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There is a woman at this time
who is the woman chief
she is the one who is in charge of
all the chiefs of Yaoundé.
In the villages, there are chiefs
who inherit the chiefdom,
that is to say, from father to son.
For us, we are in the city.
And chiefs of the Third Degree,
the neighborhood chiefs, are elected,
but the chiefs themselves
that goes from father to son.
Me, I think that,
with globalization,
I think that this business of chiefs
going from father to son must disappear.
We will have to elect chiefs
because, after all, it isn't normal
that a chiefdom remain in one family,
that is to say, that one family of a chiefdom
be in charge of the people;
from father to son
for generation after generation after generation.
It is going to have to change.
Things are changing.
We also need many more women
in the chiefdoms.
That woman be chiefs;
it shouldn't always be the men.
In Yaoundé, in the beginning, there was
only one main chief.
I'm going to tell you from the beginning...
His name was Charles Atangana.
He did a lot throughout
the history of our country.
So, surrounding him,
there were
chiefs by groupings.
Hmmm....
There were the Hausa peoples,
and Bamiléké peoples,
here in the grassfields.
There were Makia groupings
and now it isn't like that.
The German Doula treaty was signed
by the traditional chiefs.
It was the traditional chiefs who signed
that treaty.
So Cameroon first became
a German colony.
After the war in 1947
Germany lost everything.
Now, the League of Nations,
the United Nations placed Cameroon under
French and British
administration.
This is why Cameroon
was never colonized.
As reputed,
more or less displaced
under French and British territory.
So, the law of 1950
destroyed most of the previous political groupings,
and then we created neighborhood chiefdoms.
That was also to reinforce the unity of the country.
The Lamidat are fundamentally different from other kingdoms.
For example, the Bamiléké kingdom
does not have anything to do with Islam.
The religious and spiritual foundation of the Lamidat is Islam.
The law applied in the Lamidat
is the Koranic law.
While the other kingdoms
for example, the Fon kingdom of the Northwest,
The Faun of the West,
are not based on Koranic laws.
They are based on traditional religions
which are neither Islam nor Christianity, but a local religion.
So, basically Islam is the foundation
which made the creation of the Lamidat possible
and it is the element that makes
the management of the kingdom possible.
It is for this reason that the Lamido (king)
is firstly a spiritual leader before being a political one.
The Lamido is a political entity or structure,
centralized, dynastic, created
in the Northern part of Cameroon.
Precisely with the Peul conquest
during the beginning of the 19th century.
There is an entire diplomacy within
the lamidat;
because they are entities,
in fact like a country.
They are countries in their traditional form
with a government,
an administrative organization, etc.
with a complete administrative hierarchy,
where everyone has a role.
And the successor is the son of the king.
I believe that kingdoms are important
politically, economically, and culturally.
Politically, the king can serve as an intermediary.
Their neutrality can permit the mobilization of people
for local development causes.
In the economic sphere, kingdoms are the focal point
of the initiatives and actions of local development.
Now the cultural role, kings are the symbols which
permit people to feel united.
With the Lamido, everyone mobilizes around traditional cultural values.
There is an assembly of rituals
which could not take place without a principal organizer,
a central power, which is the traditional king, the Lamido.
Therefore in this way, the Lamido plays a very important role.
The traditional king plays an important role.
Now touristically, because we cannot talk about culture without tourism,
it is about vestiges, relics, a patrimony in terms of buildings
in terms of traditional boxes, traditional forests, material vestiges,
the symbols of power, the king's hat, the king's bracelets,
the king's cane, basically everything that has to
do with the kingdom, including his house,
make up touristic sites which can generate revenue
because it allows a place for people to visit...
...people can come to see... some chiefdoms even have museums.
There are also the ceremonies.
Certain ceremonies take place in the Lamidat,
that cannot be seen anywhere else.
And so that gives tourists the occasion to come see,
take pictures, and to appreciate the culture of a people
living in a region of centralized government.
Because the kingdoms consist of a centralized power
made up of the king, his nobles, and the commoners.
I believe that yesterday, today, and tomorrow,
traditional chiefdoms play a fundamental role
and deserve to be reevaluated, to be sustained,
in order to guarantee the continuation of his
cultural, political, economic, and touristic role.
In Western Cameroon, members of secret societies practice.
ancient rituals when the king is chosen or dies.
Also, kings are believed to be divine rulers that can communicate with their ancestors.
They have their own servants and army.
They also have ‘’totems’ or animal spirits,
and sorcery is practiced in the kingdom.
The Western region of Cameroon is home to
some of the most traditional chiefdoms in the country.
Actually, the word 'chief' comes from the West.
'Chiefs' were traditionally called 'kings, following our customs.
Chiefs are kings, but the term 'chief is a French or Western interpretation.
It is for this reason that in the Bamiléké region, in the West, we call them 'kings'.
Traditionally, we are still there to ensure that our traditions and culture are respected.
Because the king is the guardian of this tradtion.
So, we make sure that our customs are not abandoned,
we make sure that they are continued into future generations
because it is that which is our strength.
Without customs, without traditions, we are nothing.
We are there to ensure the well-being of all of the population,
so my most important mission is development.
This mission consists of supporting the state
in its role as protector of the well-being and security of its people.
Well, you know, in fact we live in a society which is evolving
and our traditions are not static.
With time there are things that we cannot do today because
they are old-fashioned, and we have to know how to adapt to our new role,
in relation to globalization
without completely losing the foundation of our traditions,
without completely challenging our traditions.
Thus, we try to consider both sides
to permit people to fulfill their potential, because another part of this story
our populations have the right to flourish while guarding
the traditions which are theirs.
Yes, with the present democratic system
I think that with time the system of kingdoms is going to change greatly.
Maybe even with the youth of the young kings
I even am afraid that here with some time
in the West most of all, in the regions where there are still kingdoms,
kingdoms risk being like those in the center of the nation
like in the other regions of the country where there are not kingdoms.
With the introduction of multi-partyism
many of the kings let themselves become carried away with politics
which made many of these chiefs lose their credibility to their own people.
This interest in politics, democratization, and multi-partyism
made the kings not traditional monarchs, but instead mere politicians.
I think that traditional kingdoms, confronted with modernization,
confronted with democratization, in my personal opinion,
if kings understood their role, and gained the confidence of their people,
kingdoms will be a handicap for democratization.
Why? Because the king is an absolute authority himself
and with the population in his hands, access to
politics will be difficult.
Presently I think that the administration
is in the process of letting the kingdoms die their natural death.
The word ‘chief’ or ‘king’ has various meanings today.
For example, this man who takes care of homeless children
in Yaoundé is known as the Chief of the Street Children.
Well, there are children who die in the streets like that...
(Voice of Screen) : How do they die?
Well, there are children on the side of the road
people living in the streets come to kill them,
other people do not know that they live there,
that they even exist, that orphans live there,
and sometimes they are hit by cars or hurt
and no one stops to help them.
These children do not have any family.
What happens to them? We are the ones who take care of these children.
We, the kings, are the ones there first.
Before people from the government come,
there are so many problems in the streets,
and it is me who explains to the officials whats happening here.
After speaking to this chief
one can begin to think that ‘chief’ is simply an abstract idea,
a word meaning "leader" in a general sense.
All groups of people construct political organizations.
Each society has leaders,
people who are at the head of the state and who lead others.
Today the world consists of a multitude of political groupings,
which do not align with the accepted categories of nation states;
some groups ignore boundaries of states
while others operate within them.
There are separatist groups,
liberation movements,
religious groups,
and extremist groups.
There are crime networks
and traditional polities, like the kingdoms in Cameroon.
All of these different organizations
can be considered chiefdoms,
in that they are political institutions headed by a single leader.
Thus, kingdoms evolve with time
and the idea of 'chiefdoms' and 'chiefs' vary depending on cultural context.
As human populations continue to grow
and the world becomes evermore connected through globalization,
the evolution of societal structures continues.
In this age of global warming and overpopulation,
resources are becoming scarcer,
thus societies need to create innovative ways of
using and distributing resources to their population.
Good leadership is essential in making these difficult decisions.
Perhaps new political solutions will be
necessary in addition to technological ones.