Retainers and Royal Households in the Cameroons Grassfields

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Retainers and Royal Households in the Cameroons Grassfields
Author:	Kaberry, Phyllis M.
Year:	1962
Periodical:	Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:	3
Issue:	10
Pages:	282-298
Language:	English
Geographic term:	British Cameroons
Subjects:	traditional polities Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1962.3704
Abstract:	In the Bamenda Grassfields of West Cameroon the problem of staffing the palace and the households of the great and the execution of tasks originating from these is resolved by various systems of recruitment which can be clearly distingguished from feudovassalage and political clientship. A distinctive feature of these kingdoms is the recruitment in boyhood of palac retainers by a closed regulatory society (ngwerong, kwifon, nggumba, ngwose, etc.). This article is a discussion of retainerdom and involves a limited comparative study of the servicing of royal households and, at the same time, an analysis of the balance of authority and power in the Bamenda kingdoms. Notes.