In Cameroon, the group officially called Mambila
calls itself Bɔ̀ Bà (the Bà) and speaks Jù Bà. In Nigeria, the group officially called “Mambila” inhabit the Mambila plateau and call themselves Nɔr bɔ̀ (the people). This last name is one of the first to be registered, in 1931 by Meek. In 1977 Voeglin and Voeglin give the following list of names although it is based on earlier and dubious sources: “Mambila = Mambere = Bamembila = Nor = Omavine = Katoba = Luen = Torbi = Tagbo = Tongbo = Lagubi”. They also notice that Atta, Kuma and Mvanip are described as the names of several Mambila groups.[1]
Most of the Mambila inhabit the Mambila plateau in Nigeria.
The population of Niger has been estimated at 43,000. In comparison, the population of Cameroon, from 10,000 to 15,000, is small. These figures remain provisional until the publication of the results of the 1987 census.
The vast majority of Cameroon’s Mambila are found on the Tikar plain in Adamaoua province and are concentrated around the villages of Atta (Ta), Sonkolong (Mbɔr) and Somié (Ndeba).
A few Mambila live in the north of the North West province along the border with Nigeria, in the villages of Sabongari (Ŋgɔm) and Ly for example.
History:
These people of Bantu origin separated from the main Bantu group two thousand years ago towards northern Cameroon and Nigeria and, under pressure from the Muslim Fulani, moved south during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Although this people had settled in altitude, the Fulani succeeded, in particular with the slave trade under the direction of their chief Sambo, in reducing the population to 16,000 individuals.[2]
Among their most remarkable achievements are carved wooden statuettes and helmet masks, but above all pottery. These works are frequently used in therapeutic rituals.[3]
Society and Religion:
The traditional religion to the Mambila is “Sua”. From which their distinct art was originated.
At present, Mambila society is literate, although few of the oldest people can read and write.
Nevertheless, many villages have drawn up a list of chiefs which serves as a reference for researchers and there is even a text recounting the history of the Mambila which was dictated to a schoolboy by a village elder, of his own volition, when he realized that otherwise his knowledge might be forgotten.
Most important people in Mambila society who have a good education, or tend to lean towards their society, are church functionaries who have left their villages and work in big cities.
In Cameron they did not establish direct contacts with missionaries until after World War II, although travelers had probably brought accounts of Christianity long before that date. By contrast, the Islamic religion has been established in the region for much longer. For the natives it is the religion of the FulBe[4] and they denigrate it as much as the FulBe themselves.
However, since the Second World War there has been an influx of FulBe who own cattle on the Mambila Plateau in Nigeria and since the late 1950s some Mambila have also owned cattle.
In this environment, a significant number of Mambila in Nigeria have converted to the Muslim religion. In the past this has not been the case in Cameroon. When field studies began in 1985, there were no more than ten Mambila Muslims in Somie.[5]
By 1990, the number had swelled considerably, mainly due to the immigration of Mambila from Nigeria. The religious composition of the village has rapidly changed.
In Cameroon, traditional religion and those of the outside world are largely distinct and isolated from each other. Most people practice more than one religion although they do not explicitly recognize that some members of a congregation also practice another religion.
The most frequent references to such syncretism are the regular condemnations made in churches (usually by European missionaries) of the practice of divination and Sua. Nevertheless, these condemnations have very little echo in this society.
Language:
The language spoken is Mambila – a Bantoid language – and its many dialects. In Nigeria, the number of speakers of Mambila was estimated at 99,000 in 1993. The same year there were 30,000 for the Cameroonian variant of Mambila.
The Bantoid languages form a branch of the Benue-Congolese languages of the Niger-Congolese language family, in the classification of African languages.
The term „Bantoid“ was first used by Krause in 1895 for languages with a vocabulary resembling that of the Bantu languages.[6]
Endangered Traditional Language:
The ancient language called “Njerep”. The Mambila village of Somie, located in the Adamawa province of Cameroon, is still home to a small number of people able to express a few sentences in Njerep.[7]
These are no longer considered as semi-speakers but as „old speakers“ and mainly use Njerep in polite expressions, songs and jokes or in the context of sharing secrets.
Documentation made public in 2000 reveals that only four people spoke Njerep at home in the late 1990s, and only an elderly man, named Mial, could carry on a conversation in the Njerep language.
In a song documented by researchers, Mial departs from traditional themes – historical events transmitted orally – to lament the contempt and disdain shown by young people for Njerep, as well as their mockery when Mial uses this language to communicate.
This situation explains the constant alternation between linguistic codes observed by researchers, Njerep being nevertheless neglected by speakers who prefer other languages.
[1] https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mzk
[2] https://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/online-collections-research/mambila-collection/mambila
[4] https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Fulbe
[5] http://mambila.info/trois_etudes.pdf
[6] http://101lasttribes.com/tribes/mambila.html
[7] https://www.universal-translation-services.com/njerep-language/
