Zintgraffís Explorations in Bamenda, Adamawa and the Benue Lands 1889ó1892

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African Books Collective, 2010 - History - 92 pages
The following pages, initially prepared for limited circulation in 1961, contain brief extracts and summaries of those parts of Eugen ZintgraffÍs book Nord-Kamerun (1895), of most interest concerning the colonial Bamenda and Wum Division. ZintgraffÍs book, the first by a European about the Grassfields, has not been translated and is hard to get second-hand. In using these notes the following points should be borne in mind: ZintgraffÍs knowdie;ledge of Bali (Mungaka) and Hausa was very slight, and his discussions of character, motives and political institutions are consequently superficial and open to criticisms. He had no means of checking what he was told, or thought he was told. He had no previous knowledge of any similar culture and no training in ethnographical method. He was, however, a good observer, and his descriptions of tools, dress, weapons and the like, can be regarded as fairly reliable. Finally, it must be remembered that Zintgraff wrote the book to justify his own actions and to support that small but influential section of public opinion in Germany which favoured rapid imperial expansion. A full account of the actions and motives of ZintgraffÍs opponents in the Kamerun Governdie;ment and in the Colonial Bureau of the German Foreign Office has not been written: we only have one side of the story. But there are some suggestive points made in RudinÍs Germans in the Cameroons and others referred to in these notes. What is perhaps most striking about ZintgraffÍs account is the fact that the people of the Western Grassfields were not so isolated from one another or their neighbours as might be thought. A network of trade-friendships covered the country and big men exchanged gifts over long distances. These links must be set beside the insedie;curity due to raids and slave-catching, and are well worth investigation.
 

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Contents

NORDKAMERUN Berlin 1895 by Eugen Zintgraff
1
BALI
4
THE FON GAREGA
6
THE FON AND HIS PEOPLE
12
BALI LIFE
16
DEPARTURE
19
MANKON AND BAFUT
21
THE MARCH CONTINUES
27
REPORT TO GERMANY
42
A NEW EXPEDITION
46
RETURN TO BALI
47
BAFUT AND MANKON
49
THE BATTLE OF MANKON
52
DISASTER
54
REORGANIZATION
58
A TREATY WTTH GAREGA
59

TAKUM AND THE BENUE LANDS
29
THE RETURN THROUGH ADAMAWA
31
TAKUM BUM BIKOM
35
BAMUNGU BABUNGO
38
TO BALI VIA BAMBUI AND BAFRENG
40
RETURN TO THE COAST
41
THE BALITRUPPE
62
PROGRESS
63
ZIMMERERS OPPOSITION
64
Selected Bibliography
67
Selected Bibliography
73
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