Njoya

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Njoya, King of Bamum

Njoya , or more rarely: Njoja , Njoya Ibrahim († 1933 ) was from 1894 to 1933 Sultan of the Bamum Kingdom of the Bamum people in the west of today's Cameroon .

Life

After the death of his father Nsangou in 1885, his uncle Nzi Monkuob first seized the throne, which Njoya was ultimately able to overthrow through an alliance with the Fulbe . Nzi Monkuob was still allowed to act as royal advisor.

King Njoya receives an oil painting with the portrait of Emperor Wilhelm as a gift.

Since the German colonizers pushed deeper inland after taking possession of Cameroon , the young King Njoya developed a strong interest in the culture of the new “ motherland ”. He welcomed the Germans with great celebrations in his royal seat of Foumban , which soon earned him the title of official governor of the German governorate.

King Njoya endeavored throughout his life to maintain a good relationship with the German Empire, which he also underlined in 1908. On the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II , he had presented the governor in Buea with his throne as a gift for the monarch. He was very pleased with Njoya's favor and made it possible for Felix von Luschan , director of the Berlin Museum of Ethnology, to exhibit the African royal throne, which had been adorned with colored pearls with the greatest skill. The throne can still be seen in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin today.

King Njoya on his Pearl Throne (January 1912)

In return, Wilhelm II sent for his ". Royal brother ," as he put it, a German Cuirassier - uniform of the Imperial Guard . Like an oil painting by Wilhelm II, the uniform is exhibited today in the Palace Museum in Foumban.

Njoya was convinced that German and Bamun culture can be reconciled. In cooperation with the German administration, he had schools built where the Bamun children could expand their knowledge of their mother tongue and also learn the Bamun script introduced by Njoya , but also pass on basic knowledge of the German language . The technology of the Germans also found its way into food processing, which illustrates the introduction of a hand-operated, mechanical grain mill.

In 1917, King Njoya had the old, traditional wooden palace torn down and a new residence built in Prussian brick style in its place .

A year earlier, the French occupying power had taken control of German Cameroon , which meant that the Kingdom of Bamun completely lost its partial autonomy. Since Njoya resided in Foumban until 1931 despite his formal deposition by France, he de facto retained the role of king until then. But that is why he was exiled to Yaoundé that same year , where he died in 1933 at the age of 66. He was succeeded by Seidu Njimoluh Njoya .

Because of his great services to the Bamun, he is still very much admired by his people today.

See also

swell

  • Anna Oehler: The Negro king Ndschoya . Basler Mission Bookshop, Basel 1913.

Literature (selection)

  • Patrice Nganang: The Sultan's Shadow. Novel. Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 2012. ISBN 978-3-7795-0415-3 .
  • Christraud M. Geary, Adamou Ndam Njoya: Mandu Yenu. Pictures from Bamum, a West African kingdom. 1902-1915. Trickster-Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-923804-08-3 .
  • Eugène Désiré Eloundou, Arouna Ngapna: Un souverain bamoun en exil. Le roi Njoya Ibrahima à Yaoundé, 1931-1933. L'Harmattan, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-296-54594-6 .
  • Denys Ferrando-Durfort, text, Bernard Johner, illustrations: Njoya, the Reformer . EdiSavana, Yaounde, Cameroon, ISBN 2-7027-0404-2 .
  • Christraud M. Geary: The Voyage of King Njoya's Gift: A Beaded sculpture from the Bamun Kingdom, Cameroon, in the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution . University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington, USA 1994, ISBN 0-295-97428-1 .
  • Alexandra Loumpet-Galitzine: Njoya et le royaume bamoun. The archives of the Société des missions évangéliques de Paris . 1917-1937 . Texts selected and annotated by the author. Èditions Karthala, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-84586-786-7 .
  • Adamou Ndam Njoya: Njoya. Reformateur du royaume bamoun. Éditions ABC, Paris 1978, ISBN 2-85809-101-3 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Günter Bernhardt: The distance in view - Westphalian-Lippe collections on photography from mission and colonies . Published by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-927204-65-X , p. 146.
  2. ^ A b Joachim Zeller: Works of art from German colonies in the Ethnological Museum. In: Joachim Zeller, Ulrich Van der Heyden: Colonial metropolis Berlin - A search for traces. Berlin-Edition, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8148-0092-3 , pp. 281ff.
  3. ↑ John Iliffe : History of Africa. 2nd Edition. Verlag CH Beck, 2003, ISBN 3-406-46309-6 , p. 301.
  4. ↑ A King's Great Achievement. In: Awake! December 2007, pp. 26-27.
predecessor Office successor
Nsangou Fon of the Kingdom of Bamum
1894 to 1933 		Seidu Njimoluh Njoya

Web links

Commons : Njoya  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Njoya
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Njoja; Njoya Ibrahim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Bamoun
DATE OF BIRTH 19th century
DATE OF DEATH 1933
Place of death Yaoundé , Cameroon