Article By Jean Fils:

I think the observation that we should not make a rush of things is sound. The options we have ahead is seeing the forest from far away before the individual trees when we come nearer or being in the forest and seeing the tree in front of us before the other trees that makeup the forest. In this regard, we could concentrate on knowing our history where we are before stretching to all the history that brought us to our present location.

As we deal with our present history and move to our distant history, let us ease our understanding by making use of knowledge from elsewhere, including even the Bible on how people grow from family to even tribe. Jacob’s 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel with intra tribe and inter tribe marriages. The descendants of Bomsah became independent villages with intra and inter village marriages. Could they have moved away from Mbirbo having each given birth to whole villages? Parties move, run into other parties that eventually move with them or have some of their own stay behind with the parties they met. Not all the Noni people moved away from Tabeken when the Witang arrived. In front of our eyes immediate families grow to split bride prices and with time become other social units with marriages between them. In Talla, the children of Ndichangong grew from being nucleated Bondi to become the Bondi of Bongala, Bongeh, Bobudi, etc with extensions in Tabeken, Binka, the remnant left at Mbajeng, etc. Our today descended from our yesterday is not as cut dry and clear as we would have wished.

There must be something that brought the separated parties together on the Nkambe Plateau (a latter name given to the plateau). We can speculate about the brotherhood between them without unnecessary exaggeration. The distance from Fuh to Mbirbo is about same or longer than the distance from the Talla Fon’s palace to Njirbo or to the present Mbot Fon’s palace. What could have made the Wiwarr uncomfortable with the Wiya palace at Fuh but later were comfortable with the Witang palace in Talla? The land directly under the Fonship of the Fon of Ndu as Wiya Clan Head stretches from Njiforr with boumdry with Tatum to Fuh through Jirt and Mbah, then to Mbongong, Ntamru with borders with Nwa at Tudih, etc. A neglected fact is that Mbot, Talla Ndu as seats of Njepwarr, Njeptang and Njepya all fit into each other perfectly as pieces of a puzzle on the small plain called Mbareh by the people of Talla, Njireh by the people of Lower Mbot and Njireh by the people of Ngojirt, Ndu. The Clan Heads can meet on this plain at a point with each standing on his land and have a conversation. Driving from Ndu through Talla and Mbot on the way to Nkambe one is tempted to think that there is much distance between the Clan Heads until one goes to the Mareh or Njireh plain to see how close they are to each other.

We need not be dishonest to history by claiming that the clans have had no differences between them. Mbot and Talla owe each other Bfu-Bfu visits because of a boundary dispute between them  in our lifetime in which property was destroyed and people were wounded. The Mbot objection to a road linking Talla and Tabeken happened after the Talla people had completed construction from their end and were getting into Mbot land to link up at the junction leading to Tabeken from the Ring-Road. There are people living in Mbot and Talla who were witnesses to this. People still living in Ndu, Mbipgo and Wowo can attest to the misguided conflict that happened between Ndu on the one hand, and  Mbipgo and Wowo on the other. The British have the USA as their security trump card notwithstanding that the USA fought a bitter war to free itself from Britain.

The Fulani baffled by their defeat in the Binka Hill Battle had reason to suspect Fon Rambo of Ndu for betraying their plans to his Witang and Wiwarr brothers. The Fon might have been taken into captivity in Banyong for something he did not do. The Fulani did not see him as a Bakweri man who betrayed them to the Mbum people. From Mbiyeh to Mbot is no great distance. Why did the Wiya and the Witang have a council at Mbiyeh while the Wiwarr had theirs at Mbot  opposite the Mbot Fon’s palace? Disagreemens and conflicts are possible between brothers of the womb. We gain nothing pretending that our brotherhood has been conflict free.

Returning to Ta John Shei’s question stringed here, we much more often use the appellation of “Wi” instead of “Bi”. With regards to the clans, “Njep” and “Wi” are more in common use. Professor Tarla Ngarka sees the Mbum much more as a confederation rather than a tribe. In that confederation are clearly by migration to the Nkambe plateau, the Witang, the Wiwarr and the Wiya; otherwise called the Njeptang, the Njepwarr and the Njepya.

As earlier noted in the growth of the family, the Witang migrated alongside the Winyarr of Mbipgo, Wowo and Lassin. The two shared the tragedy of crossing the flooded River Kofata in the dark. Given that tragedy the two (Witang and Winyarr) share the stripped mouse (muchee) as a totem.

Something happened at Mbajeng causing the two to part ways after Mbajeng. The Lassin crossed the River Mbi to settle on the other side while Mbipgo and Wowo settled at their present sites away from the rest of the Witang who moved on together before developing into the different Njeptang villages.

The territorial expansion ambition of the Wiya proper notwithstanding, the Winyarr of Mbipgo and Wowo were welcome to stay next to and within them. More by understanding than conquest the Wiya who unlike the Witang and the Wiwarr were not into graduating family units into Fondoms, ended up with a Wiya confederation within the Mbum confederation.

Other than the Winyarr as others in the Wiya confederation, are other Mbum groups, including the Wingang (Njimnkang and Sehn) and the Wingu (Ngu, Njillah and Ngulu). The Winyarr, the Wingang and the Wingu noted here are not the same as saying Witalla, Wichup, Wiluh, etc. It is still to answered what stops them from being called Njepnyarr, Njepngang and Njepngu.

By Jean Fils