peter geschiere and francis nyamnjoh - witchcraft as an issue in the politics of belonging

8/10/2019 Peter Geschiere and Francis Nyamnjoh - Witchcraft as an Issue in the Politics of Belonging

1/24

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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2/24

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


3/24

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.


4/24

Witchcraft

s

an

Issue

n the Politics

f

Belonging

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


5/24

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


6/24

Witchcraft

s

an

Issue

n

the Politicsf

Belonging

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


7/24

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


8/24

Witchcraft

s an

Issue

n the Politics

f

Belonging

75

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.


9/24

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


10/24

Witchcraft

s an

Issue

n the Politics

f

Belonging

77

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


11/24

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-


12/24

Witchcraft

s an

Issue

n the Politics

f

Belonging

79

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


13/24

80 AfricanStudies Review

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.


14/24

Witchcraft

s an

Issue

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-


15/24

82

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


16/24

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


17/24

84 AfricanStudies

Review

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-


18/24


19/24

86 African

Studies Review

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

peter geschiere and francis nyamnjoh - witchcraft as an issue in the politics of belonging

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