SCOTT MACEACHERN DU KUNDE: PROCESSES OF MONTAGNARD ETHNOGENESIS IN THE NORTHERN MANDARA MOUNTAINS OF CAMEROON Mandaras Publishing electronic publication ISBN 0-9544730-1-9 1 Du Kunde Not-for-profit publication ©Copyright remains with the author www.mandaras.info electronic publication London UK 2003 2 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This is the electronic ISBN publication of my PhD thesis, completed in 1990 at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calgary, Canada. Nothing in the work has been changed from the original version, apart from reformatting to A4 size and minor adjustments to the table of contents. This reformatting has affected the page numbering of the work. A deposit of this publication has been made to the: Electronic Publications Acquisitions Section National Library of Canada 395 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4 CANADA e-mail: [email protected] Scott MacEachern (Brunswick, November 2003) [email protected] Associate Professor of Anthropology Department of Sociology & Anthropology Bowdoin College 7000 College Station Brunswick ME 04011-8493 USA 3 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY DU KUNDE: PROCESSES OF MONTAGNARD ETHNOGENESIS IN THE NORTHERN MANDARA MOUNTAINS OF CAMEROON BY SCOTT MACEACHERN A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA NOVEMBER, 1990 ©SCOTT MACEACHERN 1990 4 ABSTRACT The northern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon are inhabited by non- Muslim agricultural populations, living in acephalous societies at high population densities and with great cultural and ethnic diversity. In contrast, Muslim states traditionally occupied the plains around these mountains. Relations between plainsmen and montagnards have always been ambiguous, characterized by both cooperation and conflict, and remain today. Linguistic data indicate that the Mandara massif has been occupied for at least 700 to 1000 years by people speaking languages ancestral to those spoken there today. In contrast, archaeological and ethnohistorical investigations have produced little evidence of intensive occupation for more than a few hundred years. In this dissertation, I attempt to reconcile these apparently conflicting data and propose a model for montagnard ethnogenesis in this extremely complex area. Five hundred years ago, the plains around the Mandara Mountains were occupied by non-Muslim ‘Sao’ and ‘Maya’ populations; the peripheries of the massif were occupied by a small number of autochthonous groups speaking languages ancestral to the montagnard languages of today. Slave- raiding by the Muslim Kanuri and the establishment of a local slave-raiding state, that of the Wandala, produced a flow of refugees into the mountains. The conversion of the Wandala to Islam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries accelerated this process. This immigration and the conflicts it engendered drastically augmented the massif population, but did so in such a way that linguistic and cultural continuity from earlier montagnard populations was to a great extent maintained. I discuss processes by which this would have occurred. In discussing ethnogenesis, it is necessary to first examine concepts of ‘ethnicity’ as they are traditionally used in this area. Montagnard ‘ethnic groups’, as they are usually defined, are to a great extent linguistic and 5 administrative constructs. The are important to their members, but I argue that groups at larger and smaller scales of organization are often more important. In particular, lineages and territorial lineage groups function as primary groups of self-identification and as vital social and corporate units. It is difficult to over-estimate the importance of lineages in processes of ethnogenesis in and around the northern Mandara Mountains. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a number of people who have been important in the completion of this dissertation, both academically and personally. This work, and the time that I have spent engaged in research and writing, would have been much poorer without them. I owe them a great deal. Nicholas David has been my faculty advisor during my M.A. and doctoral research in the Department of Archaeology of the University of Calgary. He is also the founder of the Mandara Archaeological Project. He has taught me more about archaeology than has anyone else, and his professional and personal standards would be an example to any student. It has been a privilege to work with him. Jane Kelley, Scott Rymond and Doyle Hatt have been on both my M.A. and doctoral committees, and the assistance and guidance that they have given me have been invaluable. My first class in African archaeology was taught by Peter Shinnie, and he also gave me my first opportunity to work on that continent, in Ghana in 1982. He has advised me, and lent me books, since then; I owe him a great deal. John Lamphear, of the Department of History of the University of Texas at Austin, served as the external examiner on my dissertation defence, and his book The traditional history of the Jie of Uganda is a model of exemplary ethnohistorical research. My work has, since 1984, been carried on within the structure of the Mandara Archaeological Project. The moral and academic support of the other researchers associated with the Project have been essential to me. Most of the ideas expressed in this dissertation developed in the course of conversations with Ian Robertson, Judy Sterner, Kodzo Gavua, Diane Lyons, Maureen Reeves, Mike Wilson, Nick Jones and David Killick. I would not have been able to write this dissertation had I not met Michel Kourdapaya Amba. He is not only a superb translator and informant; he is also a good friend. He, and his relatives and neighbours in and around 7 the village of Adobikwo, welcomed an uncouth foreigner into their midst, answered the questions that I continually asked and treated me very kindly. The help given by my informants among the du kunde is obvious on every page of this book. I owe a particular debt to Tlevu Augla, Gskai Augla and Abokwa Baje, who taught me about Plata Dumlelai. I cannot repay that debt; all three have died since 1986. I hope that this work will serve as some sort of repayment. I am very indebted to the community of researchers who work in Cameroon. This work was carried out under the auspices of the Cameroonian Ministry of Higher Education, Computing and Scientific Research. I would like to thank Eldridge Mohammadou, of the Institute of Human Sciences office at Garoua, for his help and kindness since 1984, and particularly for his assistance when I was ill and had to leave the country in 1989. I would also like to thank Alain Marliac, Olivier Nyssens, Daniel Barreteau, Michelle Delneuf, Christian Seignobos and Augustin Holl for their help in Cameroon and in Europe. The men and women of the Mission Mayo Ouldemé welcomed me, helped me when I was sick and gave me access to their library in 1986 and 1989. I would like to thank William of Occam, for the use of his Razor. Mandara Archaeological Project research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grants 410-83- 0819, 410-85-1040, 410-88-0361 and 410-89-0871) and the University of Calgary. My own research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Fund for Advanced Studies, the Province of Alberta, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Department of Archaeology of the University of Calgary. The staff of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calgary, and particularly Lesley Nicholls, Barry MacDonnell, Angie McCoy 8 and Ornella Cavaliere, have provided me with a great deal of help during my doctoral programme, in preparations for fieldwork and in dealing with assorted bureaucracies. The Department of Archaeology has been a good place to conduct research, largely because of the qualities of the staff and students. I particularly want to thank Ian Robertson, Peter Francis, Susan Langley, Glenn Stuart, Don Hannah, Sharon Hannah, Claire Allum, Carol Krol, Jeff Chartrand, Merlin Rosser, Neil McKinnon, Judy Sterner, Maureen Reeves, Sally Stewart, Kodzo Gavua, Debbie Ferguson, Richard Fox, Reginald Auger, Ephraim Wahome, Persis Clarkson, Brenda Kennedy, Rick Garvin, Sandra Peacock, Peter McCartney and Margaret Glass for their friendship and their support, both academic and non-academic. They and the other people here have made the last ten years worthwhile. I want to thank my parents, Arnold and Meredith MacEachern, and my grandmother, Helen MacLean, for the support and the love that they have given me. My life has taken a different path from theirs, geographically and in many other ways, and I know that they have worried about me at times, particularly when I have been engaged in fieldwork. They have set me examples of decency and hard work that I will not be able to equal. I also want to thank my wife’s parents, Joseph and Mary LeMoine, and her grandfather, John Watson, for the love and encouragement that they have given me ever since I met them. The best thing that has happened to me over the course of my doctoral programme has nothing to do with my dissertation at all. I would like to thank my wife, Genevieve LeMoine, for her love and understanding, and for the patience that she has shown as I have tried to complete this dissertation. I could not have written it without her help. 9 For Genevieve, as always. 10 Table of Contents ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................5