Bamum, a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the help of his queen mother (na).
The first mfon, Nchare, and his followers are believed to have come from the territory of the neighbouring Tikar people early in the 18th century. Settling among the Bamileke people and among other Tikar, Nchare proclaimed himself king and established his palace at Foumban. The 11th mfon, Mbuembue, was the first to enlarge the kingdom, and, following an attack by the Fulani in the early 19th century, he fortified Foumban with a surrounding wall and ditch.
The 16th mfon, Njoya (reigned c. 1895–1923), became the most celebrated of all the Bamum kings. Familiar with writing in Arabic script from his contact with the Fulani and Hausa peoples, Njoya in about 1895 invented a system of writing with 510 pictographic characters. This he revised six times, the seventh system being a syllabary of 83 characters plus 10 numerals. With the help of his scribes Njoya prepared a book on the history and customs of the Bamum, which has been published in a French translation. He also had made a map of his country, a religious book, and a book on medicine and local pharmacopoeia. In 1912 he established the first of 47 schools to teach the Bamum reading and writing in his sixth script, and in 1913 he commissioned a member of his court to prepare a printing press using it. In 1920, annoyed by his troubles with the French colonial administration that was to depose him in 1923, Njoya destroyed the type, which had been cast by the lost-wax method, and closed his schools. Njoya was converted to Islām in 1918, and it is estimated that more than half of the Bamum have become Muslims.
Njoya built a beautiful new palace, established what was in effect a museum, and was a patron of beadworkers, brass casters, weavers, dyers, and other craftsmen. His palace contained 300 looms and six dye pits with different colours, some of the dyes for which Njoya himself discovered. The arts flourished under his royal patronage.
The Bamum are noted craftsmen. The men do embroidery, weaving, leatherwork, wood carving, ivory carving, metalwork, and blacksmithing, and the women make pottery. Both men and women cultivate the land. The Bamum are sedentary farmers who do some fishing but little hunting. Their principal crops are corn (maize), millet, cassava, and sweet potatoes.
They believe in a supreme god who creates children, and they practice ancestor worship. Bamum doctors practice divination by interpreting the earth spider’s manipulation of marked leaves.