The Bamoum, sometimes called Bamum, Bamun, Bamoun, or Mum, are a Grassfields ethnic group of Cameroon with around 215,000 members. Within the Bamum complex there are numerous smaller ethnic groups, which are loosely affiliated with one another and share many historical and political similarities while retaining separate identities.
Located in the mountainous region of western Cameroon, the Bamoun Kingdom has existed since 1394. This Kingdom which has forged its unity since the end of the 14th century (before the arrival of the colonists) occupies more than half (55.34%) of the Western region.
However, the Bamoun Kingdom has preserved all the facets of its ancestral organization, in spite of all the events that shook Cameroon in the XIX Century. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the help of his queen mother (na).
According to history, the first mfon, Nchare, and his followers are believed to have come from the territory of the neighbouring Tikar people early in the 18th century. Settling among the Bamileke people and among other Tikar, Nchare proclaimed himself king and established his palace at Foumban. The 11th mfon, Mbuembue, was the first to enlarge the kingdom, and, following an attack by the Fulani in the early 19th century, he fortified Foumban with a surrounding wall and ditch.
The Bamum are noted craftsmen. The men do embroidery, weaving, leatherwork, wood carving, ivory carving, metalwork, and blacksmithing, and the women make pottery. Both men and women cultivate the land. The Bamum are sedentary farmers who do some fishing but little hunting. Their principal crops are corn (maize), millet, cassava, and sweet potatoes.
Bamum scripts
Known as Njoya’s Alphabet, the Bamum syllabary was created in 1896 by King Ibrahim Njoya of the Bamum. The monarch gathered many manuscripts that told his people’s history, and he utilized his script to create a calendar, preserve records, and create laws. He also assembled a pharmacopoeia. He also established a printing plant and constructed libraries and schools. The script had 465 symbols in its original form, but King Njoya modified it several times until it had 73 syllablic signs and 10 numbers. If needed, tone indications can be added to the signs.
Following the 1919 French occupation of a portion of Cameroon, numerous Bamum script books were burned, printing presses were destroyed, libraries were shut down, and the script was no longer taught in schools. Seidou Njimoluh, the son and successor of Nyoja, gathered these Bamum manuscripts and other items that remained and placed them in his father’s museum when Cameroon gained independence in 1960.
It is worthmentioning that the Shümom, an artificial language invented by Nyoja, is also written in the Bamum script.
The Bamum Scripts and Archives Project was founded at the Bamum Palace with the goal of teaching the Bamum script to youth in order to bring it back to life. The first Bamum computer font was designed and implemented in 2006 by the Bamum Scripts and Archives Project. To achieve this, the Project looked through hundreds of significant texts that were transcriptions in the most popular and contemporary Bamum script variation, called A-ka-u-ku (after its first four characters).
