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463 19 Chiefs, Sub-Chiefs And Local Control: Negotiations Over Land, Struggles Over Meaning MIRIAM GOHEEN When I lived in the Nso’ chiefdom (more properly fondom or kingdom) in western Cameroon from 1979 to 1981, I spent quite a bit of time with one of the sub-chiefs, the Fon of Nse’. I became a regular visitor at his palace and spent many an afternoon drinking palm wine in the courtyard while the Fon of Nse’, a calm and stately presence, entertained visitors and petitioners for favours, settled disputes, and in general conducted the business of his fondom. One afternoon during the rainy season as I slid down the muddy path and stood dripping in the entryway to the palace, the Fon of Nse’, unusually agitated and upset, motioned me to follow him into a small interior courtyard where a number of important lineage heads who were also ‘landlords’ or, more accurately, the ataanggven (‘men who own the fields’) of Nse’ had gathered. I watched them fill a ceremonial calabash or sho’ with palm wine from the palace. Swearing an oath to their ancestors that the ritual they were preparing would seek the truth, each man spat into the sho’.2 The lineage heads then exited en masse, clambered into a waiting Land-Rover, raised their umbrellas and headed out to complete the ritual. The Fon of Nse’ and I headed back to the relative dryness of the palace. Soon we were seated sipping palm wine in the interior of the palace in a small private audience room. A dim light seeping in from the high narrow latticed windows cast shadows of the figures carved into the Fon’s throne against the dank walls, evoking images from a Mongo Beti novel. The Fon of Nse’, still upset but now somewhat calmed by both the wine and the ritual preparation, proceeded to explain the events of the past half-hour. It seems  This chapter was first published in Africa 62:3(1992):389-412 and is reproduced here with some modifications by kind permission of the author.’ Nse’ is shown as Nseh or Nser in some maps.  464 his relationship with the Fon of Nso’, the paramount Fon of the Nso’ kingdom, had been strained for some time. The day before it had been stretched to breaking point when the Fon of Nso’ took hoes away from Nse’ women working in fields over which both rulers claimed jurisdiction. (The women had been using hoes on a Nso’ ‘country 5unday’—a ritual day set aside by the appropriate ruler and the ‘landlord’ of the field on which hoes are not to be used, as a sign of fealty and respect to the ritual leader and his ancestors.) Not quite knowing how to respond, I took a gulp of palm wine and stared at my cup. Graciously ignoring my lack of response, the Fon of Nse’ continued his story. ‘We in Nse’ are in the right; it is our land. We perform the rituals for the land and the Fon of Nso’ is a trespasser.’ The lineage heads were at this moment travelling to the land in question to pour the contents of the ritual calabash on the earth and swear an oath that this was true. Furthermore, the Fon of Nse’ went on to inform me that he was not a subject of the Fon of Nso’, by emphasising the fact that he was walking together with the Fon of Nso’ as an equal, as a brother, using my own power. We helped Nso’ fight the Bamum and the Germans. Now he [the Fon of Nso’] says he owns us. How can that be when we were moving together as equals? The Fon of Nse’ was never captured [by Nso’]. 50 the Fon of Nso’ has a very big head. If you go to meet him now he will not tell you the truth. By focusing on the estrangement between these two rulers and explaining this single event in one relatively obscure fondom in the highlands of Cameroon, I will try to clarify some of the many complexities involved in describing relations to the land in modern Africa. An account of the estrangement between these two men who, according to the Nse’, ‘became David and Jonathan’ in the early twentieth century3 must include an understanding of two core symbols in Nso’: the significance of the Earth in Nso’ cosmology and the related meaning of stewardship of the land as a symbol of...

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