The Ways of the Mandara Mountains

This is the book of Judy Sterner’s PhD which was directed by Richard Fardon at SOAS in London. It presents the results obtained in the course of a larger and long term research program undertaken by people from University of Calgary, Sterner and Nic David foremost among them. Sterner is refreshingly direct about the dilemmas, problems and the possibilities of undertaking anthropological, archaeological and archival research in an area spanning two nation states (Nigeria and Cameroon) and containing a large number of ethnic groups in a variety of different political and social formations. Some of the montagnard groups famously survived the FulBe razzias and remained un-islamicised until the advent of colonisation. One of the ironies of colonial rule is that it exacerbated the slave taking in some areas where indirect rule meant that FulBe district heads were supported by British and French rifles ... One of the most renowned kingdoms, Sukur, has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site and the existence of monolithic stone-works in picturesque mountains has been a lure for tourists, archaeologists and anthropologists alike. Sterner treads a course between ethno-archaeology and traditional village based studies of British social anthropology. She mainly worked in two contrasting centres but has undertaken work among several of the other groups in the Mandaras. She looks at the contrasting ideas about political centralisation, which is connected to the sacrifice of bulls kept since they were calves in small huts. They see sunlight only on the day they die. Purification brings power – to some but not all religious leaders. Similar variations among the different meaning of male initiation are traced and some of the complex connections between pots, houses, kinship and the transformers – the potters and smiths – are traced.

In the introduction, building on the work of Fardon, she considers the anthropological conundrum of regional analysis and then takes the Mandara Mountains region as a case in point. Her enthusiasm and devotion to the subject show. The book works at several different levels, both as regional synthesis and as a demonstration of how different types of analysis can mutually reinforce and illuminate.