Gens du pouvoir – gens de la terre. Un point de vue Batié (chefferie bamiléké de l’Ouest-Cameroun)

Kinship Values and the Production of ‘Locality’ in Pre-Colonial Cameroon Grassfields (West Cameroon)

“…Firstly this would be equating women with game and, secondly, it would run counter to the superordinate position of wife-givers over wife-takers expressed in Grassfields kinship. This initial 'exchange' is asymmetrical (Tsékénis 2000(Tsékénis , 2010b. This is important to notice because the subordinate position of the hunter-chief, often obfuscated, rests precisely on this kinship relation.…”

“…23 The associated rituals: The rituals which are highly relevant to the relations between the autochthons and the fon are the rites of enthronization, the biannual ritual cycle and the rites of fertility. In Bangwa and Batié the ritual of enthronization points out to the superordinate position of the 'Nine' and the heads of the autochthonous lineages, who are literally said to be the 'king makers' (Adler 1982), and conversely had the power to depose or even kill (un-make) him (Pradelles de Latour 1996: 176-183;Tsékénis 2010b;also Tardits 1965: 181 for the Bamoun kingdom). 24 The majority of the Grassfields polities performed (and some of them still perform) collective initiation rites that lasted two years.…”