Chamba people

Last updated
Chamba
Buffalo mask, Chamba people, northeast Nigeria, wood - Naturhistorisches Museum Nurnberg - Nuremberg, Germany - DSC03954.jpg
Buffalo mask of the Chamba people
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Related ethnic groups

The Chamba are a significant ethnic group in the north eastern Nigeria. The Chamba are located between present day Nigeria and Cameroon. [1] The closest Chamba neighbours are the Mumuye, the Jukun and Kutep people. In Cameroon, the successors of Leko and chamba speakers are divided into several states: Bali Nyonga, Bali Kumbat, Bali-Gham, Bali-Gangsin, and Bali-Gashu. [2] They are two ethnic groups in Ghana and Togo also called Chamba, but they are ethnically distinct. [3] The Chamba are identified through their own language, beliefs, culture, and art.

Contents

Language

The Chamba people, also known as Samba, Tchamba, Tsamba, Daka and Chamba-Ndagan, are an ethnic group found in the Adamawa State of North-East Nigeria and neighboring parts of north Cameroon. [4] They speak two distantly related languages: Chamba Leko, of the Leko–Nimbari languages, and Chamba Daka, of the Dakoid languages, both of which are Niger-Congo languages. [4] [1]

Chamba Leko speakers are restricted to the easternmost part of the central area, for the most part on the Cameroon part of the modern border. The remainder of the Chamba are Daka-speaking”. [1] The Chamba speakers still speak various other dialects that are different from place to place. The central area is where the Chamba Daka (Sama Nnakenyare) live. That area is found in North east of Nigeria on the Cameroon border in Adamawa State.[ citation needed ]

Germany was the original colonial power that annexed the Chambaland, but when Germany lost the First World War, this territory in Africa was divided by the League of Nations between British and France.

Beliefs

The Chamba people have their own particular religious beliefs. [5] The traditional religion of the Chamba is premised on a creator solar God (Su) and ancestor spirits who live with this creator. The sun god does not interact with living beings, but the ancestor spirits do. [5] The dead (wurumbu) are believed to continue living, but they live below the ground. They follow the same style and sophistication as humans, but they are believed to be wiser and with supernatural power. Special people among the Chamba are believed to be able to interact with these ancestral spirits and they are revered by the Chamba people. [5]

The Chamba people were one of the targets of Fulani jihads in the 18th and 19th century. They were enslaved, and many migrated south into the mountains. They retaliated by becoming raiding bands who attacked slave and trading caravans. [5] [6] A minority, or about 15%, of the Chamba people adhere to Islam. [7]

Society and Culture

The Chamba traditionally live in grassland areas, farming cereal staples, and cash crops such as cocoa and coffee. One main crop that the Chamba farm is guinea corn. [8] The Chamba are composed of different clans that can have varying styles of chiefdoms. Some are led by women, men, or both. [9] These clans work based on the collective belief in "the authoritative masculinity of relatively older men and women." [10]

A double figure columnar wooden statue. Chamba-Double statue-colonne.jpg
A double figure columnar wooden statue.

The Chamba live in villages. Outside of the villages is an uninhabited forest region called the bush. The areas of the bush closest to the village are places that the Chamba collect materials for building fires, making utilitarian objects like baskets and mats, hunting, and gathering. These areas of the bush are accessed both by men and women. The inner bush is considered more dangerous and associated with the male gender. [8]

Cults

One form of Chamba social control is through the use of cults. Chamba Daka refer to cults as jup. Each jup is connected with misfortune or disease. These cults can control these misfortunes and cure diseases based on how the members perform rituals and make payments. Each jup is individualized and runs uniquely based on their own rules and practices. There are both men's and women's cults that an individual may only gain membership through an initiation process. Cult members are expected to keep the rituals, rites, and practices secret. Membership in cults can provide protection and security from misfortunes and illnesses. [11]

Initiation processes are different for each gender's cult. Circumcision is a part of the men's cult initiation, through which the process allows boys to enter into manhood. For women, their marker of transition into womanhood is not through initiation but marriage. Often, women do not join cults until they are married. For women's cults, sometimes tooth evulsion is part of initiation. However, tooth evulsion is less practiced now and varies by region and particular group. [8]

Art

They are skilled artists known for their pottery, metalwork and sculpture. [12] In addition, the Chamba make masks that are performed at special occasions. [8]

Masking Tradition

Masks representing the wild are typically composed of a wooden mask and a costume made of long fibers. The complete look is supposed to give the illusion of one complete entity with the mask, costume, and performer becoming a single unit. [8]

A double figure volumetric wooden statue. Double figure, Nigeria, Chamba people, 20th century, wood - De Young Museum - DSC01101.JPG
A double figure volumetric wooden statue.

One specific type of mask is called a buffalo or bush cow mask. Each clan of the Chamba usually has at least one bush cow mask. These masks are painted different colors to determine whether the mask is male or female. Some clans will have both a female and male bush cow mask. The features of the mask are composed of both animal and human attributes. The horns of the bush cow mask refer to the "female bush cow ancestor." The mouth is often compared to that of a crocodile. [8] These masks are supposed to represent the power of the bush. The masks function in conjunction with Chamba events like circumcision, initiation of chiefs, and funerals. [13] These masks are stored in the bush. When they perform for special occasions, the masks leave the bush and enter into the village. During performances, the masquerader will dance. Some liken the style of dance to that of a buffalo charging. [8]

Statues

Chamba statues are figural, usually depicting a male, a female, or both a male and female. The figures usually appear in a single form or a double form in which two figures are attached to a base. These statues are typically made of wood or iron. These statues have been divided into two categories based on their visual form. The first group is characterized by its volume. These statues often carved from a single piece of wood. The arms have bent arms and crouching legs. The arms come away from the body. One interpretation of these poses is that the figures may be dancing. In volumetric double form statues, two upper bodies share one pair of legs. The second group is characterized by its column-like form. The figure's arms and legs are attached to the body.

Some of these statues were thought to be used in cult rituals. The function of these statues is widely unknown. The little records of what the function may be have come from a few ethnologists during the colonial-period. [14]

Notable people

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senufo people</span> West African ethnic group

The Senufo people, also known as Siena, Senefo, Sene, Senoufo, and Syénambélé, are a West African ethnolinguistic group. They consist of diverse subgroups living in a region spanning the northern Ivory Coast, the southeastern Mali and the western Burkina Faso. One sub-group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibibio people</span> Ethnic group in southern Nigeria

The Ibibio people are a coastal people in Southern Nigeria. They are mostly found in Akwa Ibom, Cross River State and the Eastern part of Abia State. They are related to the Efik people. During the colonial period in Nigeria, the Ibibio Union asked for recognition by the British as a sovereign nation.

Anaang is an ethnic group in Southern Nigeria, whose land is primarily within 8 of the present 31 Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State: Abak, Essien Udim, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara, Oruk Anam, Ukanafun in Akwa Ibom State. The Anaang are the second largest ethnic group after the Ibibios in Akwa Ibom state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Douglas</span> British anthropologist (1921–2007)

Dame Mary Douglas, was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture, symbolism and risk, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Douglas was considered a follower of Émile Durkheim and a proponent of structuralist analysis, with a strong interest in comparative religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bassa people (Liberia)</span> Ethnic group in West Africa

The Bassa people are a West African ethnic group primarily native to Liberia. The Bassa people are a subgroup of the larger Kru people of Liberia and Ivory Coast. They form a majority or a significant minority in Liberia's Grand Bassa, Rivercess, Margibi and Montserrado counties. In Liberia's capital of Monrovia, they are the largest ethnic group. With an overall population of about 1.05 million, they are the second largest ethnic group in Liberia (18%), after the Kpelle people (26%). Small Bassa communities are also found in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.

The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in Central Africa, in northern Cameroon, north-western Central African Republic, southern Chad, and eastern Nigeria, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people. Joseph Greenberg classified them as one branch of the Adamawa–Ubangi family of Niger–Congo languages. They are among the least studied languages in Africa, and include many endangered languages; by far the largest is Mumuye, with 400,000 speakers. A couple of unclassified languages—notably Laal and Jalaa—are found along the fringes of the Adamawa area.

A jengu is a water spirit in the traditional beliefs of the Sawabantu groups of Cameroon, like the Duala, Bakweri, Malimba, Subu, Bakoko, Oroko people. Among the Bakweri, the term used is liengu. Miengu are similar to bisimbi in the Bakongo spirituality and Mami Wata. The Bakoko people use the term Bisima.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mumuye people</span> African ethnic group in Nigeria

The Mumuye are people of the Taraba State, Nigeria. They speak the Mumuye language. They constitute the largest tribal group in Taraba State of Nigeria and form the predominant tribes found in Zing, Yorro, Jalingo, Ardo-Kola, Lau, Gassol, Bali and Gashaka, all of which are local government areas of the state. The Mumuye people are also found in many parts of the neighboring Adamawa State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chokwe people</span> Ethnic group of Central and Southern Africa

The Chokwe people, known by many other names, are a Bantu ethnic group of Central and Southern Africa. They are found primarily in Angola, southwestern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and northwestern parts of Zambia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sande society</span> West African womens secret society

Sande, also known as zadεgi, bundu, bundo and bondo, is a women's initiation society in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. The Sande society initiates girls into adulthood by rituals including female genital mutilation. It is said by its supporters to confer fertility, to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment, and to maintain an interest in the well-being of its members throughout their lives.

The Buduma are an ethnic group of Chad, Cameroon, and Nigeria who inhabit many of the islands of Lake Chad. They are predominantly fishers and cattle-herders. In the past, the Buduma carried out violent raids on the cattle herds of their neighbors. They were feared villains with aggressive reputations; thus, they were respected and left alone for many years, protected by their own habitat of water and reeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mwera people</span> Ethnic group from Lindi Region of Tanzania

The Mwera people are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group. They are native to Ruangwa and Nachingwea Districts in Lindi Region. However they have also settled in northern Mtwara Region and eastern Ruvuma Region of Tanzania, as well as along the Ruvuma River between Tanzania and Mozambique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musgum people</span> Ethnic group

The Musgum or Mulwi are a Chadic ethnic group in Cameroon and Chad. They speak Musgu, a Chadic language, which had 61,500 speakers in Cameroon in 1982 and 24,408 speakers in Chad in 1993. The Musgum call themselves Mulwi.

The Bwa is an African society that is native to Burkina Faso. This society has an approximate population of over 300,000 persons. The Bwa people live in a number of individualized communities. They have no central government, and rely on their community standards. They are most known for their scarification and elaborate plank masks.

<i>The Lele of the Kasai</i>

The Lele of the Kasai (1963) was the second book by the influential British anthropologist Mary Douglas and the first under her married name. In it she reported on her anthropological fieldwork among the Lele people on the western bank of the Kasai River in the Basongo area of what had at the time been south-western Belgian Congo. The changes subsequent to the ending of Belgian colonial rule in 1960 brought her to abandon the usual practice in anthropological field reports of writing in the present tense. The book describes the social, economic and religious life of a large Lele village as she had observed it a decade previously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bakossi people</span> Ethnic group

The Bakossi people are a Bantu ethnic group that live on the western and eastern slopes of Mount Mwanenguba and Mount Kupe in the Bakossi Mountains of Cameroon. They number about 200,000, mostly engaged in subsistence farming but also producing some coffee and cocoa.

The Mbole people are an ethnic group of about 150,000 people living in the Orientale Province, southwest of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Mbole were previously referred to as Bambole.

The Hemba people are a Bantu ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Dendi are an ethnic group located in Benin, Niger, Nigeria and northern Togo mainly in the plains of the Niger River. They are part of the Songhai people. Derived from the Songhay language, the term "Dendi" translates to "down the river." The community consists of 195,633 people. Among them, only 4,505 live in Nigeria. In Niger they live in around the city of Gaya. Their mother tongue is Dendi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngil mask</span> Fang people mask from Central Africa

The Ngil mask originated from an agrarian/hunting group known as the Fang people, located in the countries of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Raymond Boyd (1994). Historical Perspectives on Chamba Daka. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN   978-3-927620-47-6.;
    Richard Fardon, Raiders & refugees: trends in Chamba political development, 1750-1950
  2. ↑ Fowler, Ian; Zeitlyn, David (1996). "Chapter 1:Introduction: the Grassfields and the Tikar". In Fowler, Ian (ed.). African Crossroads: Intersections between History and Anthropology in Cameroon. Book Publishers. pp. 1–16.
  3. ↑ James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 124–125. ISBN   978-0-313-27918-8.
  4. 1 2 Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 258. ISBN   978-0-19-533770-9.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Chamba Religion
  6. ↑ RICHARD FARDON (1983), A CHRONOLOGY OF PRE-COLONIAL CHAMBA HISTORY, Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, Bd. 29 (1983), pages 67-92
  7. ↑ James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 124–125. ISBN   978-0-313-27918-8.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Fardon, Richard. (1990). Between God, the dead and the wild : Chamba interpretations of religion and ritual. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN   1560980443. OCLC   24152561.
  9. ↑ Muller, Jean-Claude (Spring 2001). "Inside, outside, and inside out: Masks, Rulers, and Gender among the Dìì and Their Neighbors". African Arts. 34 (1): 58–96. doi:10.2307/3337735. JSTOR   3337735.
  10. ↑ Boyd, Raymond, Fardon, Richard (Summer 1998). "Saved by a Song: Patriarchy and Women's Experience in Chamba Tellings of "The Girl Who Wanted an Unblemished Husband"". Journal of African Cultural Studies. 11 (1): 5–25. doi:10.1080/13696819808717823. JSTOR   1771837.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ Fardon, Richard. (1990). Between God, the dead and the wild : Chamba interpretations of religion and ritual. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN   1560980443. OCLC   24152561.
  12. ↑ James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 124–125. ISBN   978-0-313-27918-8.
  13. ↑ Muller, Jean-Claude (Spring 2001). "Inside, outside, and inside out: Masks, Rulers, and Gender among the Dìì and Their Neighbors". African Arts. 34 (1): 58–96. doi:10.2307/3337735. JSTOR   3337735.
  14. ↑ Fardon, Richard. (2005). Column to volume : formal innovation in Chamba statuary. Kron, Christine. London: Saffron Books. ISBN   1872843476. OCLC   66265665.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.