Mambila Tribe: Ethnological Report of C K
(p85) Ethnology - the Mambila tribe
As Mr Meek, on account of illness, spent only 10 days investigating
this tribe, I make bold to offer a few minor additions to his
- I was able to verify the account of the Moon Rites (vide MTS I
547-8) which is correct in every detail except that they are still
practised at Mbanga. The Mbanga people in addition, unlike the rest
of the Mambila, worship the sun but to a lesser degree. The moon is
their paramount god and they do not recognize the supreme being "Nama"
or "Chang". The sun rites are observed every day at sunset when the
Elders pray each man holding the sacred grass in his hand. Their word
for Sun is "Lo" and for moon "Wil".
- Generally I have found the supreme being "Nama" is identified
with the earth. For the people say they are buried in the earth and
their spirits abide therein.
- One or two villages have idols. At Ntem it is a piece of wood
carved to represent a man "Shuga" and is kept in the sacred
- The sacred grass So or Jiro invariably contains the eye of a cow
and the process of divination or swearing oaths is often accompanied
by a kind of cymbal.
- The harvest rites
performed at Vokide in November are of interest. Here the village
Heal is not the priest but an old woman is designated priestess.
Behind the Chief's house is a pit kept covered by a large stone. The
people celebrate the coming event by dancing for 7 days. On the
eighth day the priestess goes to the pit alone the people sitting at a
distance. She removes the stone and looks into the pit. If she sees vapour rising and
young seedlings of corn sprouting she stands up and laughs for this
portends a good harvest; whereat all the people join in laughing.
They then dance and drink beer for another 7 days. Should the
priestess see no vapour or seedlings she cries and all lament. No one
is allowed to look into the pit except the priestess. Divination of
crime is however performed by the village head.
In marriage by exchange if one
couple has no children, it is customary for the other couple to share
their children with them. That is to say if one couple has four
children two of them would be given to the childless couple.
At Mbanga and Mbang apart from marriage by exchange they have a
system of marriage which might be termed marriage by labour. Should
a woman have no brother and a man, having no sister, wished to marry
her he goes to her farm and works it for her one year and provided her
with beer. At the end of the year she goes to his house. No bride
money is given but if a son is born, when he grows up, he works on his
grandmother's farm for a year. They have no marriage by purchase.
After death the body is opened and the whole of the internal organs
examined for signs of witchcraft. I was unable to substantiate Mr
Meek's statement that only the heart is examined (v.para.1,p551,Tribal
Studies I). In fact at Mbang they go so far as to make incisions on
the inside of the elbows and behind the knees and examine the veins
and tendons and also sever the head completely.
- At Mbaso and Gubin the body is placed in a sitting posture in the
grave. Elsewhere the corpse is laid on its right side with the head
to the west and the feet to the east. In some instances a woman is
lain on her left side.
- As a rule, the period of mourning is one year.
Note. On the whole the Village Heads have unusually good authority
over their people and I think the reason may be found in the fact that
they are also the priests and therefore held in respect.
Sgd H.J.Gill, A.D.O. (dated 8 xi 1931).
Notes on Dr Meek's Report
(page numbers refer to Tribal Studies, Vol.I)
Intermarriage between hamlets: Addendum I/ to this report,
omitted here: hdg/gives the result of analysing the marriages of three
533-4. "Mwandi" (sun) is commonly used by the Northern as
well as the Southern Mambila. Tagbo, Lagubi, Tongbo (Lagbo, on p560):
Bo is apparently a termination denoting a group of people, as in Jabu,
Gembu etc. Lak is the name used in Torbi dialect for Gembu, Tong is
the name used in the Kabri dialect for Gembu, and is also used for
certain hamlets now under Kabri. It means apparently also "rive
confluence". Lagubi must be "Lak-Gubin" (Gubin being a neighbouring
village to Gembu). I obtained no confirmation of the use of any of
these words for a sub-tribal group of villages.
Mambila groups in Bamenda Div.: The hamlets mentioned are in
Tikar country. Blacksmiths: Dr Meek's description of the smiths as a
race apart applies to the blacksmiths of the northern /F88/ corner -
Kuma, Gikau and Jabu, but not to those of the Southern Mambila-Kabri
and Vokkude - who speak the ordinary dialects and have the same
customs as their neighbours.
Exagamous kindreds. The only instances of a kindred which has
divided itself between two village-chiefs are, I believe, the Chiefs
of Gubin and Tem, and the kindred of Mbu, which is split between Wa
and Gembu. In both, the exogamous principle is breaking down. On the
other hand, all villages and many hamlets contain a plurality of
kindreds and endogamous marriage is therefore found in nearly every
hamlet (cf Note 1, above).
The figures show that intermarriage between hamlets of the same
village and between hamlets of different villages[CS1] is almost
exactly in proportion to the distance between the hamlets concerned.
Insofar as there is anywhere a tendency to obtain wives from a
particular village it is from a friendly village, not as Mr Meek
suggested from a hostile one. Instances are Gembu-Mbanga, old enemies
who refrain from intermarriage, and Tamnya-Vokkude-Mbange, old friends
who practise it.
Wartime confederations: the groups Mverrep, San and Mbar were not
invariable members of the confederacy of Gembu-Wa-Tep, but had
connections also with Warwar.
Social system (general): Dr Meek states, "The whole Mambila
system is based on a dual form of marriage, "that is, on the one hand
they had a true patrilineal marriage by bride-price, and he refuses to
accept Capt. Izard's view that "Formerly there was no other form of
marriage than that by exchange". It is possible that the two views
may to some degree be reconcilable. Dr Meek's statement is true of
the northern villages, the only ones he was able to visit. /F89/ In
the southern ones, on the other hand, it seems to be beyond doubt that
until recently there was no true marriage by bride-price: in its place
were practices which appear to be stages in the development of a
bride-price system and away from an exchange system. In the first
place, a man who had no female relative to offer as an exchange could
indulge in secret fornication. The girl's parents would not object,
since any children born would belong to them and would moreover
enhance their daughter's worth for exchange. Of this stage of
development, if it is a "stage", I came across one example only. The
next stage is licensed concubinage: the man is accepted at the girl's
parents' house and at frequent intervals stays there for some days,
working on their farms as well as his own. The girl would, however,
never come as wife to his house. A third stage is described by Mr
Gill /v. supra, para2, F86/. This stage is clearly marriage, in
however "futile" a form, not mere concubinage, and the next step to
it is true bride-price marriage. I was informed that, sometimes at
least, male children would belong to the father and only female to the
mother. Such a distribution is contrary to the known Mambila
principles and it may be merely that an act of grace has by repetition
become a custom. /But certainly incredible nowhere that exchange
prevails: it is the females who are at a premium (in Bauchi it has
been reported that a daughter's "illegitimate" daughter may be
exchanged for a girl who can be exchanged in turn for a wife for any
member of the family): under the same system, one is obliged to
provide a male with a female to exchange for a wife; and permitting an
unmarried father custody of his male children would probably depend
rather on the existing ratio of unmarried males to unmarried females
in the mother's compound, or on the desire of senior males to take
additional wives, perhaps.
Hdg/ As the conclusion to be drawn from all this it is suggested that
the dual form of marriage, while so long-standing in the Northern
villages as to be fundamental to the social system, was not a primeval
and unchangeable custom, but only a compromise evolved - as the result
of a fight against the unsatisfactory features of exchange marriage -
from an earlier system in which no other form of marriage existed.
Pp539-40. Exchange marriage: Certain practices were noted
among the Southern Villages which Dr Meek does not actually mention:
(a) A woman who is a proved child-bearer is (or was) sometimes
exchanged for another woman plus money, or rather plus hoes, which
were formerly the only currency; (b) a woman may be exchanged
for the refusal of a girl, or, on the principle of the bird in the
hand, of two girls; (c) re-exchange is regular during the
negotiations for a marriage, and a long chain of exchanges of brides
and prospective brides may be set up, but once marriage is consummated
the wife is not again exchanged.
Bride-price: The majority of men state that their wives were obtained
by purchase, not exchange, and it looks as though a system of
bride-price of the common (Moslem) type (i.e. where the father,
not the mother, has custody of the children) is coming into existence.
For instance, it was said at Gembu that exchange had been rare for
over 30 years, yet al the families were undoubtedly patrilocal.
Possibly the patrilocal bride-price system is an extension of the
marriage with a purchased slave which Dr Meek mentions. It was
evidently common in the past and is probably so now, for a girl
married by bride-price, if she had borne no children within a year or
two, to be reclaimed by the parents and given in exchange elsewhere.
Custody of children: Enquiries went to show that the vast
majority of children now reside in the father's house, despite the
fact that their parents are alleged to be married under the
bride-price system, which should imply maternal custody.
/F91/ Whatever the truth of this and whatever the allowances to be
made for falsehood, it seems clear that the dual social system
described by Meek is rapidly breaking down, partly from natural causes
and partly from the Administrative Order regarding exchanges, not as
in some cases elsewhere from inadvertent action by the Courts.
/Unable to trace this order; ref. to "inadvertent action" obscure.
Change of married status: It was not unknown for a man to
contract a marriage by bride-price or its equivalent, and later, if
opportunity offered, to effect an exchange and obtain his same wife
"genuinely". In such an instance children born prior to the exchange
remained with the mother's family, while those born subsequently
naturally belonged to the father. The instance quoted by Dr Meek,
where a husband gave his sister into slavery to save the skin of the
wife's uncle, illustrates the same principle, and I believe that
between the words "all children begotten by her(sic)" and "would
become his", the word "subsequently" is implied.
Redemption from slavery: In the only instance which came up, a man had
been sent to slavery as a child to redeem his father's mother (the
father having married by exchange, the grandmother apparently by
purchase). No case of self-redemption was noted.
Inheritance of wives: both levirates are practised throughout the
tribe, but inheritance of widows either by or from a son or sister's
son, mentioned by Meek, is not practised in the Southern villages.
Inheritance of chieftainship: The Chiefs of Wa and Tep (whose
appointments date from German times) and probably certain others are
/F92/ sons of purchase marriages.
543-4. Illicit sexual relations: It should be noted that a
Mambila man seldom marries before 25 and a girl before at least 20.
Unmarried adults of both sexes occupy regularly the same sleeping-hut
as a married couple.
Relationship terms: Most of the terms quoted by Mr Meek are
unknown in the Central and Southern villages.
Pp546-7. Moon worship: the new-moon rites continue at Mbanga,
one Taro from the hamlet of Fu being the priest. The day after the
performance of these rites is a public holiday. The rites described
by Dr Meek as performed at the waning of the moon have evidently
Ordeal: The sole oath or ordeal which the tribe now admits to
practising when questioned by an Administrative Officer is that on
the Kuru gong, or Yong, which is enjoined by the Native Court
(mentioned on p555).
Ngubsho: This charm (not to be confused with Ngu, a witch-testing
concoction imported by itinerant quacks from the Tikar tribe) does
not seem to be known in the Southern hamlets. In an alternative way
of preparation the cock's head is impaled up on the stick.
Festivals: Every kindred has its "Sabbath" which is the market day
and comes at ten-day intervals - five days in Mbang and the Kaka
villages. Not infrequently the market hasceased to function, but its
name and date persist (v. infra). There are four chief seasonal
festivals, as shown in the list below, which is taken from Titon but
applies widely: (1) Kati (chief festival, sowing of corn),
(2) Gevur (ripening of maize / first or second? in general,
maize ripens twice throughout this area. Hdg/), (3) Kip
(harvest-time, celebrated by both sexes; Nyoti is particular for
women),(4) Nyingwan (harvest-thanksgiving when the crops are
gathered). Kundu is the name given for burial feasts.
Burial: the custom of burying a chief under one of his
granaries and hanging his gown and fez on it is by no means
invariable: some have been outside their hamlet in a grove.
Blood-brotherhood: Though individual blood-brotherhood rites
are not now practised, they are not unknown to the Southern Mambila,
and in instances where a pair of hamlets is forbidden by custom to
intermarry a long-standing blod-brotherhood may be given as the
reason. Diga (Mbamga) and Kila (Vokkude), Koshin (Mbanga) and Mbarr
are such pairs.
Circumcision: Sometimes postponed till after puberty. No reason was
suggested except that the boy might have been frightened to undergo
the operation earlier.
House-building: As Meek says, houses made of a frame of reeds
(tolergrass) are usual in the northerly villages, and houses of the
"lath and plaster" type in the center and south, but it is not correct
to say that short thatch invariably goes with a framework hut and
long with the latter.
Granaries: Each wife and adult son has his own granary, the
usual practice being that their corn is put to current use, while that
in the master's store is kept for reserve and tax-paying.
Family group: Although in almost every hill-top group of compounds
there is a nucleus of two or three compounds of close relations, there
is almost invariably also a number of compounds belonging to persons
who admit no close relationship.
Ownership of bamboo palms: Gullies containing the bamboo-palm belong
as a rule to the hamlet as a whole, not to a special household or
family in the narrower sense.
Dancing floor: In the northern group of villages the center of the
beaten dancing-circle is invariably (?) occupied by a "coral" tree
(Minjiriya, Erythrina senagalensis-Dalziel) growing out from a mud
platform. It may be noted that the Minjiriya is revered also by the
Kaka of Bamenda.
Names of the villages and hamlets: The naming of a village after a
previous chief is, I believe, purely a Fulani_German innovation. The
Mambila, unless speaking to a stranger, uses the kindred - or
place-name (which are one) or occasionally the name of the existing
chief. The following are "village" names of Fulani use only and
derive from a chief of the period 1890-1910: Titon, Vokkude
(nickname), Tamnya, Gembu, Wa, Tem. Most of the remaining hamlets and
villages are known abroad by their Mambila kindred-names or a
corruption of it, though Kabri among others seems to be a pre-Mambila
Weapons' hoes: Spears are made by the blacksmiths of Kabri and
Vokkude who are true Mambila or at least very long-standing
immigrants. Hoes, on the other hand, are made only by the blacksmiths
of Kuma and Gikau, close to Nayo Daga, who are distinct from the
Mambila proper. It is curious if the Mambila with their highly
distinctive shields have, as Dr Meek suggests, been spear-bearers for
only a short time, and one would like to hear in more detail the
evidence on which he bases hiw view.
F96/ Musical instruments: a curious instrument is used by men to
accompany their "crooning". This is a plucking instrument, like a
guitar without a handle, of which the sounding medium is a series of
springy splinters instead of strings.
Personal appearance: clothes are now worn by a few women in the
northern villages; in the south they are still nude. Some of these
follow the Kaka fashion of piercing the nose or ear and inserting a
fragment of straw. The chipping of teeth is common, but is a fahsion
only, not obligatory.
Markets: The market day is the holy day, coming roung every ten days
except in Mbang village, where the five-day Kaka week is kept.
Sgd D A Percival, 1 xi 35.