Locality and settlement history in the Cross River (Cameroon) area
##This paper analyses the settlement history of Ejagham villages in the Cross River area of Southwestern Cameroon. Movements of villages in this vast and sparsely populated tropical rain forest are motivated not only by socio-political conflicts but also by the proximity to more favourable economic environments and the possibility to participate in trade. These interests are reflected in the settlement histories. These often form part of a more general discourse in which a locality defines itself in contrast to other localities. Settlement histories legitimise a community's origin, its genealogy, its relationship with other villages and include important cultural institutions like associations and festivities. Associations secured the integration into regional networks and provided means to keep up social differentiation, especially as regards the former slaves. Among the Ejagham, as a small scale society, chiefs were only occasionally able to concentrate political power. In their settlement histories, therefore, the Ejagham show a great concern for preventing the political dominance of individual lineages and in particular of hereditary chieftaincy.##
Keywords: Ejagham settlement histories, settlement histories, oral history, history of Ejagham settlement, community and settlement, differentiation and oral history, legitimizing settlement
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| ||||||
