The Balondo-ba-Konja (pure Balondo) are a central West-African people whose civilization is situated along the southwest maritime coast of Cameroon.
Their origins can be traced back to the early civilization along the banks of the Nyanga and Luapula rivers in the modern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Wilhelm Bleek, a German linguist, used the term Bâ-ntu or Bantu, meaning people or humans, to classify and group people with linguistic and cultural similarities in his 1862 publication of A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages.
[5][6] The Balondo society comprises families and people living together in a close community structure.
The communities are matriarchal, which means they are matrilineal, and inheritance is traced to the mother's side, which is called Nwana a Timbaka O Mbusa Nyange in their language.
[7] Societal issues are dealt with and arbitrated by a committee of elderly men and women called Batina-ba-Moki.
The purpose of the festival is to cleanse the communities of bad luck and make way for good fortune.
It is the Balondo custom where the groom with his kinsmen visit the house of the bride to meet the parents and announce his intention.
They are given heavy meals to make them gain weight as in ancient times being fat was a sign of prosperity, fertility, and beauty.
The development of the Balondo language has played a critical part in the transition from the historical oral tradition to the modern writing down of important local texts, beliefs and stories, and other social, legal, and political documents and correspondence.
[8] According to the World Classification of Languages Ethnologue, Londo is classified with Bantu, Lundu-Balong, Londo-Bananga, Londo-Badiko, and Oroko-West based on speculation.
[9] The young Balondo-ba-konja boys and girls, usually at the age of five years, have to undergo unique body markings.
The markings include tiny cuts on both cheeks of boys and girls, which after healing create impressions on the skin.
Ikumba Muna is a tradition where the groom visits the girl's home to announce his intention in front of her parents.
Other dancing forms include mosembe, amekoko, liyangi, ngomo ya betuli, and rokombe are mostly performed by women.
[7] During the early settlements, pottery, sculpture, jewelry, and body painting were prominent forms of arts in Balondo-ba-Konja society.
Fembe is the practice of using a mixture of crushed white chalk and water to make delicate facial and bodily patterns for girls and women.
They believe in a supreme deity, Ovase Loba, who created them in a pool of water in the Congo known as Morimo.
They believe that their god created Balondo-ba-konja and other humans, animals, plants, land, and water in the Morimo.
The Nigerian neighbors are the Calabar people and Efu-Balondo, ethnic relatives of the Balondo, who live to the east of the Cross River Delta.
[7] The settled Balondo region experiences equatorial climate due to its latitudinal positioning between 4.23 and 4.50 degrees North.
Their economy is now transitioning from self-sufficiency to dependency because of palm oil and cocoa cash crop cultivation.
This event of migration is known as the “first voyage.” The Mouri-Monene, Balondo King, worked closely with the Muli or chiefs in-charge of all fifteen principalities to plan their strategy.
[1][12] The "second voyage" in the year 1149 was forced due to the presence of predatory aquatic animals, including crocodiles and sharks.
These scouts traveled to the present day southwest coast of Cameroon, including the Bakassi peninsula.
The king discouraged the migration, but the pro-migration Balondo refused and safely relocated to the maritime location they discovered in Cameroon.
People of Kumbe fought and recaptured the land and pushed Lobe back to their side of the stream.
[1] When these internal threats were addressed, the Balondo nation found itself trapped in external aggression from Itoki (Bakundu), Bamusso (Bakolle), and the Germans.
The Balondo refused to work in the plantations, so the Germans used Ngolo, Balue, Ngbandi, Bakundu, and Ekombe people who now belong to the Oroko group formed in Kumba in 1973.