Wandala and the DGB sites: political centralisation and its alternatives north of the Mandara Mountains, Cameroon

Abstract

The DGB sites, with their striking dry-stone architecture, are the largest and among the earliest archaeological sites in the northern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon. Even given their size and internal complexity, they provide only ambiguous messages about what power and authority might have looked like in the region five centuries ago. At the same time, these sites are situated in proximity to the heartland of the Wandala polity, which was first noted in European and Arabic sources over the period of DGB occupation. Over the next centuries, Wandala progressively differentiated itself from neighbouring Chadic-speaking communities, adopting the political appurtenances and expansionist tactics of an Islamic Sudanic state. This paper discusses the implications of this geographic and political proximity for both Wandala and the occupants of the DGB sites.