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119 12 The Mankon palace(1) The Surroundings Details of the location of the palace can be seen on Map1, which shows that the Fon’s marketplace, the dancing field, the palace itself, and the patch of secondary forest, all follow a general north-south line. The whole complex, not including the forest, is about 400m long and extends over a low hill, rising to an altitude of 1260m between the dancing field and the palace. The dancing field and the marketplace slope down towards the north (with an average slope of 3.3 per cent), and the palace extends over the southern slope of the hill, which is somewhat steeper, as can be seen from the number of stairways connecting the various yards and buildings (Map 3). The palace is surrounded by a number of higher hills, which have fairly steep slopes, and an Hyparrenia grass cover which was formerly used as thatch for roofs. Compounds and farms occupy the lower parts of the hills and all the valleys as well as the other hills, to the north and northeast. A secondary forest to the south of the palace (kekfure = ‘forest’)(2) extends right to the walls of the Fon’s quarter, into which two doors allow easy passage. Tsendi of Ala’a Akuma, to whom I owe most of my information, justifies the presence of this grove on purely practical grounds: it allows the Fon to hide in case of need! However, there is more to it than that: the Fon entertains a spiritual relationship with the forest, his ancestors, the animals and other beings living there. He may retire into the sacred forest at times of illness and uncertainty to be reassured and strengthened.(3) Besides the forest, all the land surrounding the palace complex is compound and farm land. Nowadays, it is of an orchard type, with open farms of maize, groundnuts, Colocasia, plantains, yams and various green vegetables cultivated under shade trees (Dracaena arborea, Markhamia tomentosa, Ficus natalensis, and other Ficus) or trees of economic importance (Kola nitida, Elaeis, avocado, mango, eucalyptus). In the 19th century, European-introduced species were of course absent and the farms were hedged with lines of Ficus, Dracaena, kola trees, etc., supporting a lattice of raffia stems to keep the goats in the fields, or out of them, as the case may be. Between the palace and the Mezam river extend the flat hydromorphic banks of the river, on which the women can cultivate dry season crops, and where the Fon has fairly large tracts of land. The Marketplace miti fo in 1973 (Map 1) The market is held every eighth day, on one of the two weekly holidays on which the deaths of the last two Fons are commemorated. The market takes place on Samne, on which Angwa’fo II died, in 1920. The day on which the market is held is not the only connection between the market and the palace. Public announcements are broadcast there, and the proximity of the palace allows an easy maintenance of order by the masker Mabu’ should a dispute occur. In the 19th century, the marketplace was small, serving only local functions, the regional trade being handled by trading households. Only local exchanges took place there and few foreign traders attended. 120 Part III - Grassfields sacred kingship Characteristically, the market day was not synchronized with those of the large markets with regional functions such as Tad in Medig, Kwor in Nyang Funam, and Keu in Ngwokong, known from the day of the Meta’ week on which they took place. Those were synchronized, and fixed ne varietur, whereas the Mankon market day changed with each new Fon. The marketplace is a rectangular space, approximately 60 by 80m. A single row of mud blocks houses with zinc roofs surrounds the area on all four sides. Besides the houses, the structures that can be seen on the marketplace are a water tap, a raised stone about 50cm high, and a kola-nut tree. The raised stone falls under the category of netchwere, that I would call, for want of a better term, a ‘ritual’ stone. It stands for a given space and represents it. It focuses the ceremonial and ritual actions concerning the said space. Once a year, at the time of ngang fo (‘the medicine of the Fon’), palace retainers put apotropaic medicines around it. That seems to be its only function. The kola-nut tree is about 15m high. It is surrounded...

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