On October 5, 1992 President Biya of Cameroon signed the decree No. 92/206 officially creating 47 new administrative subdivisions and districts units in the country, consequently setting up new urban centres at the head towns of newly created District units.
Somalomo, in the Eastern province then, Upper Nyong Division and Messaména Subdivision, was among these new administrative units and towns. From its 100 inhabitants at that time, Somalomo has now grown to more than 1000 people. It hosts a Sous-Prefecture, a police station (gendarmerie), an Education Office, a secondary school, a health centre, Wildlife Protection and Revenue Collection offices. Although official administrative buildings and housing for civil servants have not yet been completed, this new administrative unit offers and provides basic public services to at least 10,000 people.
Before the Germans
However, the history of that then sleepy and dusty village was anything except uneven. It did not start with the presidential decree. According to a reliable source, the late Mr. Bolap Paul-René[1] who was chief of the village at that time, the site was populated at least one hundred years back.
Led by their patriarch, called NTEUH, the Bampel and Elephant clan of the Badwee ethnic group, part of the larger Koozime tribe (made of the Ndjémé, Zimé and Koozimé) belonging to the Maka-Ndjem Western Bantu lineage first of all settled 15km to the north of their present location, on a place called Bifolone, then at Mpoulabizame and afterward at Mpele, under the now leadership of Ndjankoum, son of Nteuh. Among Ndjankoum’s sons was the elder, Mampomo aged 25years then (around 1880). Having heard of white, ghost like people coming from overseas and settling in Lomié with the Nzimé parent group, he decided to meet them. Due to his courage and initiative, he was recognized as the paramount chief of the Southern Badwee group of the Koozimé. Moving many times from Bilofone, he was established at Mpe’ezi, along the river Dja, between the present day cities of Lomié and Bengbis, in the Eastern and Southern Regions.
During the German Protectorate on Kamerun
One day, a team sent by the German «protection mission» from Lomié where they had established an advanced administrative post, came to Mpe’ezi. The German head of the mission asked the Chief of Mpe’ezi to build a tree dug canoe that would enable him to navigate along the near Dja River. On the bank of the river, he noticed a long, clear space at the end of which stood a straight small tree of the type locally called «lomo». He asked his local team member how that was said in his language at that one translated was they saw as «Zohomalomo», meaning the clear space at the end of which stands a small lomo tree». For the foreigner, the name of that place definitely changed from «Mpe’ezi» to «Zohomalomo».
However, in 1916–1918, with the end of World War I, the defeat of the Germans and the arrival of the French in that part of the country, «Zohomalomo» became «Somalomo» since one Mr. Tsang Manga, a translator with the French, or the French themselves thought that the «Z» in the first name was to be translated into an «S», according to the way the Germans usually pronounce the «Z». It was the first sub-administrative unit to be created within the Messaména Subdivision, which was itself set up by the French in 1935, at the crossroad of the Badwee and Bikélé tribes which make up the social fabric of the area.
During the German Protectorate, many of their officials visited Zohomalomo. One of the first, around 1890-95 was sent by von Ebermeier - the Governor of the territory - from Kribi where he resided. It was led by one Hauptman Mabe. Then, a police officer named Weigen came, as well as an administrative officer called Mister Scheer (Masta Sia in the local language) was appointed there. They set up a tobacco growing operation, a shop in which they exchanged local products such as latex, ivory, skins and other wild games for new and manufactured products like clothes, soap, and salt. The German newcomers also encouraged locals to collect wild latex around the place, from the abundant forest around. Mr. Weigen is known to have launched an initiative which aimed at grouping the Badwee people into larger villages, from the diverse small settlements where they used to live. With the arrival of these Germans, the Badwee for the first time in their life saw horses.
The German Empire even though at that time to erect Somalomo into an administrative unit and a town, owing to its position on the Dja River, linked it to Lomié where they were already installed and Bengbis, Sangmelima and Ebolowa, toward the Atlantic Ocean, in Kribi. The region was – and is still - covered with a dense forest in which wild latex, elephants and various animal, bird species and flora can be found.
The French Trusteeship Period
Unfortunately, all these efforts and projects came to an abrupt end, with the German defeat in the 1914–1918 World War II. During that time and since German authorities applied a scorched earth policy, burning whatever valuable project they had previously launched or any asset in their way, people reverted to living in the bush to protect themselves, and stayed there for four years, before their Paramount Chief Mampomo-mo-Ndjankoum called them back, announcing the end of the war.
With the French administration established under a Society of Nations mandate, the project to raise Somalomo into an urban centre was back to the drawing table. Messrs Doudet, Lemetayer and Lovet who were appointed as successive regional colonial administrators in the 1930s worked on it. However and since after the departure of the previous German colonial masters, Mr. Mampomo had firmly secured his power and possessed a harem of 99 wives; he was now more reluctant to go with it, under the motive that new city dwellers may be tempted to share some of them with him. Consequently, the new administrative unit was built 60km away in Messaména inside the Bikélé territory. Paramount chief Mampomo contributed with manpower in building the new administrative centre, and sent his first nephew, Madom[2] to be his official representative with the French administrators there.
Meanwhile, Drs. Chambon and Roy, consecutive heads of the Messaména Health Subdivision in the 1930s decided to establish a health centre in Somalomo, in order to increase efforts in fighting the sleeping sickness that reached epidemic proportions in the area then, after the Spanish fever in 1919–1920, which had catastrophic consequences there as well. At least 100hundred nurses and health auxiliaries worked in the area, from Somalomo. They were called the Jamotains», since they were trained and worked under the supervision of the French Dr. Eugène Jamot, well known for having played a critical role in erasing the disease in the whole country.
The first school was also set up there in the 1930, to help educate the many sons of paramount chief Mampomo, as well as those in the area willing to submit themselves to the new and constraining school system, instead of sending them faraway in Lomié. The school consisted of few classes (perhaps two or three only), due to the lack of qualified teachers. It was built on top of a cliff on the Dja River, offering teachers and students a panoramic view. There were also few school children, who would have played an important role in local administration after the country’s independence, but did not seize the opportunity.
After this important milestone, in the 1940 Mampomo himself came back to better sentiments about Somalomo becoming an administrative unit and a town, shared by the Northern and Southern Badwee groups. Consequently, he asked Captain-Doctor Henri Koch, the then administrator of the Messaména Subdivision to transform Somalomo into an urban town. In preparation of this, the health structures were extended and preventive medicine developed. The road between Somalomo and Messaména on 60km was built in 1950, following a request from Mampomo to his friend Mr. Bordier, the French Administrator of Messaména Subdivision.
Between 1951 and 1959, heads of Messaména Subdivision Health Services regularly came to Somalomo, from where they could provide preventive and curative cares to people of the surrounding areas and villages. In 1951-52, it was one Mr. Trawen,[3] then in 1952-53, an MD named Gonzalez Deminaret who lived in Somalomo for some time, together with 3 nurses; among his medical staff was one named Koulmitoungoulou, probably a French of Turkish origin, as was recalled by the late Chief Bolap Paul-René.[4] From 1953 to 1954, it was Mr. Laribot. Finally, Mr. Déodi closed the shop, in 1967–1959.
An agriculture extension officer named Pascal was also posted there.
Unfortunately once again, Somalomo missed the opportunity to become an urban centre under the French colonial period, since Mampomo lost his paramount chief position to his better educated nephew, and changing circumstances. In fact, it is said that the French suspected him of disloyalty against them and possible lingering sympathies with the Germans, who were his first foreign partners. He was consequently jailed in 1942 by Captain Dr Henri Koch who was the colonial administrator in Messaména at that time, to be freed only in 1950.
After independence
After independence was granted to Cameroon, Chief Mampomo continued petitioning the new national authorities about the urban issue for Somalomo, taking from the efforts and promises by the French colonial administration. Alas! His nephew who had become his nemesis and a powerful post-colonial figure opposed every move to re-empower Somalomo. Instead, he fought constantly to promote his own village, Dimpam, located 25km north of Somalomo, on the way to Messaména.[5] For instance, he endeavored to transfer the health center established long time ago in Somalomo to Dimpam, but did not succeed, all its staff deciding instead to return to Abong-Mbang, head town of the Upper-Nyong Division, more than 150km from Somalomo.
Although a new health centre was set up in Somalomo in the late 1950s, it did not last long and was closed after independence. The centre was managed by one Philippe Déody, a French physician from Nancy who married a local beauty. From the 1960s until 1992, Somalomo and the surrounding area and people did not benefit from a lot of public infrastructures, apart from a school which, up to the 80, delivered courses only midway toward the completion of a primary level education. However, memories of better times lingered and they did not despair of seeing their village regaining its glorious past, in the modern form of a District.
With the October 1992 presidential decree, followed in 2010 by another one that scaled up all new Districts created previously into Subdivisions, and the expected public and private investments to follow, Somalomo is now full of hope. In fact, it has an untapped eco-tourism, archeological[6] as well as agricultural, agribusiness, fishing and animal husbandry potential that would certainly support its social and economic development. For now, located at the edge of the World Biosphere Heritage Site of the Dja River Reserve, it hosts a Cameroon Administration’s Forest Conservation Office, a field office of the European Union’s project for the Preservation of Forestry Ecosystems in Central Africa (ECOFAC), a health centre, a Secondary School, a Gendarmerie position and three guesthouses. It is even connected to the internet and a mobile phone network, although there is not yet electricity or running water.
Furthermore, clear territorial boundaries have not yet been set between Somalomo and Messaména administrative units. This is due to constant bickering with Dimpam people, who did not take the establishment of Somalomo as a town to their detriment lightly, as relations between the two places amply, show.
More is certainly to come, with the developing needs of the people around Somalomo, progress made in the country, and the world.[7]
Abong-Mbang is a town and commune in the East Region of Cameroon. Abong-Mbang is located at a crossroads of National Route 10 and the road that leads south to Lomié. Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, is 178 km to the west, and Bertoua, the capital of the East Province, lies 108 km to the east. From Ayos, at the border in the Centre Province 145 km (90 mi) from Abong-Mbang, the tar on National Route 10 ends and a dirt road begins. Abong-Mbang is the seat of the Abong-Mbang sub-division and the Haut-Nyong division. The town is headed by a mayor. Gustave Mouamossé has held the post since August 2002. Abong-Mbang is site of one of the East Province's four Courts of First Instance and a prefectural prison. The population was estimated at 18,700 in 2001.
The Northwest Region, or North-West Region is one of ten regions of Cameroon. Its regional capital is Bamenda. The Northwest Region was part of the Southern Cameroons, found in the western highlands of Cameroon. It is bordered to the southwest by the Southwest Region, to the south by the West Region, to the east by the Adamawa Region, and to the north by Nigeria. Various Ambazonian nationalist and separatist factions regard the region as being distinct as a polity from Cameroon.
The East Region occupies the southeastern portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the east by the Central African Republic, to the south by Congo, to the north by the Adamawa Region, and to the west by the Centre and South Regions. With 109,002 km2 of territory, it is the largest region in the nation as well as the most sparsely populated. Historically, the peoples of the East have been settled in Cameroonian territory for longer than any other of the country's many ethnic groups, the first inhabitants being the Baka pygmies.
The South Region is located in the southwestern and south-central portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the east by the East Region, to the north by the Centre Region, to the northwest by the Littoral Region, to the west by the Gulf of Guinea, and to the south by the countries of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Congo. The South occupies 47,720 km2 of territory, making it the fourth largest region in the nation. The major ethnic groups are the various Beti-Pahuin peoples, such as the Ewondo, Fang, and Bulu.
The West Region is 14,000 km2 of territory located in the central-western portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It borders the Northwest Region to the northwest, the Adamawa Region to the northeast, the Centre Region to the southeast, the Littoral Region to the southwest, and the Southwest Region to the west. The West Region is the smallest of Cameroon's ten regions in area, yet it has the highest population density.
The Njyem are an ethnic group inhabiting the rain forest zone of southern Cameroon and northern Republic of the Congo. In Cameroon, the Njyem live along the road running south from Lomié, passing the government center of Ngoyla and going as far south as Djadom. From there, footpaths extend to Souanke in northern Congo. Their territory lies south of the Nzime people and north of the Bekwel, both related groups. Ngoyla is the largest Njyem center. Souanke is equally important, but is a center shared with the Bekwel. They speak Njyem ("NJY"), one of the Makaa–Njem Bantu languages.
The Badwe'e are an ethnic group inhabiting the rain forest zone of southeastern Cameroon. They recognize themselves as the descendants of Edwe'e, the youngest son of Koo and the brother of Njeme and Nzime. The Badwe'e live south of Messaména in the East Province in a region south of the Bekol and both north and west of the Nzime. Their territory includes much of the northern and western border of the Dja Biosphere Reserve. They speak a dialect of Koozime, together with the Nzime.
The Fang-Beti are a Bantu ethnic group located in rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Though they separate themselves into several individual clans, they all share a common origin, history and culture Estimated to be well over 8 million individuals in the early 21st century, they form the largest ethnic group in central Cameroon and its capital city of Yaoundé, in Gabon, and in Equatorial Guinea. Their Beti languages are mutually intelligible.
Kumba is a metropolitan city in the Meme department, Southwest Region, Western Cameroon, commonly referred to as "K-town" colloquially. Kumba is the largest and most developed city in the Meme Department and is increasingly drawing in residents from the local villages such as Mbonge. It is also the largest urban area in the South-West. Kumba has an estimated population of about 400,000 with three quarters of this population being young due to advancement in medicine and lowering infant mortality. The N8 and N16 highways meet at Kumba.
A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple chiefdoms or the rulers of exceptionally powerful chiefdoms that have subordinated others. Paramount chiefs were identified by English-speakers as existing in Native American confederacies and regional chiefdoms, such as the Powhatan Confederacy and Piscataway Native Americans encountered by European colonists in the Chesapeake Bay region of North America.
Lomié is a town in the Lomié District in the Upper Nyong division of the East Province of Cameroon. An article in the Mail & Guardian Online describes it as having "no telephone connection to the outside world, and a single access road that is little more than a forest trail".
Mbalmayo is a town in Cameroon's Centre Region. The town had 60,091 inhabitants in 2012. It is the capital of the Nyong-et-So'o Division It is located at the banks of the Nyong river between Ebolowa and Yaoundé. It is an agricultural centre.
Charles Atangana, also known by his birth name, Ntsama, and his German name, Karl, was the paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane ethnic groups during much of the colonial period in Cameroon. Although from an unremarkable background, Atangana's loyalty and friendship with colonial priests and administrators secured him successively more prominent posts in the colonial government. He proved himself an intelligent and diplomatic administrator and an eager collaborator, and he was eventually named paramount chief of two Beti-Pahuin subgroups, the Ewondo and Bane peoples. His loyalty and acquiescence to the German Empire was unquestioning, and he even accompanied the Germans on their escape from Africa in World War I.
Marie-Thérèse Assiga Ahanda was a Cameroonian novelist, chemist, and paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bene people. Early in life, Ahanda worked for the Chemistry Department of the University of Yaoundé. She later moved to the Republic of the Congo with her husband, Jean Baptiste Assiga Ahanda, and took to writing. When they returned to Cameroon, Ahanda became an elected delegate in the National Assembly of Cameroon, a position she held from 1983 to 1988. Ahanda became the Ewondo paramount chief in 1999. In December 2000, she began renovating her father's palace at Efoulan, Yaoundé, a project that cost an estimated 150,000,000 francs CFA. Ahanda is the daughter of Charles Atangana—paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bene peoples under the German and French colonial regimes—by his second wife, Julienne Ngonoa.
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the countries' major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA). It is the commercial and economic capital of Cameroon and the entire CEMAC region comprising Gabon, Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic and Cameroon. Consequently, it handles most of the country's major exports, such as oil, cocoa and coffee, timber, metals and fruits. As of 2015, the city and its surrounding area had an estimated population of 5,768,400. The city sits on the estuary of Wouri River and its climate is tropical.
Donga-Mantung (Mantungia) is a division of the Northwest Region of Cameroon. The division covers an area of 4279 km2 and as of 2001 had a total population of 337,533. The capital city of the division is Nkambe.
Menchum is a department of Northwest Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 4469 km2 and as of 2005 had a total population of 161,998. The capital of the department lies at Wum. The Menchum River drains this area, flowing westward into Nigeria to join the Benue River.
Dume district was an administrative unit in Cameroon during the German colonial rule.
French Cameroon, also known as the French Cameroons, was a French mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.
References
↑ 2 Born in 1900, the late Chief Bolap Paul-René who was the great-grand uncle of the author of this entry, Henri-Paul Bolap, PhD died in 1996. At age 20, he was registered at one of the first primary schools in the eastern region of Cameroon created by the French in Lomié, more than 100km from his place of birth. He spent four years there, up to the «cours élémentaire 2», two years toward the completion of his primary school studies; however, he was a very good writer, much better than secondary school graduates nowadays. After leaving school at that level, he served for some time with the colonial administration as an indigenous administrative assistant (writer-interpreter as they were called then) in Ebolowa, but resigned long before independence, to be close to, and help his elder brother, Mampomo-mo-Ndjankoum in his dealings with the French. Christened under the name of Mampomo Joseph was then the Paramount Chief of the Southern Badwee, from the arrival of the Germans until his overthrow by his nephew, Dobo Joseph in the 1940s, presumably because the French colonial administration needed educated local leaders and Chief Mampomo was not. Mr. Dobo held a Junior high school degree, which was, apart from the African Medicine Doctor degree, the highest educational level a local was able to achieve. For instance, this was the only diploma held by the first President of Cameroon, Mr. Ahmadou Ahidjo; the late Bolap Paul-René became Chief of Somalomo village, from then until the end of the 1980s.
↑ 3 Madom Marcel, whose birth name was Madom Mampomo was in fact the son of one of Mampomo’s younger brothers, called Zoumangou. He was the author’s direct maternal grandfather. Born around 1910, he died on February 18, 1981.
↑ The spelling of these names may not be exact, since they were not familiar to local people who recorded them.
↑ He told this to the author of this entry on October 10, 1992, shortly after Somalomo had finally become an administrative unit and while he was completing field research toward a PhD in Communications and International Development Studies.
↑ Trained as a teacher, he was appointed school master at the main public school of Messaména, then elected as second Mayor of the town in 1963, following a disastrous rule, marred by large scale corruption by the first mayor, Mr. Onana. He died in the 1990s.
↑ A grotto nearby contains footprints of human beings certainly dating back thousands of years. It was visited in 1999 by a US Ambassador to Cameroon. Also, tourists are now regular visitors to the grotto and the surrounding Dja Reserve Forest, a UNESCO World Biosphere site.
↑ Sources for this entry are mainly the late Chief of Somalomo, Bolap Paul-René and Mr. Moantsong Bissal, Messaména Municipal Administrator ad Interim in 1994, who addressed the crowd during the official position taking of the first District Administrator of Somalomo, on January 14, 1994.
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