Retainers and Royal Households in the Cameroons Grassfields

Abstract

In two articles which appeared in a recent number of this journal, Dr. Maquet and Dr. Mair were both concerned with isolating in some political systems a relationship of a contractual kind in which rulers and/or those in positions of authority and influence get services performed for them by subordinates in return for protection and other rewards.* In the Bamenda Grassfields of West Cameroon the element of contract is absent: the problem of staffing the palace and the households of the great and the execution of tasks originating from these is resolved by various systems of recruitment which can be clearly distinguished from feudo-vassalage and political clientship. A distinctive feature of these kingdoms is the recruitment in boyhood of palace retainers by a closed regulatory society (known as ngwerong, kwi/on, nggumba, ngwose, etc.) with its headquarters at the palace. Its methods of recruitment, the composition of its inner college, and its relations to other governmental institutions-the sacred kingship, privy council and military organization-varies from kingdom to kingdom. Therefore a discussion of retainerdom involves a limited comparative study of the servicing of royal households and, at the same time, an analysis of the balance of authority and power in the Bamenda kingdoms. The kingdoms with which I shall be principally concerned had close relations with one another. Many of their dynasties claimed an origin in the region of the Upper Mbam river and its tributaries in East Cameroon. Some described the area as Tikari, some as Ndobo, and some specifically mentioned Kimi or Rifum, now associated with