Early survey discussion of these topics may be found in Ardener 1956[2] and Dugast 1949[3] Portuguese traders reached the Cameroonian coast in 1472.

In 1891, the Gbea Bakweri clan rose up in support of their traditional justice system when the Germans forbade them to use a trial by ordeal involving poison to determine whether a recent Christian convert was in fact a witch.

The Germans initially ruled from Douala, which they called Kamerunstadt, but they moved their capital to the Bakweri settlement of Buea in 1901.

The Bakweri were impressed to work them, but their recalcitrance and small population led the colonials to encourage peoples from further inland, such as the Bamileke, to move to the coast.

In addition, constant shipping traffic along the coast allowed individuals to move from one plantation or town to another in search of work.

Great Britain integrated its portion of Cameroon with the neighbouring colony of Nigeria, setting the new province's capital at Buea.

The British practised a policy of indirect rule, entrusting greater powers to Bakweri chiefs in Buea.

[6] Individuals could opt to pay a fine to avoid the labour, however, which led to a dearth of workers from the wealthier areas.

They live in over 100 villages[4] east and southeast of Mount Cameroon with Buea their main population centre.

The rural Bakweri, in contrast, work as farmers, making use of Mount Cameroon's fertile volcanic soils to cultivate cocoyams, maize, manioc, oil palms, and plantains.

Chiefs and headmen sat at the pinnacle of this hierarchy in the past, though today such figures have very little power in their own right.

Neighbouring peoples often utilise Mokpwe as a trade language, due largely to the spread of the tongue by early missionaries.

The Ngondo is a traditional festival of the Duala, although today all of Cameroon's coastal Sawa peoples are invited to participate.

Assemblies, secret societies, and other groups play an important role in keeping the Bakweri unified, helping them set goals, and giving them a venue to find solutions to common problems.