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According to Edwin Ardener in his seminal work, Kingdom on Mount Cameroon, the waste of Gravenreuths expedition had serious repercussions. Investigations in this garden included the control of cocoa diseases? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. There is an ongoing dispute between the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) and the government of Cameroon regarding the disposition of Bakweri Lands formerly used by the Germans as plantations and now managed by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC).[9]. Ballet Is Back, but All Is Not as It Was | The New Yorker With the introduction of cash crops it led to the creation of Botanical garden in Victoria by Governor Von Soden who was charged with the research plants suitable for the plantations. Mount Cameroon, also known Mount Fako is an active volcano which last erupted in 2000. This was the first chief who received the flag from the German Colonial Masters. Bakweri Traditional - Limbe Forum of Arts and Culture - Facebook All across Bakweri territory the following song of praise could be heard: Lo! The festival commemorates the ancestors and allows the participants to consider the problems facing the groups and humanity as a whole. They are insisting that at a time when the Cameroon government is determined to sell off the Cameroon Development Corporation (which controls practically all of the German expropriated lands), the hundred-year old claims of the Bakweri, which began to be expressed in an organized and coherent manner after the Second World War, be taken into account. Traditional Bakweri society was divided into three strata. (LogOut/ More narrowly, they fall into the Sawa, or the coastal peoples of Cameroon. Due to theequatorial maritime climate, and the high fertility of the soil, the Bakweri people are good agriculturalists, and their main source of income is from agriculture. The roots of the social and cultural ills that would plague them for most of the 20th century can be traced back to this policy. Celebrating our African historical personalities,discoveries, achievements and eras as proud people with rich culture, traditions and enlightenment spanning many years. MCNP is the home or ' chariot of gods' of the gods of Bakweri clan ' Ihvarza Mote' the practice of traditional beliefs has declined and so have the natural resources. Till date, its uniting power cannot be underestimated. Chiefs and headmen sat at the pinnacle of this hierarchy in the past, though today such figures have very little power in their own right. The Bakweri people : Understanding their beautiful and unique The most prominent families in Bakweri tribal history are Wonya Likenye Endeley of buea and the family of Mangaa William of the Victoria ( today called Limbe). Led by the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC), the people of Fako division are taking their case for land compensation and restitution to the Cameroonian people and the international community. The arms never came. Through the rearing of animal. In the past, it used to be an important way of determining leadership among villages; it even resulted in a war between two villages in 1891, when people from Ghango burnt down the Molonde village in revenge after the death of their best wrestlers. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. All the above was due to the potential of the area like fertile soil and hunting facilities. It was simply the case of a poorly armed African ethnic group not being able to hold its own against superior European military power. Such a member must however take the risk that if his elephant double is killed by a hunter he too will suddenly die. Mr. Ewome however, regretted that most of the traditional sporting activities of the Bakweri like the famous Iwvati sport have gone extinct. These organs, oriented political and social life and organized the society in the face of external aggression. Thier population is much greater than 16,000. This society, had gods such as: Maelalova, and Ouasalova, all referred to god, creator of the universe. Firstly, the tradition of the Buea group stated that a certain Eye Njie used to come from Bomboko to hunt on the Eastward side of the mountain with a friend Nakande. The Bakweri were one of the few groups in all of German Africa that were thoroughly and systematically suppressed by the Germans. Nakande from Bomboko settled in Bonakanda which was called Ligbea which meant a place for good farming. Central core of traditional religion is centered around Epasa moto, half man, half stone. Led by the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC), the people of Fako division are taking their case for land compensation and restitution to the Cameroonian people and the international community. They grow crops like cocoyams, and maize. Also, due to the very low temperatures which are very frequent, the Bakweri donot have a lot of social activities like swimming, or playing tennis, but they have activities like mountain race which occurs in February, where places are warmer. Of course, Bakweri passive resistance would later be misinterpreted as a sign of laziness, a stereotype that has, unfortunately, become embedded in the national psyche. As one historian puts it: The German Pygmy had become a Giant. Outmanned and outgunned, Chief Kuva retreated to the village of Ewonda, and sent agents to Momongo to buy arms. The wives tended his pigs, goats, cattle, arable land, so no one could trespass or exceed them, etc.[15]. In serious cases, the suspected witch would be named and made to drink to sasswood medicine. They also construct armoires, chairs, and tables. the waste of Gravenreuths expedition had serious repercussions. The founding of new villages in the Mokpe expansion shows that one man, with a few relatives and friends could move to a place and the new settlement will be named after their leader. Consequently, the family of the village founder was automatically considered the royal family. learn to belly dance with dinara at bbt/school of russian american ballet at kingsborough.anybody who is passionate about belly dancing,who understands and a. Required fields are marked *. The Bakweri (Mokpe) are ancient fierce fighters, traditionally spiritual, customs-abiding and agriculturalist Mokwe-speaking people of Bantu origins who live on the steep but fertile slopes of the Cameroon Mountain (Mt Fako) in the Republic of Cameroon. This class of people were privilege to participate in restraint secret societies and other affairs concerning the Bakweri man and his territory. Mount Cameroon volcano has erupted several times in the 20th Century with documented eruptions in 1909, 1922, 1954, 1959, 1982, 1999 and 2000. At the top were the native Bakweri with full rights of land ownership. I just wish to give you a huge thumbs up for your excellent information you have got here on this post. The Bakweri have been largely Christianised since the 1970s Evangelical denominations dominate, particularly the Baptist church. Although Western historians insist that the only German lost in the confrontation was Gravenreuth, Bakweri legend has it that six Germans actually lost their lives in the expedition, and that their skulls now reside in a secret shrine in the village of Wondongo, Buea. [10], The Bakweri speak Mokpwe, a tongue that is closely related to Bakole and Wumboko. Bakweri inheritance is patrilineal; upon the fathers death, his property is inherited by his eldest son. They can eat what the normal people cant eat because they are initiated. They are closely related to Cameroon's coastal peoples (the Sawa), particularly the Duala and Isubu The Bakweri people occupy the South-eastern slopes of mount Cameroon (Fako). The bakweri s are an example of a segmentary society. One the Limbes biggest annual cultural events and a major touristic attraction is the Canoe Race. Every village had a witch-hanging tree (Ardener, 1956, p. 105). They settled on Bakweri soil as a result of the fact that they were either bought from neighboring tribes or caught as war captives. Fire was also used to clear the bush. It was an ill-defined body with no precise number of members. The prefix wo or the word Wonya meaning children of or descendants of was commonly used to enable the people traces their origin. Traditional festivals held each year serve as the most visible expression of these traditional beliefs in modern times. PDF Traditional justice system and conflict resolution exploring the pre At his death, his son Chief Ndumbe Samson Luma took over the baton of command and today, Likombe is blessed with another chief. As for the sasa, when somebody dies they have what they call 3 days of traditional celebration sasa after 3 days you kill a pig (or a chicken in case you dont have money), you cook the food and put it in a certain place people take it and eat in the bush. The father or relative of the woman have been paid a dowry, thus the woman is considered as a property to the husband and his family. He performed rituals such as the pouring of libation to the ancestors and cleansing ceremonies. This dance is known as Veambe and the participants, some of whom are quite young children, wind in and out of the village to the rhythm of the drums. Historically, Bakweri Traditional Wrestling (pala-pala) started years ago as a result of an argument that erupted between two friends. There is asexual division of labour(SDL) in bakweri in which there is the delegation of different tasks between men and women. This brought about a new rule where a wrestler is declared a winner if he succeeds to bundle his opponent up to the shoulder level without throwing him to the ground. The festivities also include armed combat, beauty pageants, pirogue races, and traditional wrestling.[16]. The town of Limbe is a mixture of Bakweri, Duala, and other ethnic groups. The story of Bakweri military resistance against the Germans is also the story of Chief KUVA LIKENYE of Buea, whose epic clashes with German troops remain one of the most glorious (but largely unknown) chapters in Cameroonian history. With their Commander dead, and the Bakweri guns continuously pounding enemy position, the German expeditionary force panicked. The variation here was among the family of the village founder that a leader was chosen. THE IMPACT OF THE BAKWERI ANTI-GERMAN CAMPAIGN That the Bakweri armed resistance failed was not because of cowardice. After paying part of the dowry, that is when you are officially married. The British practised a policy of indirect rule, entrusting greater powers to Bakweri chiefs in Buea. The Bakweri provided materials to the coastal tribes, who acted as middlemen. Over the next few decades, more adventurers came to explore the estuary and the rivers that feed it, and to establish trading posts. Kale, P.M. A brief History of the Bakweri. The German and Bakweri forces would have a memorable clash at the Minonge ravine, nowspanned by the bridge between the Buea station roundabout and the Buea Mountain Hotel. During this event, he told the elders that he was tired and decided to rest before returning home and it was during that interval that ancestral spirit visited him. The Germans never forgot this defeat in the hands of what they wrongly considered an ill-trained ragtag army. While the paddles glitter in the seawaves, some old wise men could even be seen on the beach apparently invoking victory gods for their villages. The British thus renewed encouragement for people from the interior to move to the coast and work the plantations. They were dispossessed of their former territory around present-day Buea station, and forcefully herded into what the Germans described as formerly ownerless land in lower Buea. Passive resistance, by refusing to do manual labor on their captured lands even when forced. The Isuwu are also believed to have originated from Bomboko. The home negotiators had, as a result, no serious territorial claims in north and east to offer. Oral tradition holds that a hunter from this village, went for hunting and stayed in the forest for a very long time until it was believed that he was death. Servants where taken inside the tribe, they were not payed but had free food. Wikipedia. The Ngondo is a traditional festival of the Duala, although today all of Cameroon's coastal Sawa peoples are invited to participate. The event brings together elites, chiefs and lovers of culture under one canopy to watch villagers make bouts on others. Others like Moki from Bokwai, Leowa and Mbella Nganda were all barons whose fighting skills were worth commending. BakweriLands: The Essential Text and Documents of a Native Land, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kwe_people&oldid=1157235457, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0. The plantations that are located closer to the mountain benefits from the weathered basalt or lava and those beside the mangrove, the soil is lateritic. PDF Bakweri Traditional Medicine It is the father of the boy or girl who look for a partner for their son/daughter. They were stratified under three distinct groups notably strangers, natives and slaves. They village has a council of elders which helps the chief in regulating the affairs of they village. Chief Mombi handed it to his younger brother, Kanga Mosisa, when he became old. Traditional Bakweri belief states that the ancestors live in a parallel world and act as mediators between the living and God. The Bakweri Male Dance, for example, demonstrates the performers virility. The veto only ended with his death. The Paramount Chief Of Buea Robert Esuka Endeley, we should note, is the son of Dr. Emmanuel Mbella Lifafa Endeley. Excitement builds up when the first canoes approach the shore. What Does The Name Bakweri Mean? - The Meaning of Names The Elephant Dance of Fako Division; the Malley dance - YouTube More narrowly, they fall into the Sawa, or the coastal peoples of Cameroon. [7] Individuals could opt to pay a fine to avoid the labour, however, which led to a dearth of workers from the wealthier areas. The Bakweri Elephants dance (Malee Dance) Here the ancestors were believed to play an intermediary role between the gods and those living on earth. The bakweri are not normally supposed to have sex before marriage. The Mpo'o brings together the Bakoko, Bakweri, and Limba at Eda. The Bakweri Male Dance, for example, demonstrates the performers' virility. "I heard how the guys were still performing then all of a sudden I heard serious gunshots and total silence followed. Organizers of the event have however taken some measures to mitigate health complications like broken body parts that come as a result of wrestling on these hard surfaces. The food is eaten by animals, meaning that the dead has make peace with you. It was also an attempt to crush Kuva Likenye, the mountain king who, according to the 1891 Report of Acting German Governor Von Schuckman frequently disturbed the peace of the mountain, and had instigated an uprising among the mountain tribes the Buea people even threatened to attack Victoria in a bid to reclaim their lands. It was explained that there was no elderly person in the Woteke family so the Chieftaincy stool moved hands to the Wosingo family after Chief Kanga became old and weak. To set the atmosphere, drummers on an elevated stage beat intricate rhythms on large log drums throughout the match while the crowds roar and shout encouragement to the wrestlers. It is widely known among the Bakweri that when a public ceremony,such as an eyuu, wrestling contests, Maale that involves the assembly of large crowds is scheduled to take place during the months of virtual incessant rainfall, that is, in the months of July, August, September and October, sponsors of the ceremony hire a Rain Scientist to suspend rainfall on the day of the ceremony. The founder of this village is Ngoni Maliva from Small Soppo Woteke. Upon the husband's death, the eldest surviving brother inherits the wife. traditional leadership systems, rent-seeking, the patriarchal nature of the Bakweri customary law and the impact of heterogeneity on Bakweri culture. If the suspect vomited it, he was innocent; if not he was guilty and was hanged(a form of ordeal). This page was last edited on 27 May 2023, at 07:59. These were fierce mountain warriors who were not afraid against invaders, as the Germans would learn the hard way in Buea in 1890s as they tried to penetrate into the Bakweri heartland. From the time they landed on the Fako coast, and especially after they came in contact with the Bakweri of the interior, the Germans had nothing but grudging respect for the Bakweri, particularly the fierce and fearless warriors of the villages around Buea, whomthe future German Governor of Kamerun, Von Puttkamer, praised in 1886 for their powerful well-built bodies, their courage and their skill in hunting Another German, Dr. Preuss, who would later become infamous for his appalling brutality towards the Bakweri, described them in yet another report as being rough (rauhen) and bold (dreisten Benehmen) in their dealings with the White man. As a result, female wrestlers like Ndollo Rebecca have come to the lamplight. Best Bakweri Most Spiritual Traditional Dance 1,011 views Feb 26, 2022 15 Dislike Share Save DIVERSITY MEDIA HD 1.07K subscribers #cameroon #bakwerimusic #traditional dance #spirituality. Natives of the Bakweri ethnic group were called Wopnja. If the Bakweri were united, then their final defeat by the Germans during the Bakweri resistance under the leadership of KuvaLikenya could have failed and even if not the alienation policy might have adopted a different shape, thus the loose political and social ties amongst the Bakweri worked in favor of the Germans. We surveyed 228 households. Traditional Bakweri society was divided into three strata. The origin of the Bakweri settlement could be attributed to two separate traditions. In March 1894, Germany signed an agreement with France that fixed the eastern boundary of Kamerun far more narrowly than once had been hoped for. 0:00 / 2:01 The Elephant Dance of Fako Division; the Malley dance Buea Royal Palace 274 subscribers Subscribe 37 Share Save 9.2K views 6 months ago Indigenous to the people of Fako and Meme. Awa Odori (Japanese traditional dance) at karatedo in New - YouTube On this night, a white bed sheet is spread on the bed, for the couple to have sex on it. Incest is even considered as a taboo, and serious practice needs to be practice to purify the family name. The traditional African societies in general had a peculiar way of organizing themselves. These groups were usually linked to the ancestral cult. Ballet Folk was founded in 2019 by Deborah Norris, a dance teacher and academic who wants to bring ballet to folk dance (including Morris), and folk back to ballet. Commenting on the rhythms during wrestling tournaments, Mr. Ewome said that wrestling is considered more of a battle than just a game, reason why most of its songs are battle songs. This is the slave trade village of Bimbia, an emerging and flourishing ecotourism site along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, near the city of Limbe. Each village is the host of the wrestling for one day. They sell the excess of their production. Secret societies such as the maale, Molova which was a female group known as wild pigs, Nganya, Liengu and host of others played the role of regulatory societies and custodians of the Bakweri community. Bakweri News - Fako News Centre In spite of superior German forces, the forces of Kuva Likenye held their ground, and foiled the German advance into Buea. It is only when all the bride price has being paid, that the bride is taken to the grooms room, they have sex. As Ardener has stressed, the Bakweri anti-German campaign was a small-scale political movement, but one which was aided by the strategic possibilities of the Mountain, was for a brief period actually equal in scale to the amount of German power that could be deployed from Victoria. In his analysis of the great warrior Kuva Likenye, Ardener writes: Kuvas case is of more than local interest. The Bakweri people were no exception to this rule. The Annual Clash of Five Coastal Villages. It originated as a means of training Duala children the skills of warfare. There are four grades in Male known as Love, Venjuka, Tamba and Vekpa which have an ascending scale of entrance fees, and which are open to men only.A member with an elephant double is thought to be able to trample on the farms of his enemies in elephant form, and to transport himself (and any friends he may link arms with) at tremendous speeds from place to place. In the Bakweri soceity, many families are monogamous, and therefore there is no conjugal household from within the family. In the next couple of years, they would implement policies aimed at isolating Kuva Likenye, and cutting off his sources of arms. Your email address will not be published. For the men, this dressing can sometimes be accompanied by special hat,and a tie. The Bakweri (or Kwe) are a Bantu ethnic group of the Republic of Cameroon. In March 1894, Germany signed an agreement with France that fixed the eastern boundary of Kamerun far more narrowly than once had been hoped for. Thanks to their defeat of the German-led forces, the Bakweri had slowed down the advance of the Germans into the Cameroonian interior, The Germans never forgot this defeat in the hands of what they wrongly considered an ill-trained ragtag army. The home negotiators had, as a result, no serious territorial claims in north and east to offer. To conclude, one thing is certain; if the Germans had coveted any other ethnic groups lands to the degree that they coveted the Bakweri lands, they would have done just as thorough a job of decimating the lands owners. The rural Bakweri, in contrast, work as farmers, making use of Mount Cameroon's fertile volcanic soils to cultivate cocoyams, maize, manioc, oil palms, and plantains. Research proves that in the Bakweri culture, many women turn to fall in love with muscular men and during wrestling tournaments, it is common to find young girls hovering around a champion. It is the father who pays the dawry, because the young man is not working and the father is supposed to own goods therefore he is the one who pays. These values were most often demonstrated during their official outings in a dance called ueambe. Inside the clouded summit is an active volcano from which new craters burst out every few decades. Bakweri settlements largely lie in the mountains foothills and continue up its slopes as high as 4,040 metres. The main function of this demi-god was to protect the Bakweri people during eruption of the Mt Fako which was an active volcanic mountain. The dreadful voice that roared and scattered the multitude, the hero remains immortal. Many died of diseases and cruelties in the concentration camps into which they had been driven. After the second Bakweri-German war, which ended with the defeat of the former, the Bakweri would turn to another form of resistance; they engaged in an early form of passive resistance, by refusing to do manual labor on their captured lands even when forced. [5] a rival Bakweri tradition says they descend from Mokuri or Mokule, a brother of the Dualas forebear Ewale, who migrated to the Mount Cameroon area for hunting. This Likenye chiefly line of Buea trace their pridigree from1884 down to the present day as in the chart below: It is handled by the chief or the quarter head, you are first taken to the quarter head when you dont respect the law, if not satisfied with that judgment you are taken to the chief where you are judge by notables. [4] The Bakweri likely migrated to their present home east of the mountain in the mid-18th century. A match between two villages starts with all the contestants, who wear skimpy sarongs, meeting in the middle of a large expanse of grass which forms the wrestling pitch. They were mostly fishermen, who settled along the coast, farmers, and hunters who settled beside the mountain. The Bakweri (or Kwe) are ancient fierce fighters, traditionally spiritual, customs-abiding and agriculturalist Mokwe-speaking people of Bantu origins who live on the steep but fertile slopes of the Cameroon Mountain (Mt Fako) in the Republic of Cameroon. Other dances are purely for enjoyment, such as the maringa and the ashiko, which arose in the 1930s, and the makossa and ambasse bey dances that accompany those musical styles. As a resistance movement, it was before its time. The whole head dress is extensible to twice the height by raising the tusks at arms length above the head. There is an ongoing dispute between the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) and the government of Cameroon regarding the disposition of Bakweri Lands formerly used by the Germans as plantations and now managed by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC). During its existence, it revealed serious weaknesses in German Colonial administrative and military practice the resistance of the mountain people provided one of the important shocks of the early colonial system in Kamerun. See the Cameroonian Tribe That Successfully Launched An Attack Against German Colonial Masters. They used spears, clubs and other implements to hunt game in the mountain, forest and slopes. One like Moni from Limbe is said to have terrorized the entire Southwest Region with his skill. The tradition of the Bakweri people is deeply rooted in their traditional dances and folklores main traditional dances are the " Male" (Elephant dance).it the most popular in the region as the men express their masculinity through it.There is also the "Nganya" (Sacred cult),"motio" (a war dance) and the "Malua" (performed dy the female folks). This dance is known as Veambe and the participants, some of whom are quite young children, wind in and out of the village to the rhythm of the drums. 438 views, 17 likes, 4 loves, 1 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Invest in Limbe: Batoke BAKWERI YOUTH Perform PALA PALA DANCE To Honour. The Bakweri lived ( and live ) in the thickest concentration in a belt of villages between 1,500 and 3,000 feet above the ssea level, but the they occupied the whole base of the mountain below this very thinly, as far as the sea level. Also, if the father dies when the children are still very young, the inheritance can be transfered to a family member who is trust worthy. Early survey discussion of these topics may be found in Ardener 1956 [2] and Dugast 1949 [3] History Early population movements Instead, he prepared his forces to send a clear message once and for all that the mountain people rejected all form of German control in their area. In the end, Kuva realized that further resistance to the German imperial army was futile, and that the Bakweri were simply being annihilated by forces they could no longer contain or overcome. Although there is some view that the true Bakweri are the people of Buea and its surrounding villages, other groups classified under Bakweri included Bomboko, the area which the Bakweri are said to have originated and Wovea. According to P.M. Kale in his 1939 study of the Bakweri, for fear of Bakweriland being annihilated, brave Kuva called his people together, and with the words of a leader bade them to leave Buea for a while this land, he told them, had been their ancestors for generations, and it would be theirs forever, and so no fear should be entertained as to their coming back again.