Kwe people
Wovea and other Bantu peoples |
The Bakweri (or Kwe) are a
Early survey discussion of these topics may be found in Ardener 1956[2] and Dugast 1949[3]
History
Early population movements
According to Bakweri
European contacts
Portuguese traders reached the Cameroonian coast in 1472. Over the next few decades, more adventurers came to explore the estuary and the rivers that feed it, and to establish trading posts. The Bakweri provided materials to the coastal tribes, who acted as middlemen.
German administration
Germany signed a protectorate agreement with the douala in today Cameroons in 1884. In 1891, the Gbea Bakweri clan rose up in support of their traditional justice system when the Germans forbade them to use a trial by ordeal involving poison to determine whether a recent Christian convert was in fact a witch. This revolt was squelched with the razing of Buea in December 1894 and the death of Chief Kuv'a Likenye.
The Germans initially ruled from
British administration
In 1918, Germany lost World War I, and her colonies became mandates of the League of Nations. Great Britain took control of Bakweri lands. Great Britain integrated its portion of Cameroon with the neighbouring colony of Nigeria, setting the new province's capital at Buea. The British practised a policy of indirect rule, entrusting greater powers to Bakweri chiefs in Buea.
The new colonials maintained the German policies of ousting uncooperative rulers and of impressing workers for the plantations.
A Bakwerian, Dr. E. M. L. Endeley was the first Prime Minister of the British Southern Cameroons from 1954–1959. He led other Southern Cameroonian parliamentarians to secede from the Nigerian Eastern House of Assembly in 1954.[8]
Geography
The Bakweri are primarily concentrated in Cameroon's
There is an ongoing dispute between the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) and the government of Cameroon regarding the disposition of Bakweri Lands formerly used by the Germans as plantations and now managed by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC).[9]
Culture
The Bakweri today are divided into the urban and rural. Those who live in the cities such as Limbe and Buea earn a living at a number of skilled and unskilled professions. The rural Bakweri, in contrast, work as farmers, making use of Mount Cameroon's fertile volcanic soils to cultivate
Traditional Bakweri society was divided into three strata. At the top were the native Bakweri, with full rights of land ownership. The next tier consisted either non-Bakweri or the descendants of slaves. Finally, the slaves made up the bottom rung. Chiefs and headmen sat at the pinnacle of this hierarchy in the past, though today such figures have very little power in their own right. Councils of elders and secret societies allow communities to decide important issues.[10]
Language
The Bakweri speak
Marriage and kinship patterns
Bakweri
Religion
The Bakweri have been largely Christianised since the 1970s
Nevertheless, remnants of a pre-Christian
Arts
The Bakweri still practice arts and crafts handed down for generations. The Bakweri are known to be skilled weavers of hats and shirts, for example. They also construct armoires, chairs, and tables.[15]
The greatest venue for Bakweri music and dance are the two major festivals that take place each year in December. The
The Mpo'o brings together the Bakoko, Bakweri, and Limba at Edéa. The festival commemorates the ancestors and allows the participants to consider the problems facing the groups and humanity as a whole.
Institutions
Assemblies, secret societies, and other groups play an important role in keeping the Bakweri unified, helping them set goals, and giving them a venue to find solutions to common problems.[17] Secret societies include the Leingu, Maalé (Elephant dance), Mbwaya, and Nganya.[17]
Classification
The Bakweri are Bantu in language and origin. More narrowly, they fall into the Sawa, or the coastal peoples of Cameroon.
Notes
- ^ Ethnologue.
- )
- OCLC 3108719.
- ^ Fanso 50-1.
- ^ a b c d Fanso 50.
- ^ Ngoh 27.
- ^ Derrick 133.
- ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 113–4.
- ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 39.
- ^ Ngoh 26, 28.
- ^ "Mokpwe", Ethnologue.
- ^ "Isu", Ethnologue.
- ^ "Pidgin, Cameroon", Ethnologue.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b Guide touristique 94.
- ^ a b Guide touristique 126.
- ^ a b Ngoh 28.
References
- Chrispin, Dr. Pettang, directeur. Cameroun: Guide touristique. Paris: Les Éditions Wala.
- DeLancey, Mark W., and Mark Dike DeLancey (2000): Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon (3rd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
- Derrick, Jonathan (1990). "Colonial élitism in Cameroon: the case of the Duala in the 1930s". Introduction to the History of Cameroon in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Palgrave MacMillan.
- Fanso, V. G. (1989). Cameroon History for Secondary Schools and Colleges, Vol. 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Nineteenth Century. Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd.
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005): "Isu". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. Dallas: SIL International. Accessed 6 June 2006.
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005): "Mokpwe". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. Dallas: SIL International. Accessed 6 June 2006.
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005): "Pidgin, Cameroon". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. Dallas: SIL International. Accessed 6 June 2006.
- Ngoh, Victor Julius (1996). History of Cameroon Since 1800. Limbe: Presbook.
External links
- Bakwerirama Archived 2009-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
- BakweriLands: The Essential Text and Documents of a Native Land (Bakweri Land Claims Committee website)
- Peuple Sawa (in French)