War Technology, Mystical Powers and Dialogue as the Restoration of Ethnic Unity in Bafut-Cameroon

This paper sets out to examine the strategies used by stakeholders to sustain the unity of the heterogeneous Bafut Fondom of Mezam Division, North West Region of Cameroon. The paper argues that the attainment and sustenance of unity was never accidental. Varied strategies worked in synergy to produce relative peace and unity. For instance, inherent technological prowess manifested itself in the production of war weaponry in the form of spears, bows and arrows, machetes and knives. This indigenous ingenuity was complimented by a formidable and skillful man power that was superbly organised into specialized warrior institutions such as La’ale, Nda-Adanghawa, Ndanjem and Ndalee, Ndamukong, Nda Ngwarenwi, Nda-Nkwa’a, Ndangoh that handled specific aspects of warrior life in the Bafut Fondom. With the advantage of primary and secondary sources, the findings revealed that, the use of mystical powers to fight, ward off any ambition from the tributary villages to breakaway or retaliate punitive attacks. It was the interplay of these varied strategies that informed the near absence of any major physical combat thereby creating a conducive, atmosphere for harnessing the culture of peaceful co-existence. Notwithstanding, the zero-sum identity preservation and inter-ethnic interactions remain elusive as disorder in different forms continued to assume smoldering proportions.

KeyWords: War Technology, Dialogue, Mystical Powers, Ethnicity, Bafut Fondom Mezam Cameroon.