In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

119 6 Nso’ And The Germans: The First Encounters In Contemporary Documents And In Oral Tradition V.G. FANSO AND E.M. CHILVER In 1958, 1960 and 1963 the late Dr Kaberry, accompanied for some time by Mrs Chilver, collected some information from elderly men, who had been witnesses of the events concerning the first encounters between Nso’ and the Germans. Her notes are deposited at the British Library of Political and Economic Science and we have made use of them. Among her principal informants were late Faay (lord) Taangkum Kuy (Sife),* the late Faay Faanjang,* the late Faay Koonggir (Kimfoy),* and the late Faay Tsenngkar;* a number of other elderly men were able to supply corroborative evidence on certain points. We have also made use of the interviews and conversations Dr Fanso held in 1975, 1976, 1977 and at other times with eye-witnesses and people who had first hand or good-hearsay information of the early hostilities with the Germans. Among these were the late Faay nggoorin of Mbiame,* the late Faay Tsenkay of Kimbo’,* the late Paa Peter Sa’ngguv of Ndzeendzev wo Ku’un,* the late Yaa woo Faa* who was taken away by the Germans after the 1906 encounter, the late Paa Felix Javnyuy Tah of Kikaykela’ki,* and the late Paa Paulinus Lukong of Ngkar.* Copies of some of Dr Fanso’s tapes (in Lamnso’) are to be found in the Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington. On the German side we have some contemporary reports, published in the official Deutsches Kolonialblatt (henceforward DKB) in the main, and the report on the burning of the palace in June 1902 located in the National Archives Yaounde. The principal informants we have named were agreed that there were three important visits by European-led groups to Kimbo’ itself before the ‘big German war’, the punitive expedition of April-June 1906. Other European-led visitors probably passed through Nso’, but either did not reach Kimbo’ and the palace or left no impression.  Asterisks refer to the Appendix (Informants) and Glossary. 120 The first encounter, recalled as involving about eight to ten European officers is indubitably to be identified with the arrival, in mid-January 1902, of the expeditionary force of Lt Col von Pavel, fresh from its victory over Bafut and Mankon in late December 1901, and on its way to Banyo to bring assistance to Lt Nolte. Von Pavel’s published report says little. His Armourer Sergeant-Major-Oskar Zimmermann, who published his memoirs, is fuller (1909, 176/7). The expedition, he says, marched from Babungo, where it was well supplied with food and carriers, on January 12 and camped at ‘Esob’, the modern Tabessob or Sov, described as a large farming village. Here the gift of a ram from Fon Nso’ was received. On January 14 the expedition camped in an upland valley he calls ‘Essu’, an unidentified place between Sov and Meliim, rich in farm settlements and surrounded by cultivated lands. A long march brought them to ‘Kimbo”, the capital, where an abundance of provisions awaited them. Zimmermann remarks that the houses were especially well-constructed, like those of Bali, but larger. Nearly all the men he saw, he recorded, wore gowns which he thought were bought from the Hausa. The district was rich in stock. The inhabitants had never seen Europeans before but were confident in their bearing, unlike the timid forest people. Zimmermann puts this confidence down to contact with the Hausa, then credited with the spread of cloth and civility. After two days’ rest in Kimbo’, when some sick Bali carriers were sent home, the expedition marched north along good routes noting the stock (the German term does not distinguish between goats, sheep and dwarf cattle) browsing on the hillsides. The expedition reached ‘Baschungele’ (Nsungli, the Nso’ term for the Wimbum) and camped in a small hamlet before turning east. He remarks on the chilly nights of Nso’, well-endured by the Grassfields carriers recruited in Bali and Babungo, but a misery to those recruited in Yaounde. How was this first visit remembered? We learn from oral tradition that the expedition came during the dry season (which lasts from October to March); that the Fon went across the Bui torrent for a short distance to the hamlet of Meliim to meet the visitors, referred to as vijin or ‘bridal party’, not because of its modest demeanor but because its arrival required conspicuous, Obligatory and depleting expenditure. As much can be...

Share