Taurins du Cameroun, une extinction annoncée ?

Beyond Ethnic Boundaries: Architectural Practices and Social Identity in the Mandara Highlands, Cameroon

“…Marriage is unconditionally virilocal, the bride leaving the village of her parents on her first marriage, or those of her previous husbands on subsequent marriages (Van Beek 1986). Polygamy is the main feature of the household, with co-wives living in the same compound, each having her own hut, kitchen and granaries (Chétima 2016; Van Beek; Seignobos 1982).…”

“…In considering this story, we see that this dichotomy is associated with common architectural practices among mountain groups which distinguish them from the people of the plain. Indeed, mountain houses are certainly different from those of the Wandala, but each ethnic group has its own model of construction (Chétima 2010, 42; Seignobos 1982, 35). However, ethnic models are dismissed in order to highlight common architectural features, so as to mark the difference from the Wandala people of the plain.…”

“…The first differentiating factor highlighted is undoubtedly the stone: ‘A Montagnard looking disdainfully at a stone house is probably about to become a Wandala’, speculates our Muketle informant Tekuslem. In all ethnic groups, the stone is identified as the foundation of ‘ montagnard identity’, and is the most representative material of construction (Seignobos 1982, 32). Some groups use it in the raw state, other break up boulders with fire and tumbled stones.…”

“…The Mandara highlands are a region that extend on both sides of the Nigeria–Cameroon border from the Benue-Kebbi valley north to the Zelidva hills, some 130 km south of Lake Chad (David 2012b; see also Figure 1). They are so called because of the presence of a people—the Mandara or Wandala—who settled on the plains around the northern end of the mountain chain, and who formed the kingdom of Wandala (Seignobos 1982, 22; Vincent 1991, 31). But the Mandara Mountains themselves are occupied by small-scale societies ranging in complexity from egalitarian villages to petty chiefdoms, and which practice local religions (David & Robertson 2012, 171).…”

You are where you build: Hierarchy, Inequality, and Equalitarianism in Mandara Highland Architecture

“…From the guided tour of Slagama’s compound emerge two main architectural features that highlight the reputation of a house and its owner: the number of the structures that make up the wives’ domains, and the position of the compound on high ground. Several researchers who have worked in the Mandara Mountains have already underlined the role of the first aspect in individual social success (Chétima 2016; Lyons 1992; Hallaire 1991; Vincent 1991; Beek 1988; Seignobos 1982). By contrast, apart from the works of Diane Lyons (1996, 1992), no studies have examined the effects of the low versus high altitude placement of houses on the domestic space and identity formation.…”