in the royal palace founded by King Njoya following the dis- seventeenth century, a desire for autonomy from his homeland mantling of his kingdom by the French colonial administration. led the first king to use the language and elements of the ritu- Unique in Cameroon and Central Africa, this display, which als of conquered peoples. This policy of incorporating captured corresponded more to an exhibition of dynastic legitimacy and peoples, rituals, and later artistic techniques continued beyond of a “royal treasury” than a museum per se, responded primarily the arrival of the first Europeans in July 1902. Fundamental in to a local political agenda. In fact, the stakes of controlling rega- maintaining political prominence in the cultural region called lia pitted the palace museum against the collection put together the Grassfields, the politics of incorporation required a balance by the King’s cousin, Mosé Yeyap (ca. 1875–1941), a Christian- between processes of innovation and stabilization, both of which ized interpreter at the local colonial post. While this context of fall within the powers of the king, in modified forms, up to the increasing political tensions was central to the creation of the present. As a result, patrimonial processes were closely linked to 68 | african arts SUMMER 2016 VOL. 49, NO. 2 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00287 by guest on 29 September 2021 galitzine.indd 68 19/02/2016 4:20 PM power wielding at various levels, and the power-patrimony para- digm was continuously reconfigured. Principle of heritage: from ruin to patrimony. The continuity of the power-patrimony paradigm is portrayed in the methods of transmitting and inheriting titles as property. The referent is the method of dynastic transmission, reproduced in lineages and families (Tardits 1980, Wasaki 1992). The new king “ascends to the throne of Nshare Yen,” founder of the dynasty, as the heir of an office that incarnates his forefathers. With each enthrone- ment, the ruler reaches back multiple generations, re-entrench- ing an ancestral figure in the present. In assuming this statutory and symbolic heritage, the heir also receives objects related to 1 Lewa symbols (ca. 1896) for “king” and lineage and rank—that is, both the property belonging to the “kingdom” (Dugast & Jeffreys 1952; Galitzine- private family sphere and a right to insignia of external represen- Loumpet 2011a) tation or public attributes such as the machete, spear, cap, and royal blue and white ntieya fabric. Between these two spheres are found objects specific to enthronement, given by the king to his son in the palace, which include specific durable insignia such as a single brass bell called a süre and, since since the early twenti- transmission of royal power and its function of invoking dynas- eth century, a long Islamic robe called a gandoura, as well as an tic continuity, but because it supposes an external conception organic object, a red turaco feather generally kept in the house of imposed on internal and local usages. a maternal uncle. Transmission is thus ensured through internal A translation process: iconography and script. Preceding the and related measures, besides lineage. arrival of Europeans by several decades, the first major docu- The importance attached to maintaining patrilineal transmis- mented transformation of Bamun society is linked to the intro- sion underlies the conception of patrimony. As underscored by duction of Islam. The presence of Hausa traders from the 1860s, Germain Loumpet (forthcoming), the terms associated with followed in approximately 1894 by Fulani cavalry from Banyo patrimony are related to the notion of m’fom. Depending on the during the civil war of Gbetnkom Ndombouo, popularized the word stress, this monosyllabic word has the following meanings: dissemination of copies of the Qu’ran and the wearing of long M’foM /sacred place/ or /cemetery/ of the njis (sacred place circum- robes. Islam and its material culture appeared then as the vectors scribed by a ficus hedge); of a new political power, and it is probably this point that inter- ested the young King Njoya when he invented the first version of M’fOm /ruin/, as in Mfomben, the ruins of Mbem,3 from which the the Bamun script around 1895. capital of the kingdom derived its name, that is an abandoned, for- In several accounts, Bamun script is a medium of conserva- saken place; tion and patrimonialization. Not only did it enable the emer- gence, between 1906–1910, of an official royal historiography, Fom /dull, dusty/ ill-kept (an old thing, an unswept house, aban- drafted in later cursive versions of the writing, as well as coun- doned property). ternarratives from persons opposed to the king, but its very first A sacred place where the prince (nji) goes in circumstances ideographic version, lewa, also acted to conserve iconographic that threaten the very existence of the lineage, to which access is signifiers transformed by the revealed religions. The most vivid otherwise forbidden under pain of a curse and death, the cem- example is perhaps that of the stylized spider, the meaning etery of lineage heads (m’fom) is also a place of conservation par of which, imposed by Islam and later by craftsmen, is “work.” excellence, where objects can be kept in greater safety than any- The original meaning, however, is “wisdom” or “truth,” in line where else.4 The major patrimonialization paradigm is therefore with the creature’s divinatory function. The trapdoor spider is a conception based on the dread of discontinuity and of rupture, the messenger of the ancestors that also delivers their message but also on the demarcation of sacred places. While the existence by dreams assimilated to spider webs. More generally, a semio- of ruins evokes a curse (ndon), the Bamun nevertheless respect logical analysis of lewa shows the predominance of square and ruins as a place where something had existed and continues to rectangular signs for designating space and triangular signs for maintain a presence. From this standpoint, the same ambivalent social status. Ontological signs are circular, while radiating signs word designates both the patrimony of a lineage and its possible indicate periodicity and duration. Lastly, the sign of the king, absence, its material (cemetery) and immaterial (lineage trans- mfon, combines space (a square), with status and position (a dia- mission) aspects. mond terminating in circles) (Fig. 1). This ideographic system It is therefore possible to consider the need for lineages, as therefore recalls the more ancient iconographic one and is found with the palace, to continuously maintain and add on a level both in the form of the throne (a round chair on a square base) both symbolic and actual. The value of patrimony stems from and on the map of the kingdom (Galitzine-Loumpet 2011b). the capacity to incorporate additional elements taken or bor- Moreover, the more ancient iconographic system as well as lewa rowed from others. The distinct notion of collective patrimony functions, with nuances, at the level of the micro-states through- must thus be underscored, not because it was absent from the out the region called the Grassfields. VOL. 49, NO. 2 SUMMER 2016 african arts | 69 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00287 by guest on 29 September 2021 galitzine.indd 69 19/02/2016 4:20 PM 2 “Objets remarquables du travail Bamoun.” F.
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