Nso people
The Nso’ people migrated from Tikari in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon when there was a bloody succession after the death of Chief Tinki in 1387.
After parting company with her brothers, Ngonnso’ and her followers first settled in Mbo’nso’, then later to Ndzennso’, Kovifem, Taavisa (for security), back to Koovifem, then to Kimbo (Kumbo).
He is both the head of the traditional government and the chief religious authority in charge of keeping the ancestors happy.
His power is kept in check by regulatory groups such as the "Ngwerong" (also "Nwerong") which is in effect the security arm of the government and enforces decisions taken by the Fon.
The princes are called Wontho and regularly meet in the presence of the Fon to discuss family matters.
Most of them were once leaders of independent tribes that through warfare or peaceful negotiations, or through share events of history, came to subordinate the Fon of Nso.
These, inexhaustively, include the Fons of Oku, Mbiami, Nseh, Nkar, Gwan, Kiluun, Ngashong, Nshokov, Gwarkang, Taabah, etc.
[citation needed] As a result of the Berlin Conference Cameroon became part of the German Empire in 1884[2] Indirect contact took place in the fifteenth century when the Portuguese arrived at the northern coast of present-day Cameroon, but the German explorer Dr Eugen Zintgraff made the first direct European contact with the Bafut in April 1889.
The first contact involved eight to ten Europeans of the expeditionary force of Lt Col Von Pavel from January 1901 to 1902.
It was reported that this new group severely beat a man and left him for dead, and also hit a lineage elderly[clarification needed] with the butt of a gun.
Once the defeated Nso surrendered to the Germans, part of the terms were to supply indigenous labor for coastal work and to build roads for their new government elites.
[4] A new system of taxation, administration, and labor was imposed upon the Nso people by the imperialists, first the Germans and then the British.
[6] On the surface it may appear that the hybrid of parliamentary-style government and the traditional fon structure was done to pay homage to the foundation upon which the current republic is forged, but it was done to implement a new type of indirect rule.
While there are three classifications of chiefs, each class serves as a function of the larger state and turning fons into clients.
This keeps the local people happy by maintaining their traditional systems while at the same time undermining the fon by not giving him true autonomy.
[2] The book discusses the struggle over power that existed in the Nso chiefdom and the colonial / post-colonial state amongst the sexes through a socio-historic lens for deeper analysis.
The men of each village were given the rights to use the lands upon which their families (primarily the wives) farmed, either by the fon or inheritance.
This is clearly indicated by the fact that the parcels of land may belong to the men but the women are the ones who control the crop yielding through the input of their labor.
While taking a look at the resistance of women to traditional patterns of marriage Goheen tosses a question on whether this changes the equilibrium of power between two sexes.
It also questions whether this resistance may lead to a new class of elites as it is only the better-educated women from families with wealth that can change power and labor dynamics in a household.
According to Gramsci, "hegemony is the ways in which a governing power wins consent from those it subjugates; it is carried in cultural, political, and economic forms, in non-discursive as well as in theoretical utterances" (Goheen 1996:12).
Besides, the Nso women think it is their responsibility to take care of the food supplies of their households and they find great pride and strength in doing it.
