Full Description
Lela in Bali tells the story of an annual festival of eighteenth-century kingdoms in Northern Cameroon that was swept up in the migrations of marauding slave-raiders during the nineteenth century and carried south towards the coast. Lela was transformed first into a mounted durbar, like those of the Muslim states, before evolving in tandem with the German colonial project into a festival of arms. Reinterpreted by missionaries and post-colonial Cameroonians, Lela has become one of the most important of Cameroonian festivals and a crucial marker of identity within the state. Richard Fardon's recuperation of two hundred years of history is an essential contribution not only to Cameroonian studies but also to the broader understanding of the evolution of African cultures.
Contents
Map and Figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Lela: Past Present, Present Past
Lela in the Early Post-Colony Bali
Nyonga: A Thumbnail History
Chapter 2. Lela in 1908: The Photographic Record
Lela and Voma in Bali
The Ethnologist and the Missionaries
Ankermann and the Missionaries
Photographed: The Second Photographer
The Texts and the Photographs
An Inventory of the Photographic Record of the 1908 Lela
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Lela: The Texts, 1890s to 1960s
The Missionaries' Version 1903 to 1913
The Ethnologist's Version 1907 to 1908
The Soldier's and Trader's Versions 1889 to 1906
Interlude: The Bali Axis Unravels
The Anthropologist and the Historian: A 1960s Version
Chapter 4. Lela: Incorporation, Ascendancy and the Means of Violence
The Ba'ni before the Germans T
he Apogee of Germano-Bali Majesty: The 1905 Paramountcy
Chapter 5. Lela in the Grassfields and the 'Graffi' in Lela: Or, More is More
The Importance of Origins
More is More
Lela Adopted in the Grassfields
Lela and Voma in the Bali kingdoms
Chapter 6. Lela Precedents: Beyond and Before the Grassfields
'Spear Washing' in the Benue Chamba
Chiefdoms: Flags, Gowns and Horses
Adamawan Elements in Lela: Death, Killing and Commemoration
Chapter 7. Fast forward: From Adamawa to Late Post-Colonial Cameroon
References
Published References
Unpublished References
