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SLAVERY AND ITS AFTERMATH IN THE MANDARA MOUNTAINS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2020

MELCHISEDEK CHÉTIMA Open the ORCID record for MELCHISEDEK CHÉTIMA [Opens in a new window]
MELCHISEDEK CHÉTIMA*
Affiliation:
Harriet Tubman Institute, York University
*
Harriet Tubman Institute, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, m3j 1p3chetimam@yahoo.fr
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Abstract

Based on long-term oral historical research in the Mandara Mountains, this article traces the ways in which memories of slavery have been preserved in songs which are usually not part of the more formal oral historical narratives. It historicizes this process by focusing on the selective memories of different generations as well as on the influence of colonial and post-colonial politics, particularly post-1990 democratic politics in Cameroon. The major change over time is the shift from the shameful memory of slavery to be repressed – or treated only obliquely – to its public claim as a political resource after the democratic transition of the 1990s. In retelling the history of being sold as slaves, the residents of the Mandara Mountains reversed the negative meaning of slavery to use it to celebrate their resistance to Islam and to voice political claims. This new narrative congeals around being kirdi, a new regional and trans-religious identity claimed by Christians and pagans in the mountains.

Type
Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 5 , December 2020 , pp. 1181 - 1203
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Martin A. Klein for graciously translating this article from French into English, and for reading and criticizing both the earlier and the amended version. My analysis also drew on multiple discussions with Paul E. Lovejoy and Muriel Gomez-Perez to whom I would like to express my gratitude. I would finally like to thank the anonymous referees and the editors for their insightful comments.

References

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22 Klein, ‘Studying the history’, p. 207.

23 Abductions for slavery in the mountains probably continued into the 1940s. See, for example, MacEachern, ‘Enslavement and everyday life’, p. 113.

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44 Ibid., p. 207.

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46 The Author, 2015.

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55 Ibid.

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58 Alawadi Zelao, ‘Autorités traditionnelles et désir d'hégémonie dans le champ politique au Nord-Cameroun’, Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 17 (2017), pp. 355–76, at p. 359.

59 Müller-Kosack, The way of the beer.

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62 Other researchers have shown elsewhere in Africa that sexual exploitation has remained an essential feature of slavery, both in its archaic and contemporary forms. See, for example, Campbell and Elbourne, eds., Sex, power; Robertson and Klein, eds., Women and slavery in Africa.

63 Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage’, p. 245.

64 Quoted in van Santen, ‘Islam and urbanization’, p. 406.

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70 MacEachern, ‘Enslavement and everyday life’, p. 113.

71 Müller-Kossack, The way of beer, p. 44.

72 Ibid.

73 See, for example, Capitaine Panon, ‘Rapport de Juin 1917 de la Circonscription de Maroua’, Maroua, Archives Nationales de Yaoundé (ANY), APA 11787/0; Capitaine Petit, ‘Rapport de Tournée du 20 Février 1927 effectuée dans la Partie Nord des Monts Mandara de Maroua à Mora, Maroua’, ANY, APA 12033; Capitaine Vallin, ‘Rapport d'une Tournée Effectuée du 15 au 26 Juin 1927, Yaoundé’, ANY, APA 11893/D; Capitaine Remire, ‘Rapport d'une Tournée Effectuée du 11 au 17 Février 1929, Yaoundé’, ANY, APA 11832/J.

74 Sous-Lieutenant Mahoux, ‘Rapport de l'Opération de Police Menée dans la Partie Nord des Monts Mandara, Mai 1918, Yaoundé’, ANY, APA 12037.

75 ‘La plaie du pays est toujours les Kirdis qui se livrent au vol et au pillage presque sûrs de l'impunité. Un isolé ne peut voyager dans le pays sans être tué ou dépouillé. Ils se croient toujours les rois de leurs montagnes. Ils sont restés trop longtemps inconnus de nous et les chefs de subdivision n'ont pas toujours eu les moyens de réprimer leurs forfaits.’ Capitaine Remire, ‘Rapport d'une Tournée Effectuée du 11 au 17 Février 1929, 17 Février 1929, Yaoundé’, ANY, APA 11832/J.

76 Chétima, ‘Mémoire refoulée’, pp. 310–15.

77 Interview, Ussalaka, Udjila, 2 Mar. 2007.

78 Ibid.

79 This image of the physically weak Fulbe could have been encouraged by the Fulbe themselves for it justified sending their former slaves and other poor to labour levies and to the army. In fact, the Fulbe proved their toughness both in their herding and in warfare. In this sense, it could have been a self-interested myth.

80 Interview, Bedje, Udjila, 18 Mar. 2012.

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99 Pelckmans, ‘Slavery in the city?’, p. 3.

100 Ibid.