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8/10/2019 Peter Geschiere and Francis Nyamnjoh - Witchcraft as an Issue in the Politics of Belonging
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Witchcraft as an Issue in the "Politics of Belonging": Democratization and Urban Migrants'Involvement with the Home VillageAuthor(s): Peter Geschiere and Francis Nyamnjoh
Reviewed work(s):Source: African Studies Review, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Dec., 1998), pp. 69-91Published by: African Studies AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/525354.Accessed: 09/08/2012 19:21
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Witchcraft
s
n
s s u e
n
t h
P o l i t i c s
o f
Belonging :
emocratization
n d
U r b a n
M i g r a n t s '
Involvement w i t h
t h
o m e
V i l l a g e
Peter
Geschiere nd Francis
Nyamnjoh
Abstract:
In
many
parts
of
Africa,
political
liberalization
seems
to
have
given
new
impetus
to the
politics
of
belonging,
leading
to
an obsession
with
autochthony.
Thus the
continuing
relations of urban
migrants
with their
home area
tend to
be
reaffirmed.
However,
these
relations,
marked
by
an
explosive
mixture
of
intimacy
and
inequality,
continue
also to
be a hotbed for
witchcraft
rumors.
In
this article
we
compare
two different
cases,
from
different
parts
of
Cameroon,
of
witchcraft
threats and efforts to contain them in the context of rural-urbanrelations. In both
cases,
the
accusations are the
same-they
refer
to a
novel form
of zombie
witchcraft
attributed to the
nouveaux
riches-but
they
are
dealt with in
a
strikingly
different
manner.
A
Grassfields chief from
the
Northwest
challenges
the
authority
of the
state
by
arresting
three
witchcraft
suspects
among
his
subjects
in
the
faraway
Southwest.
In
the
segmentary
societies
of the
southern
forest
area,
urban
elites
appeal
to
the
state for
protection
against
vicious
witchcraft
accusations.
The
increased
importance
of
belonging
and
autochthony
in
national
poli-
tics
makes
witchcraft more
and
more
a
public
issue,
triggering
new
efforts to
contain
it in which the new associations of urban elites play a central role. However, the effec-
tiveness of
such
efforts
remains
doubtful:
the
increased
importance
of
the
relations
between
urban
elites
and the
home
area
tends to
reproduce
witchcraft,
which
is,
indeed,
thriving
on
such
an
explosive
mixture of
intimacy
and
blatant
inequality.
African
Studies
Review,
Volume
41,
Number 3
(December
1998),
pp.
69-91
Peter
Geschiere
is
Professor
of
African
Anthropology
at
Leiden
University
(The
Netherlands).
He
recently
published
The
Modernity
of
Witchcraft:
olitics
and
the
Occult in Postcolonial
Africa
(Univ.
of
Virginia
Press,
1997)
and
together
with
Joseph
Guler
he
edited an
issue
of
Africa
(1998,
3)
on
The
Politics of
Primary
Patriotism.
Francis
Nyamnjoh
is head of
the
Department
of
Sociology
and
Anthropology
of
the
University
of
Buea
(Cameroon).
He
is
currently
completing
a
study
on
media
and
democratization in
Africa in
the
1990s.
He
is
also a
novelist
(The
Disillu-
sioned
African
[Limbe,
1995])
and
a
playwright.
69
8/10/2019 Peter Geschiere and Francis Nyamnjoh - Witchcraft as an Issue in the Politics of Belonging
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70 AfricanStudies Review
R6sume: Dans
plusieurs parties
de
l'Afrique,
la
liberalisation
politique
semble
avoir
donn6 un nouvel 61an
'
la politique de l'appartenance , menant ainsi
'
une obses-
sion
de
l'authenticite .
De
ce
fait,
les
relations
entre
les
immigres
urbains
et
leur
lieu
d'origine
tendent a se raffermir
davantage. Cependant,
ces
relations,
marquees
par
un
mdlange
explosif
d'intimit6
et
d'in'galit',
continuent aussi
de faire
l'objet
de rumeurs de
sorcellerie.
Dans cet article nous
comparons
deux cas diff6rents
de
menace de sorcellerie
et d'efforts de les
contrtler
dans
le
cadre des
relations
ville/campagne
dans diff6rentes
parties
du Cameroun.
Dans tous les deux
cas,
les
accusations sont les memes-
il
s'agit
d'une nouvelle forme de
sorcellerie
attribute
aux
nouveaux riches-mais ces accusations sont
traittes
de manieres totalement
dif-
f6rentes. Un chef Grassfield du nord-ouest defie les autorites de l'tat en arretant
trois de ses
sujets
accuses
de
sorcellerie
dans la
region
lointaine du sud-ouest. Dans
les
soci&tts
segmentees
de la zone forestiere du
sud,
les
61ites
urbaines
font
appel
a
l'tat
pour
se
faire
proteger
contre des accusations de
sorcellerie.
L'importance
croissante
de
l'appartenance
et de
l'authenticite
dans la
vie
politique
nationale transforme
de
plus
en
plus
la
sorcellerie
en un
problkme pub-
lic,
et
engendre
de nouveaux efforts de la
contrbler,
efforts
dans
lesquels
les nou-
velles associations des
61ites
urbainesjouent
un rble central.
Cependant,
l'efficacit6
de tels efforts demeure incertaine:
l'importance
croissante des relations entre les
61itesurbaines et leur lieu d'origine tend
'
reproduire la sorcellerie qui atteint de
nouvelles dimensions sur ce
mdlange
explosif
d'intimit6
et
d'inegalit6
criarde.
The
continuing
involvement of
urban
migrants
with their
village
of
origin
is
generally
considered a
special
trait
of
processes
of
urbanization
in
Africa.
Already
in
1971,
Dan
Aronson stated that for
Africa one
should
speak
of
a
rural-urban continuum, rather than of urbanization as a definitive choice,
since
people go
on
moving
between
city
and
countryside
throughout
their
life
cycle.
More
recently,
Joseph Gugler
(1991)-in
a
re-study
of the
Enugu
area
(East
Nigeria)
where he had done
earlier
fieldwork
in
the
1960s-con-
cluded
that the ties
between
the
city
and the
countryside
had
even become
stronger
during
the
intervening period.
It remains
to be seen
whether this
involvement
will
continue to
be as
strong
for
future
generations
(see
Geschiere &
Gugler
1998),
especially
as the
worsening
economic crisis and
corruption
mean
any
benefits small
people
can
claim from their
connec-
tions with the big- (or the not so
big-)
men and women of
power
are increas-
ingly
illusive
(Nyamnjoh
1999).
Lucrative
networks of
patronage
and influ-
ence which linked
the masses
to the
elite and
frustrated
attempts
at
bring-
ing
about a
more
democratic
dispensation
over the
years
seem
to be
crum-
bling
nearly everywhere
in
the
continent
(see
Mbembe
1992;
Bayart
et al.
1999).
Chinua
Achebe's
famous dictum
that
in
Africa even the
beggar
in
the
urban
streets has a
family
behind him
may
become less and
less
applicable.
Yet it is
clear
that this
process
is
not
self-evident
or unilineal.
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Witchcraft
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71
Recent
changes-notably
the liberalization
of
politics
and
the
return
of multipartism-seem, on the one hand, to give the village a renewed
importance
for
urbanites,
especially
for
aspiring
politicians among
them;
and
on
the
other,
to
provide villagers
and
local leaders with
an
opportuni-
ty
to demand
their own share of the national
economic
pie.
In
many
parts
of
the
continent,
democratization
seems
to
have
given
new
vigor
to
what
could
be
termed the
politics
of
belonging.
What is
especially striking
is
that
various versions of the notion of
autochthony -in
practice notably
the
question
of
who
should
vote where
and,
even more
important,
who
can
be elected
where-have become of
overriding
importance
in
everyday
pol-
itics. Once more urban elites have good reason to reaffirm their rural
roots,
as well
as to renew the
rhetoric of
being
spokespersons
for their
peo-
ples.
Such
notions
and
the
concomitant
practices
have
rapidly
come
to
dominate the new
parties,
engendering
unorthodox forms of
participatory
democracy.
In
practice,
democratization seems
to
engender
fierce
and
often
violent
struggles
over who
really
belongs
and who is a
stranger.
In
many
countries-Cameroon and
Kenya,
to
mention
two blatant exam-
ples-the
national
regime,
which
never
abandoned
the
old
one-party logic,
seems
to be
intent on
encouraging
such
struggles
in
order
to diffuse the
momentum for change through the age-old tactic of divide-and-rule.Thus,
opposition
is
diverted from the
national to
the
regional
or
even the
local
level.
Citizenship
is
more
and
more defined in
local rather
than in
nation-
al
terms.
The old
ideal
of
nation-building
seems
to be
superseded
by
ideo-
logical
oppositions
between
autochthons nd
allogines
(or
strangers ),
with
the
active
support
of
national
politicians.1
All
this makes
the
relation
between
urban
migrants
and the
rural
area
they
consider
home
(even
when
they
are
themselves born
in the
city)
once more a
nodal
point
in
recent
developments:
in
politics,
but
also in
the
crystallization of ethnicity or in the networks of the booming informal
economy.
Of
importance,
however,
is
that the
urbanites'
continuing
invol-
vement
with
their
rural
background
follows
highly
different
regional
tra-
jectories.
Crucial
factors
are,
for
instance,
the
accessibility
of the
rural
area
and
the
degree
of
success
of urban
migrants
in
their
new
surroundings
(in
more
mundane
terms,
the
varying
possibilities
for
urban
migrants
to
invest
profitably
in
their
village
of
origin);
and,
on the
other
side,
the
villagers'
varying
opportunities
to
exercise
effective
pressure
on
their
urban
broth-
ers
to
redistribute and
share
what is
perceived
as
new
and
dazzling
forms
of wealth. In practice, a crucial issue seems to be to what extent the new
opportunities
for
accumulation in
the
city
can
be
legitimized
within
the
rural
setting.
In
some
areas,
where
more
or less
hierarchical
arrangements
existed
which
tended
to make
inequalities
acceptable,
the new
rich
from
the
city
can be
co-opted
into
traditional
(often
neo-traditional )
struc-
tures. In
other
areas,
where
local
societies
were
dominated
by
more
egali-
tarian
ideologies,
the
new
inequalities
remain an
unsolved
problem
and
subject
to
fierce
levelling
tendencies.
There,
urbanites
emphasize
that
they
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72
AfricanStudies Review
have
good
reason to
keep
at
least some distance
from
the
village, despite
their continuing moral involvement with their brothers. Yet everywhere,
the
urbanites' relation
with
their rural home
seems to be marked in
prac-
tice
by
a
deep
ambivalence:
their concern for their relatives-backed
up by
real
political
or economic interests and
even more
by
pressing
moral
issues
(for
instance,
the
fact
that
they
want to
be buried at
home )
is
balanced
by
the
fact that
the
wealth amassed
in
the
city,
even
if it is
only imaginary,
retains a
more or less
suspect
character
for the
people
at
home.
Issues
of
sorcery
and
witchcraft
constitute a
strategic
(and
by
now
quite
urgent) starting
point
to
explore
such variations
in the
evolvement
of
urban-rural relations.2 Indeed, in many parts of the continent, these rela-
tions seem to have become a hotbed for rumors about
potent
occult
forces
and
their
spectacular
manifestations.3
Villagers
tend
to
suspect
urbanites of
using
the
occult forces to enrich
themselves,
while urbanites
profess
to
be
afraid
of the
levelling impact
of the
villagers'
witchcraft.
But this basic
pattern
allows
for
many
variable elaborations. The
village
is also the
place
where
urbanites
look for
protection against
occult threats
in
their new
sur-
roundings,
and
villagers may try
to
appropriate
the
secret
knowledge
availa-
ble
in
the
city
for
their own enrichment.
This omnipresence of witchcraft rumors in urban-rural connections is
hardly
surprising.
In
general,
witchcraft
is
supposed
to
thrive
in
relations
that are
marked
by
a
mixture of
intimacy
and
inequality.
Witchcraft
is often
closely
related
to
kinship
or in
any
case
to
intimacy:
elsewhere we charac-
terized
it
as
the dark side of
kinship
(Geschiere
1997).
In
many
societies,
the
witchcraft
of
the house is seen
as the most
deadly
form of
occult
aggression;
the
origin
of
occult attacks
is
sought primarily
within the
vic-
tim's
intimacy,
and
curing
the
victim
mostly
requires
a
meeting
or at
least
the
collaboration of the
members of the
family
(see
de
Rosny
1981).
Yet
witchcraft is also generally related to inequality: on the one hand, to the
envy
of the
poor
who
try
to
remind
their
richer
brothers or
sisters of
their
family
obligations;
but,
on
the other
hand,
to the
efforts
of
the rich
and the
powerful
to
enhance and
protect
their
superiority.
The
new rela-
tions
between
villagers
and urbanites are
marked
by
the
same
ambivalence
of
intimacy
and
inequality.
The
urbanites- our sons and
daughters
in
the
city -are
emphatically
classified as
kin,
even when
they
have moved into
the
outside world
(and
even if
the
exact
kinship
relations are
often
distant
and
construed
with some
difficulty).
Yet,
especially
the
more
successful
urbanites are also the most direct representatives of the new forms of
wealth
and
the new
inequalities
which seem
to
surpass
the old
frameworks.
No
wonder, therefore,
that the
ambiguity
of
these
relations
is often
expressed
in
terms of
witchcraft and
occult
dealings.
In
this
article we
compare
two case
studies,
from different
parts
of
Cameroon,
of the role
of
witchcraft
accusations and
rumors in the context
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Witchcraft
s
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Issue
n
the Politicsf
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73
of urban-rural relations. The accusations
are
quite
similar,
yet
the
ways
in
which they are dealt with are strikinglydifferent. This comparison may con-
tribute
to an
exploration
of the different
trajectories
by
which
urban-rural
relationships
evolve,
an issue that
remains
crucial in
many
parts
of
Africa.
It
may
contribute to an
understanding
of the often
desperate
efforts
peo-
ple
make to
contain witchcraft
and
the various
possibilities
open
to
them.
Urban-rural
relations seem
to
be a
self-evident
focus
for
worries,
by
now
general
in
many
parts
of the
continent,
about
a
supposed
proliferation
of
witchcraft-for the
idea
that
witchcraft is
running
wild and that the
old
sanctions no
longer
suffice.
The
question
as
to
how witchcraft can be
con-
tained has become a major issue in everydaylife.
Witchcraft
in
the
City:
The
Long
Arm of
the Chief
at
Home
In
1996,
frenzied rumors
of
witchcraft
began
to circulate
among
migrants
from Bum
(one
of the
major
Grassfields
chiefdoms far into
the
interior of
the
country),
in
Douala,
and in
other
towns
along
the
coast of
Southwest
Cameroon. In the course of that year, a certain Victor Fula Msama (a pseu-
donym)
became
the
main
target
of
these
stories. Before
this,
he
was not
known to be
a witch.
But
both
in
the
coastal communities
and in
the
home-
town,
people
felt that his
unexpected
malice had
been
exposed by
two
treacherous
attacks,
in
rapid
succession,
on
his
intimates.
In
July
1996,
Msama's
mother-who still
lived in
Bum in
the
family
hometown
Fonfuka-went off
to
weed around
a
new house
that Msama
had
just
constructed
for
himself on
a site
he had
bought
for
that
purpose.
On
her
way
back
to
the
compound
she
slipped,
fell
by
the
roadside,
and
died on the spot. People were confused and could not understand why a
healthy
woman
should
die
from a
simple
fall
on a
slippery
footpath.
News
of her
death
was
communicated
to
Msama on
the
coast,
where he
worked
in
Tiko as
foreman
with
Delmonte
Bananas and
lived in
Misellele.
When
some
emissaries
from
Bum
arrived
at his
home
to offer
condolences,
he
was
already
making
arrangements
to
travel to the
village.
Among
his
visitors
was
his
uncle's
daughter
from
Douala.
Upon
Msama's
departure
for
Fon-
fuka,
she
returned
to
Douala,
only
to die
there
two
days
later.
Because Bum
migrants,
like
many
others,
consider
a
city
burial
shameful,
her
corpse
was
conveyed to Fonfuka for burial.
The
young
woman's
husband
was
deeply
shocked and
did
not
intend
to
accept
the
sudden
death
of
his
wife
without
question.
After
arriving
in
Fonfuka,
he
consulted
a
diviner
who
clearly
saw
hat
Msama
was
respon-
sible
for both
deaths:
he
had
killed
his
mother
and his
cousin so
that
they
could
work
for his
enrichment
through
n'yongo,
a
relatively
new
form of
witchcraft
which
especially
since
the 1960s
has
created
panic
throughout
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74 AfricanStudies
Review
the
region.
Its
perpetrators,
supposedly
the new rich in
particular,
are
reputed
not to eat their victims as in older forms of witchcraft, but to trans-
form them into
zombies
who
can be
put
to work.
Indeed,
in this case as
well,
the
diviner's
findings
revealed that
Msama's mother was
splitting
wood while
his uncle's
daughter
fried and sold
puffpuffs
(puff
balls)
and
picked
coffee
in
that
invisible
world,
all
toward
Msama's enrichment. It
was
further
reported
that
Msama
in his
n'yongo
society
had
agreed
to sell
more than
seven souls
in order to
become
very
rich.
All this made
Bum
people,
both at home and on
the
coast,
wonder
how
a
quiet
and
humble man like
Msama could be
responsible
for such violent
witchcraft. Even after the
kwifon
announced Msama's isolation from the
Bum
community,
he was not
prevented
from
committing
further
acts of
witchcraft. After
returning
to
Misellele,
he
sent
some
money
home to his
half-brother's
son who wanted to
start
trading
in kerosene. But the
boy
found that
no one would
sell
him
kerosene
in
exchange
for this
bad
money,
which
was
dangerous
because it had
been
acquired
illegitimately
through n'yongo.
A
few
days
later,
the
boy caught
a headache with a
light
fever
and soon died. For those who were still
keeping company
with
Msama,
this third
episode
was the last straw. Now
everybody
felt
obliged
to
distance themselves from him
completely.
But the rumors continued;
up
until
June
1998,
stories continued to circulate about more
killings by
Msama.
Moreover,
other witchcraft
practitioners
on the coast
were
identi-
fied
as Msama's
collaborators:
his
driver,
William Wut
(a
pseudonym),
and
a Douala-based
female
relative,
Anna Msama
(a
pseudonym).
The
three
were held
responsible
for
spreading
terror
throughout
the Bum commu-
nity
on the coast.
In
1997,
a Bum man
in
Douala threatened his
nephew
Daniel
Wafuyen
(a
pseudonym)
with death.
Wafuyen,
a
high
school teacher and
national
executive member of the Bum
Development
Union (BDU), the
prestigious
assocation of
Bum
migrants,
complained
to
his
parents
about
the
matter,
but
no
action was taken. It was not
long
after the
quarrel
that a vehicle
knocked
Wafuyen
down on the Tiko-Douala
highway.
His
corpse
was
con-
veyed
home
by
the
BDU for
burial,
and his
father
visited a
famous
diviner
(this
time in
Guzang,
Momo
Division),
who had
the
reputation
that
he
could even make the
dead
speak.
Just
as
many
in
the
Bum
community
in
Douala
suspected,
the father
was
told that
his
brother was
responsible
for
Wafuyen's
death.
After this third death, many migrants insisted that the Bum authorities
back home should do
something
to rescue
their
group,
whose members
seemed
to be
dying
at
the
hands
of their own
brothers and
sisters. The
May
1998
North West Chiefs' Conference in
Bamenda
provided
the
occasion
for a
response.
The
meeting
was
attended
by,
amongst
others,
the
para-
mount
fon
of
Bum,
his
Royal
Highness
Peter
Kwanga
Yai
III,
and
by
the
chiefs of
Mbamlu, Mbuh,
Mungong,
and Saaff
(all
under
fon
of Bum's
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authority)-but
not
by
the chief
of
Sawi,
who
is
currently contesting
the
authority
of the of Bum because the Sawi were the first to settle the terri-
tory.
All chiefs
expressed
shock and
concern
that since
1996
so
many
corpses
had been
transported
back from
the
coast to Bum
for burial.
When
the
conference
ended,
the rulers took
advantage
of the
good
roads
and
the
money
donated
by
Bum
migrants
to travel down to Misellele
and see
if
they
could find
a solution.
When the chiefs arrived in
Misellele,
the coastal Bum chief Kimbi
and
his
notables
(njitu)
were
given
the
responsibility
of
tracking
down the
cul-
prits.
Msama was
arrested
in his
Likumba home
by
the
nji
of Tiko
(the
Bum
chief's representative there) and taken to Misellele where the chiefs were
waiting.
His
two
followers,
William Wut and
Anna
Msama,
were
also
picked
up
in
Douala and
brought
to
the chiefs
in
Misellele.
In
June
1998 the
three
were
forcibly
taken to Bum
to account for
their acts to
the
kwifon
(the
more
or less
secret
police
association of
all
Bum).
When
Msama was
taken
away,
his
wife went to
the
gendarmerie
nd
reported
that her
husband had
been
kidnapped by
the
nji.
The
brigade
commander
immediately
summoned
this
nji
and
locked
him
up
for
failing
to
produce
Msama.
However,
the
nji's
fellow notables
sent
messengers
from
Tiko to other areas around the coast
calling
on the Bum
population
to
donate
money
and
liberate their
leader.
After
two weeks
of
negotiation,
he
was
freed
by
the
gendarmes
n
exchange,
of
course,
for
a
considerable sum
of
money.
Meanwhile
the
three
accused
of
practicing
witchcraft were
taken
to the
kwifon odge
of
LakaBum,
the
capital
of the
chiefdom,
where
the
kwifon
decided
they
should be
taken
to
Nkanchi,
a
neighboring
village
in
Donga-
Mantung
Division,
to be
administered
the
poison
ordeal
langfu
(the
feared
sasswood
ordeal).
On
the
eve of
their
departure,
Msama
reportedly
bribed
a boy to show him the wayfrom LakaBum to
Fundong,
the divisional
capi-
tal,
and he
managed
to
escape.
His
assistants,
William
Wut and
Anna
Msama,
however,
were
transported
to
Nkanchi
for
the
poison
ordeal.
William
Wut
drank
the
mixture,
was
proven
not
guilty,
and
allowed to
return
to his
base
in
Douala. Anna
Msama
drank
the
poison
and was
found
guilty,
although
she
did
not die.
She
was taken
back
to the
kwifon
odge
and
kept
in
custody,
pending
a
final
decision.
Many
Bum
notables
and
chiefs were
shocked
that
the
main
perpetra-
tor
had
been
able
to
escape.
They appeared
to
blame
the
paramount
chief
himself of not having been vigilant enough. In certain quarters it was insin-
uated
that
Msama
had
promised
the
fon
money
and
a
tree-felling
machine
if he
were
allowed
to
escape.
The
assembled
chiefs
issued
a
strict order
that
Msama
be
searched
for and
brought back
to
Bum for
judgment,
along
with
a
general
warning
that
while
the
search
was
on,
all Bum
persons
must be
watchful
and
avoid
Msama,
who was
described as
dangerous
and
an
enemy
to
the
community.
As this
paper
was
being
written,
the
search
was
still on.
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76 AfricanStudiesReview
The Fon
and the
Unity
of Bum
To understand
these dramatic
developments,
and
especially
the
spectacu-
lar role
of the
fon
of Bum-who
even
dared to
challenge
the state's
fear-
some
gendarmes
y
persecuting
witches far outside his own area-some
gen-
eral
remarks about
Bum,
its
migrants,
and its chief
may
be
helpful.
Bum
is a
major
chieftaincy
of the Northwest Province
of
the
Republic
of
Cameroon. Its
chief,
the
paramount fon
of
Bum,
now claims
territorial
rights
over a vast
plateau
with low
hills
interspersed
with
deep
ravines,
val-
leys,
and rivers. But the
unity
of this
realm-despite
the
impressive
show of
Bum solidarity in persecuting Msama in the story above-is not self-evi-
dent.
This land was not
occupied
at the
same time
by
the
various
groups
that are
living
there now.
Instead,
each of these
groups migrated
to
this
area from different
places
and at different moments. Each
occupied
its
own site and
enjoyed
some measure
of
independence
and
autonomy.
The
Alung
(Bum
proper)
were the last
group
to come to this
area,
and their
arrival
brought
remarkable
changes
in
the
power
structure.
According
to
Bridges
(1933),
the
people
who
had
already
lived
there,
the
Sawis, Mbuks,
and
Mbamlus,
all made overtures of
friendship
to the Bum. The
Mungongs
initially resisted but were finally overcome. Thus, the Alung/Bum, who
were
stronger
than all the
other
groups,
established their
suzerainty
and
promised protection
to their subordinates as
long
as
allegiance
was
paid
to
them.
A
crucial role
in
the
cementing
of the
unity
of Bum
was
played by
the
paramount fon.
According
to
tradition,
eleven
fons
have
ruled and died
since
the Bum left
Mbilimbot. The
present fon,
Peter
Kwanga
Yai
III,
is
thir-
ty-fiveyears
old.
He is
the son of the
eleventh
fon,
John
Yai,
who died
in
May
1997
and
is
generally regarded
as the father of
modern Bum.
Indeed,
fon
John Yai'sconception of the role the fon has to play in the outside world is
at the basis of his
son's
spectacular
interventions
in
witchcraft cases
described
above.
Fon
John
Yai had formal
primary
education
in
the Bamenda
Govern-
ment
School,
from
which he
graduated
in
December 1937
with a
School
Leaving
Certificate. This
qualification
earned him
some
relative
advantages
over other
fons
of
the Bamenda
Grassfields
when he
subsequently
became
ruler of Bum in
1954. Bum
was-and still
is-a
relatively
inaccessible area.
The
only
two
roads that are
passable
for motor vehicles
throughout
the
year are of quite difficult access, even for four-wheel drives.YetfonJohn Yai
resolutely
set
out to raise
the
profile
of his
realm
in
the modern
develop-
ments that
were to
wake
up
the area.
Already
in
1956, just
after
being
crowned,
he
participated
in
a
delegation
to
welcome
Queen
Elizabeth II in
Lagos.
The next
year,
in
his
speech
to the
governor
he raised the
possibili-
ty
of
Southern
Cameroons'
becoming independent,
or,
alternatively,
reuniting
with French
Cameroons.
FonJohn
Yaiwas
also
very
active in
the
ensuing political
struggle
over the
future of this area.
By backing
southern
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politicians-notably
the famous
Dr.
Endeley,
who
opted
for a union
with
Nigeria-he threatened to become marginalized within the Grassfields
area,
since
most of his
colleague
fons
opted
instead
for unification
with
French Cameroons. But
fonJohn
Yai succeeded
in
remaining
a
central
fig-
ure in
regional
politics.
Of
particular
interest
for our
analysis
is
that,
because
of his
modem
education
and his
familiarity
with
developments
outside
Bum,
he succeeded
in
retaining great popularity among
the
sons
and
the
daughters
of
the
soil,
especially
the ones
who chose to
migrate
to
the
economically
more
prosperous
areas
of Southwest
Cameroon.
For,
even
though
Bum itself has
remained a
fairly
isolated
region,
migration has developed rapidly,especially since the 1940s. Right from the
beginning
of colonization-that
is,
since
the 1880s-the
colonizers
had
tried to
solve
the need
for labor
in
the
plantations
of the fertile
southwest-
ern
area on the
slopes
of the volcanic
Mount
Cameroon,
notably by
involv-
ing
traditional rulers of the
populous
Grassfields,
further
inland.
Already
in
the
1890s,
chiefs
like Bali or Bafut
were
sending regular
levies of
labor,
whether
forced
or
without direct
coercion,
to the
developing plantations
in
the
Southwest. After
1918-and
in
striking
contrast to
their
German
pre-
decessors-the British
rapidly
succeeded in
solving
this labor
problem
without overt coercion. Their efficient use of nativeauthorities no longer
obliged
them to
apply
direct
coercion
in
the
recruitment of
labour. As
a
consequence,
a broad
regional
migratory
movement
developed, especially
during
the
interbellum
period,
which
affected more
marginal
areas-like
Bum-as well.
Since
the
1940s,
nearly
every
family
in
Bum has
one or
more
members
who are
more
or less
permanently
settled in
the
coastal
area to the
South.
But even
though
considerable
distances are
involved-Bum is
more
than
600
kms
away
from
Douala and
this
distance
is
aggravated
by
the
condition
of the roads-people do maintain regular contact with the home area. In
the
case
story
above,
we
saw,
for
instance,
that
Msama,
the main
witch,
had
just
built a
house in his
village
(as
most
migrants
want
to
do).
We saw
also
that
for
most Bum
migrants
it is
self-evident
that one
must be
buried
in
the
village.
In
the
early
1980s,
the
more
successful
migrants
founded the
Bum
Development
Union,
already
mentioned,
which
tried
to
create a
for-
mal
framework for
the
migrants'
continuing
involvement
with
the
village.
The Fon, the Migrants, and the Spectre of Witchcraft
In
the
latter
stage
of
his
life,
fon
John
Yai-the
father
of
modern
Bum -
took a
spectacular
step.
He
suddenly
decided
to be
baptized during
a
Bap-
tist Field
Conference at
Songka
in
Bum. The
pastor
agreed
and
the
fon
was
baptized
that
same
day-November
25,
1990. On
the
day
of the
baptism-
at
which
one of
us was
present
and took
photographs-he
forgave
one of
his
wives,
Bona
Mboh
(a
pseudonym),
who had
been
accused
of
awungabe
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78 AfricanStudies
Review
(bad
witchcraft)
and had been
expelled
from the
palace
in
LakaBum.4
Indeed, despite his emphaticly modern profile, fon John Yai was
deeply
emmeshed
in
witchcraft
matters,
both before and
after his
baptism.
During
his
reign,
a
good
number of Bum
people
were
found
guilty
of
killing
by
witchcraft
and
were banished
from Bum.
A man named Tamfo
(a
pseudonym),
whose witchcraft was
thought
to have exceeded
the limit
of
tolerability,
became the
subject
of a
popular
song
in the 1980s
which
accused
him of
eating
even the
children of
strangers
such as
the
resi-
dent Fulani
and Hausa
pastoralists.
The
fon
himself was not
beyond
the
witches'
powers.
Throughout
his
reign,
witch-doctors
and diviners
were
summoned to the palace to sort things out. His death, after prolonged ill-
ness,
is said to have
been caused
by
the witchcraft
of one of his wives who
for
long
was
the most
trusted
and the most dear to
him
and who
had
never
before been accused of witchcraft.
For the first
time,
even one of
the
fon's
sisters-who had lived all her life
in the
palace
and
who had been
equally
close
to him-was accused
of witchcraft and was forced to
leave the
palace.
The
fon's long-standing complaints
of rheumatism-which had led medical
doctors
to ask
him
to
give
up
alcohol
although
he
was
virtually
addicted to
it-were
now
explained
as caused
by
witchcraft.
In the story above of how Msama's and other migrants' witchcraft was
punished,
it
became clear that the relation
between
the
fon
and witchcraft
is still-as in former
days-mediated by
his
kwifon,
his
police
association.
Amongst
the
Bum,
if
a
person
dies
suddenly,
falls
unaccountably
ill,
or suf-
fers some
major
misfortune or
repeated
setbacks,
his relatives
always try
to
find
out whether
witchcraft
is
responsible.
Once
contacted,
the diviner
usually
identifies the
culprit.
But the
alleged culprit may deny
his
guilt.
At
this
point
he is
taken to the
palace
to be
judged
by
the
kwifon.
In
the
past,
if he still would not
confess,
the accused
was
subjected
to the
poison
ordeal,
langfu, which normally took place at Mungong where the sasswood tree
(Erythraphlaeum uineense)
s
found.
In
the
poison
ordeal,
the red bark
of
the
tungha
was
cleaned,
mixed
with
other
substances
in
a
liquid,
and
given
to the accused
to
drink. The
one
who administered
the
langfu
was
called
wutagwu.
The
accused
were said to die
instantly
in
cases of
guilt.
Should
the
accused
not
die
upon drinking
the
mixture,
he
or
she
was
pronounced
innocent,
released
immediately,
and
given
a meal
by
the
kwifon
to com-
pensate
for the
ignominy
suffered.
It is
noteworthy,
however,
that
the
kwi-
fon
sent the
accused for
the
poison
ordeal
only
if
guilt
was denied
persis-
tently. Those who admitted their guilt were either chained with sticks,
flogged,
and then
forgiven
and
asked to
cooperate
with the
authorities
in
tracking
down
other witches
(by
agreeing
to act as the
ear and
eye
of the
kwifon
n the
dark
world of
witchcraft);
or,
if
their
danger
to the
communi-
ty
was
thought
to have
reached an
incurable
height,
they
were
simply
expelled
from Bum.
This
poison
ordeal,
banned in colonial
times,
is
generally
supposed
to
have
disappeared
completely.
Yet
our
story
above shows
that
it
has
resur-
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faced
in the 1990s.
Indeed,
the
Bum continue
to relate
all
sorts of
aspects
of new developments to such traditional -often rather neo-tradition-
al -representations. People
often blame
the relative backwardness
of
Bum
when
compared
with other
chieftaincies,
even those that
were
less
prominent
in the
past,
on witchcraft
and
the fierce
jealousy
of local
witch-
es. Such
people
see in
every
death of
an
elite
further
proof
of their
convic-
tion.
The
spectacular
Lake
Nyos
Disaster of
1986,
which claimed
over
two
thousand lives
and
displaced
thousands
in Bum and
elsewhere,
also
was
explained locally
by
witchcraft and
conspiracy
theories.
Chasing
Witches
Abroad:
The
Fon
and New
Modes of the
Politics of
Belonging
But
even
though
the
link
between
modernity
and
witchcraft
has a
long
intellectual
history,
in
Bum as elsewhere
(Geschiere 1997),
the
daring
arrest
or
kidnapping
in
1998
of Msama and
other urban
witches
by
the
fon
of
Bum far
outside his
own area
was a
new
kind
of
intervention.
Why
did
the
chief and
his
notables
suddenly
intervene
so
directly
in
the
witch-
craft affairs of their sons abroad?
An
important
factor seems
to
be
the
new
urgency
of
what could
be
called the
politics
of
belonging
since
democratization
(1990).
As
else-
where
in
Cameroon,
the
liberalization of
politics
seems to
have
given
new
momentum
to the
competition
between
neighboring
areas. For
urban
migrants,
it
seems
also to
give
a new
importance
to the
village
as a
place
where
one
belongs
and
from
which
one
derives
essential
political
rights.
In
the
new
political
context-for
instance,
in
the new
election
laws-national
citizenship
increasingly
is
related
to
one's
home
area-or to
one's
autochthony, to quote a now highly current phrase in Cameroonian pol-
itics and
elsewhere
in
Africa.
Bum
leaders,
both
in the
home
area
and in
the
diaspora,
clearly
saw
democratization as
offering
new
possibilities
to
get
even
with
old
rivals-
notably
with
the
neighboring
chieftaincy
of
Kom.
Mission
had
brought
education
much
earlier
to
Kom
than
to
Bum,
further
into
the
interior.
Consequently,
Kom
elites
had
been
in
a
much
better
position
to
channel
development
to
their
own
area.
With
democratization,
Bum
elites
abroad
were
expected
to
play
a
crucial
role
in
Bum's
attempt
to
get
better
access
to the state and its services. The situation became all the more urgent
when,
in
September
1992,
Fundong
Subdivision,
until
then
encompassing
both
Bum
and
Kom,
was
turned
into a
Division
(renamed
Boyo
Division).
This
transition
seemed to
bring
new
chances
for Bum
to
liberate
itself
from
Kom
tutelage.
Since
the
early
1990's,
fonJohn
Yai,
the
present
fon's
predecessor,
had
been
busy
strengthening
his
links
with Bum
migrants
in
the
South,
suc-
ceeding,
notably,
in
ironing
out
his
differences
with the
Bum
Development
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Union
(with
which
he
had
quarelled throughout
the
1980s).
Moreover,
he
appointed a nji (notable) in Tiko/Misellele (this was the representative
who was
to
play
such a crucial
role in the arrest
of
the witches n
Misel-
lele and
Douala)
and
he
succeeded
in
getting
his
nji's
authority recognized
by
a
wide
array
of
Bum
groups
in the Southwest.5
Indeed,
these
external
elites were
expected
to
play
a
crucial
role in
presenting
a united front
in
Bum interests.
They
had to become more and more detached from
orga-
nizations
such as the Kom-Bum
Development
Union or the Kom-Bum
Stu-
dents' Union which
appeared
more and more as
thinly disguised
instru-
ments of Kom
hegemony.
The vicissitudes of party politics in the 1990s further reinforced this
tendency.
At
the
municipal
elections of
1996,
the
candidates
of the
Social
Democratic Front-until then the dominant
party
in the
whole Northwest
Province
and the main
opposition
group against
President
Biya's
regime-
were
disqualified
by
various
government
manipulations.
The candidates
of
Biya's
own
party,
the
CPDM,
profited
from this
to win the elections in
Bum.
Subsequently,
Bum
rulers and elite
decided to make
political
capital
out
of
the fact of
being
one of
only
four CPDM
councils in an
SDF-dominated
Northwest
Province.
Thus for the
1997
legislative
elections,
they
tried to
persuade the Ministryof TerritorialAdministration and the Prime Minister
to make the Bum
subdivision into a
single-candidate
constituency
in
exchange
for a
promise
to vote CPDM.
This
request
was meant
to free Bum
from
their union with Kom.
When
they
failed in this
bid,
and
also
in
the
bid to obtain
for Bum one
of the two
parliamentary
seats
allocated to
Boyo
Division,
they
blamed
this on the lack of Bum
elites at
strategic
positions
in
the center
of
power
in
Yaounde. At the same
time an
influential Kom
elite-including
a
minister,
university
professors,
and
several
highly placed
civil
servants-was
very
much
present
in
Yaounde,
ensuring
that
Bum
remained marginalized.6
In
the new
political
context,
the Bum
Development
Union
(BDU)
determined that
the
position
of Bum
had to
change.
At a
meeting
in
Yaounde
on
August
18, 1996,
exactly
ten
years
after the
Lake
Nyos
Disaster,
the
Union
launched the
Lake
Nyos
Gas
Disaster
Rehabilitation Fund
(LANGADIREF),
declaring
that the
victims'
right
to
survival,
healthy
development
and
protection
from
abuse had
been
neglected,
and that
as
a
result,
many
survivors had
continued
to die
from
entrenched
poverty,
sickness
and
inadequate
services. At
the
launching
ceremony,
which
was
attended among others by the Minister of Social and Women's Affairs (Mrs.
Yaou
Aissatou as the
Prime
Minister's
special
representative)
but
boycotted
by
the
Kom
elite
in
Yaounde
(including
the
minister,
Francis
Nkwain),
the
BDU
presented
Bum as
a
minority
and
underscholarised ethnic
group
of
about
50,000
people
who are
geographically
landlocked in
an
enclave,
where
manypregnant
women
and other
patients
taken ill
have
lost their
lives
as a result of
the
difficulty
of
evacuation to where
adequate
medical
attention could be
secured.
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s an
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n the Politics
f
Belonging
81
In the new
context
of
political
liberalization,
the role
of the new
elite
as the defender of the community's interests abroad is even more
enhanced
than
before. No
wonder
that
special
interventions
seem to
be
necessary
in order to
ensure its
protection
under
the
aegis
of the
fon,
still
the
symbol
of
Bum
unity-even
if this means
long-distance
interventions
and
formally illegal
arrests which can
put
the
fon's
representatives
in
trou-
ble
with
the state's
gendarmes.
n the new
politics
of
belonging,
witchcraft
acquires
a new kind
of
urgency.
Like its
counterpart,
autochthony,
it
is
reproduced
on an
increasing
scale. The need also to
contain it
among
the
Bum
in
diaspora obliges
the
fon
and
his
kwifon
o
perform
novel and
auda-
cious interventions.
Migrants
Returning
to the
Village:
Witchcraft
and the
Dangers
of Home in East
Cameroon
In
itself,
the accusations
against
Msama-the
Bum man who even killed
his
own
mother
and turned her
into
a zombie-are not
exceptional. Especial-
ly
since the end of
the colonial
period,
rumors about n
'yongo
or
whatever
name is used: kupe,amla, ekongor kong) have swept periodically like an epi-
demic
through
the
various
parts
of southern and western Cameroon. The
names used
may
be different
but the basic
pattern
is the same: the new rich
are
suspected
of
owing
their riches to the
labor
of
their
victims,
whom
they
have
turned into
zombies.
It is
striking,
however,
that
similar accusations
are
dealt
with
in
very
different
fashion
in
the
various
parts
of
the
country.
Take,
for
instance,
a
spate
of
recent accusations
that one
of
the authors wit-
nessed in
a
village
in the
East
Province-around the
same time as the Bum
chiefs
interventions.
In 1994, just as Geschiere's informants had predicted for more than
ten
years,
Nkwud Maurice
(a
pseudonym),
one
of the
best-known elites
from the
Ndjonkol-a
Maka
district in the
forest area of the
East
Province
of
Cameroon-was
accused of
witchcraft
by
the
people
of
his own
village.
Nkwud,
long
a
leading
politician
of the
East,
had
decided to
return to his
village upon
his
retirement at
the end of
1970s.
Until then he
had been
headmaster
of a
primary
school
in one
of the
province's
urban centers.
This
decision
to
go
back
to
the
village
was
generally
seen
as
a
daring
step.
The
Maka-a
loosely
structured
group
of
about
sixty
thousand
people
in
the dense forest area of the East Province-are widely known for the fierce-
ly
levelling
tendencies of
their
highly
segmentary
forms of
social
organiza-
tion.
Witchcraft
is seen
as a
deadly
threat
against any
rich
relative
who
refuses to
share
with his
kin,
and Maka
kinship ideology
defines kin
and
the
obligation
to share in
a
particularly
wide sense. In the
face of so
much
pressure
most
nouveaux
riches-in this
area
mainly
the
better
educated
who
had
become
civil
servants and
made their
career in
public
service-
emphasize
the
dangers
of
returning
to the
intimacy
of one's
former
fellow-
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African
Studies Review
villagers.
Is
intimacy
not
the
nursery
of witchcraft?
Most elites
profess
their
continuing involvement with the village and most of them do take very seri-
ously
the endless streams
of
requests
from their
villagers
for
support
and
protection.
But as
real as this
feeling
of involvement
might
be,
they
are
wary
of
physically returning
to the
village.
Most
limit their visits to
rapid
trips, spending
the
night
in one of the
provincial
towns
rather than in
the
village
itself.
Nkwud
clearly
had different ideas. Even
during
the
1970s,
when he
still
lived in one of
the
towns
of
the
East,
he was a
part-time
resident in
the
vil-
lage.
He
spent
most of
his weekends and
nearly
all
his
holidays
in the
impressive house he had built at the entrance of the village. Even then he
had a car-still
quite
an
exceptional
possession
in the East-which enabled
him
to
come and
go
as much as
he
wanted.
He
always emphasized
how
much
he
enjoyed village
life. He liked to
supervise
the
work
in his exten-
sive cocoa
plantations
which
were,
indeed,
a
non-negligeable
source of
income. But
apart
from such material
interests,
he
enjoyed sitting
and chat-
ting
with
his
people, playing
songho
and
drinking
an occasional
beer.
He
participated
very actively
in
village politics:
in the
conflicts
around the
vil-
lage
chief and the
problems
between
the
different
grandes amilies
which
consituted the village. But his status as evolue--an expression from French
colonial
jargon
that was
still
current in the
village
in the
1970s-ensured
him
at the same time a
position
above the
village
intrigues.
Moreover,
his
main
interests in the
village
were the
Presbyterian
church and the
school,
concerns
clearly
above
petty politics.
Nkwud's relations
with
the church were
highly
ambivalent.
He
owed
his
career to the fact that in the thirties his
father had taken
refuge
at one
of
the first
Presbyterian
mission stations in the East
to
escape
from the
harshness
of
the French
forced labour.
There,
the
young
Nkwud
had been
sent to school and thus he became one of the first dipl6misof the province.
He
was, moreover,
one of the
best
pupils
of the
Presbyterian
school and
seemed,
therefore,
predestined
to become a
pastor
or at
least a teacher.
However,
in his
twenties
he
had a series
of fierce conflicts
with the
Ameri-
can
missionaries,
notably
over
his
stormy
love
life
and his
refusal to adhere
to their
strictly monogamous
regime.
Later
on,
he
even became
excom-
municated
because of
polygamy.
Therefore,
as
soon as
he could he
obtained a
transfer into
the
teaching
profession
in
public
service,
which
also
happened
to be
much
better
paying.
Today, despite
all
these
conflicts,
Nkwud still feels a deep emotional involvement with the Presbyterian
church
in
his
village.
He
attends the
service
every
Sunday
and is
involved
in
endless schemes to
raise
money
for a
new
church
building
to
replace
the
existing
ramshackle mud
construction. The fact
that there is
now at last a
church en
semi-dur,
ven if
it
is
only
half-finished,
clearly
fills him with
great
satisfaction
and
pride.
Nkwud has
shown a similar
involvement
with the
village
school. He
never tires of
emphasizing
how
important
schooling
is,
quoting
his own
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Witchcraftas an
Issue
in the
Politics
f
Belonging
83
brilliant career as an
example.
To
him
the
village
school
is the
sign
of
progress; indeed, he repeats time and again that the only reason his village
can boast of
several brilliant evoluts like
him
is that
the
Presbyterians
start-
ed a
school here
earlier
than
anywhere
else
along
the
piste.
He
considered
it
particularly
galling
that
in the 1970s
the schoool
was
still housed
in
an
unattractive
mud construction. He
devoted even
more
energy
to
building
the
school
than
he
had to
building
a
church,
and
today
makes it
quite
clear
that
he
considers it
a
tribute
to himself
that
the school is housed
in
a
mod-
ern
construction.
All
these efforts
can
explain why
Nkwud
chose
definitively
to
return
to
the village at the end of the 1970s. Still, this was a remarkable decision.
Only
ten
years
earlier,
his
cousin
Mpoam
Nicolas
(a
pseudonym),
who
also
had made an
important
career in
public
service,
had returned
temporarily
to the
village.
But he
soon
began
to suffer from
a
mysterious
illness
that
no
doctor could
cure.
Finally
he
was
saved
by
a
nganga
( traditional
healer
or
witch-doctor ),
who saw
that
he
had
been
attacked
by
his
close
relatives.
Since
then,
Mpoam
does
return to
the
village
from
time
to
time,
but he
strictly
keeps
his distance
from his
fellow
villagers.
This
case
was
often
quot-
ed
by
other urban
elites
from the
area as
one more
warning
of
how dan-
gerous it was to venture too far into the intimacy of one's relatives.
Nkwud
seemed
to be
oblivious
to such
warnings.
He
clearly
enjoyed
being
with his
people,
all
the more
so
since he
was
obviously
liked
and
respected by
them as
an
evolud,
but also
one of
us.
Indeed,
Nkwud's
per-
sonal
style-his
sociability,
his
rhetorical
prowess,
and
most of
all the
respect
he
gained
through
his
untiring
efforts
for the
church
and
the
school-seemed to
armor him
against
witchcraft
and
its
treacherous
ambushes.
However,
in
the
end,
not even
Nkwud's
undeniable
prestige
proved
to
be
sufficient
protection.
In the early 1990s a woman began a new kind of practice as healer. She
had
recently
returned from
Douala,
where
her
father
had
spent
most of
his
life in
relative
obscurity.
She
claimed to be
both a
diviner
and an
exor-
cist
and,
as
the
last term
suggests,
her
cures
were
deeply
influenced
by
Catholic
ritual.
In
contrast to
other
nganga
in
the
area,
who
are
supposed
to
be
able
to
protect
against
the
witches
because
they
themselves
have
developed
their
djambe
witchcraft )
to an
extreme
degree,
this
new
heal-
er
claimed
to
have
nothing
to do
with this
djambe.
A
striking
difference
was
also
that her
customers
did not
have
to
pay
anything;
they
only
had
to
bring
a new candle. After her invocations, the women had her clients drink
blessed
water,
rubbed
them
with
oil,
and
then
gave
them
her
benediction.
Probably
because of
the
novel
character of
her
treatment-and
maybe
also
because it
was
free-she
became
a
great
success;
sometimes
she
received
more
than
eighty
persons
a
day.
Success
may
have
emboldened
her. In
1994,
to
everyone's
surprise,
she
announced
suddenly
that she
had
seen,
without a
shade of
doubt,
that
not
only
Richard
Nkwud,
but also the
village
chief
Meboua
Dagobert
and two
of his
notables
had
the
kong
and were
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using
it to
decimate
the
people
of the
village.
This,
then,
was the
hidden
cause of a recent series of deaths in the community.
The
kong
s the local variant
of the n
'yongo.
n the East as in the
South-
west,
this is seen as a novel kind of witchcraft used
by
the nouveaux
riches.
Precisely
because
of
its
novelty-in
this
area,
further
into the
interior,
rumors
about
kong
began
to
spread
much
later,
mostly
after
1980-people
are
extremely
concerned
by
it.
The
woman's
accusation,
therefore,
was
very
serious and
people
were
wondering especially
how
Nkwud,
the
main
accused,
would react.
Nkwud
took immediate
action,
going straight
away
to the tribunal in
the nearest town (25 kms away) and lodging a complaint against the
woman
for
defamation.
This
step
was not
without
risks. Since the end of
the
1970s,
and
especially
in the
East
Province,
state courts have
shown
them-
selves
inclined to
accept
the declarations
of
nganga
and other healers as
proof. People
accused of witchcraft
are now
regularly
convicted and
given
heavy
prison
sentences
and fines on the basis of the
nganga's testimony
alone.
However,
Nkwud
had
enough
confidence that his
prestige
would
turn the
verdict
the other
way.
In
this,
he
proved
to
be
right. Only
two
months
later,
the woman was
fined
45.000 FCFA
(about
eighty
dollars)
and
given a three-months suspended sentence. Even more than this verdict was
the
speed
with
which the
court
reacted.
Normally,
in
witchcraft affairs as in
others,
complaints
drag
on
for
years
and
years
before the
tribunal comes to
a verdict. The fact that Nkwud's
daughter
and son-in-law were
very
influ-
ential in the
new Association des
dlites
Maka-Mboans
may
have
spurred
the
courts
on to
clear
the name
of this
worthy
son of
the East as soon as
possi-
ble.
However,
in the
village things
were not that
easily
forgotten.
The
woman's
reputation
had
certainly
suffered,
but Nkwud's name was tar-
nished as well. For some time, he kept away from the village. Even more
striking
was that
Mpoam,
the
other
powerful
elite of the
village,
and his
whole
family
consistently
refused
to have
any
contact
whatsoever
with
Nkwud and his
people.
Apparently--as
is so often
true
among
the Maka-
jealousy
and
conflicts
among
the elites
themselves were
at the
heart of the
whole affair.
Segmentary
Societies and the Search
for
New
Sanctions
The
accusations
against
Nkwud
and the other
village
notables
may
have
been
similar
to the ones
in
the Bum
case,
but
their
effects were
very
differ-
ent.
In itself it
is not
that
striking
that chiefs
hardly
played
a role in
arrang-
ing
the affair
in
the
East.
Instead,
the
village
chief
himself was one
of the
suspects,
even if he
only played
a
minor role
in
the
whole tumult.
Nobody
even
suggested placing
the matter before the
chefsuprieuror
the
chef
de can-
ton.
Now that the
regime again
takes chiefs
seriously
as an
alternative chan-
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the
villagers
and
its
fiercely levelling
impact
is reason
enough
to
keep
at
least some distance.7
Under
the authoritarianism
of
one-party
rule-that
is,
until the end
of
the 1980s-there
were
also
good
political
reasons to
keep
some
distance.
In the
forest
area,
the control
of the
one-party
regime
over
regional
poli-
tics was
particularly
strong
(much
stronger
than
in the
Anglophone
North-
west
Province)
and
politicians
were
often reminded in no uncertain
terms
that
they
owed
their
position
to the national
party
and not to their
popu-
lar
support.
Politicians
who
regularly
visited their
constituency,
like Nkwud
himself for
instance,
were
invariably
denounced
by theirjealous
colleagues
for trying to build up their own base of support. This could easily be called
subversion,
a
very
serious
charge
in the
one-party jargon.
In this
context,
autonomous
regional
elite
associations were
certainly
not
encouraged.
On
the
contrary,
each
and
every
association
outside
the
one-party
structure was
highly
suspect.
All this
changed quite abruptly
in
the
early
1990s.
Suddenly
urban
elites were
much
more
regularly
on
the
pistes
of Makaland.
And what was
even
more
spectacular,
elites were
building
in their
village
on
an
unprece-
dented
scale. There was
clear
competition
over
who
would construct
the
most impressive mansion. One elite person-most appropriately the presi-
dent of the new Association
des
Rlites
Maka Mboans-even
had a kind of Islam-
ic
palace
erected,
complete
with
pillars
and
a
portico.
An
important
factor
in
this sudden
change
seems to be the new
government's
encouragement
of
regional
elite associations as an alternative
to
multipartism.
As
said
before,
among
the
Maka,
just
as in other forest
societies,
nearly
all
urban
elites have
made their career
in
public
service.
All
depend,
therefore,
on
the
supporters
of the
government.
This
has made
it
all
the more
important
to them that under the novel
political
constellation of
multipartism
the
regime had new expectations of the elite associations. Instead of being
seen as
potential
rivals to
the
one
party, they
were more and more consid-
ered to be
reliable
supporters
in
the
struggle
for
votes.
Party
politicians
had
become
less
dependable
clients. Even
in
a
solid
CPDM-fief
(the
president's
own
party),
other
parties
were
active,
so that overambitious
politicians
could
try
to switch sides. But the elites
were
paid
by
the
government
and
therefore under the
regime's
direct control.
And
because of their
person-
al relations
in
their area of
origin, they
were the obvious
persons
to
try
to
win
votes for the
regime.
For Makaland, the turning point seems to have been the presidential
elections of
1992,
when President
Biya's
reelection was far from
guaran-
teed.
Many
civil servants were
simply
ordered to return to their home area
and st