Les fondements de la chronologie chez les Bamum du Grassland camerounais

Abstract

The founding date of the Bamum kingdom is controversial. Some “Bamumists” argue that this kingdom would have been born in the seventeenth century, contrary to the view of Sultan Njoya which was intended in the fourteenth century and more precisely in 1394. The question is to know the mystery operated by sultan Njoya to consider 1394 as the date of birth of the Bamum Kingdom, because at that particular time, the Bamum could neither read nor write. Our concern is not simply to reconstruct the history of Bamum people but to show how some elements of this centuries-old culture have helped to establish their chronology.