King, Elders Connect In Royal Visit To Community
by Al McFarlane and B.P. Ford, Editors Insight News, Minneapolis, MN*

Spike Moss summed it up beautifully. "Your Majesty," he said, addressing H.R.M. King Abumbi II, the Fon of Bafut, "for years I have been teaching our children, telling them, 'You are the sons and daughters of kings and queens!' Sometimes it's hard for them to believe that kingship runs in our veins. In a country that enslaved us, robbed us of our freedom and dignity, stole our labor and our lives, and that continues to try to marginalize our culture and distort our identity, it's hard to keep them believing there is something greater in them than all the negative assaults that come from outside. That negativity breeds self hatred and self destruction. That is why our young men are killing each other."

"I want to thank you for meeting with the elders of our community. Your visit helps us refresh our own sense of purpose, our sense of sovereignty, our duty to the ancestors and to the Creator," Moss said.

Moss and other leaders of civic, cultural and social service institutions met King Abumbi II at a breakfast hosted by Insight News at Sunnyside Café, 1815 Glenwood Avenue, in the heart of North Minneapolis. King Abumbi II is the hereditary leader of the kingdom of Bafut, which is a region in the northwest of the nation of Cameroon, in central Africa. Abumbi II is the 11th Fon, which means king, to rule the kingdom. His first visit to the United States, the Fon said his mission was to meet with Cameroonians in general and in particular, his subjects from the Fondom of Bafut, who now live in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston and Twin Cities. He returned to Cameroon Sunday, Aug, 26th, after completing a three week tour of the U.S.

While in Twin Cities, the Fon received a formal welcome by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and officials of Minneapolis Institute of Art, where his delegation was given a tour of the MIA's extensive African Art collection. Rybak also gave the royal visitor a tour of the I-35W bridge disaster and recovery area and operations.

The meeting with Elders of the Black community was a special highlight for the Fon, his spokesperson said.

Minneapolis Urban League President, Clarence Hightower asked Abumbi II how he came to be king.

Fon Abumbi II said his being named king to succeed his father, Achirimbi II, the tenth king or Fon of Bafut who ruled over the town of Bafut and adjoining areas (the Fondom of Bafut). Achirimbi II ruled from 1932 to 1968, and was preceded by Abumbi I and succeeded by Abumbi II.

The Fon said his society is polygamous, and that as the leader of the nation, he is also the leading polygamist. While he has some 25 wives, he said his father had hundreds of wives and his grandfather had more than a thousand wives. The idea behind polygamy in his society, he said, was the belief that every man and every woman should be married. Since there were more women than men, polygamous marriages enabled the society to achieve the goal of nearly 100 percent marriage among its population. He said divorce was uncommon.

In response to Hightower's question, Abumbi II said he was the choice of his father and his father's advisors, and beyond that, he was the choice of the Spirit. He said his culture practiced ancestor worship and that as Fon, he was the principal intermediary between the living and the dead.

He said he was the 400th son of his father. All of the sons were elegible for selection to succeed the father as king. He said his selection therefore, reflected the will and guidance of the ancestors the Spirit.

His father, Fon Achirimbi II is famous for having remarked about the choice to join independent Cameroon or independent Nigeria from the British Cameroons in 1961. Achrimbi II called it a choice between the "Fire and the Deep Sea".

He was considered by many as being progressive and willing to experiment with new ideas. He was treated with respect by both colonial administrators and nationalist politicians, according to internet information resource, Wikepedia.

The Germans tried to put a puppet ruler in place of the Fon after the Bafut Wars at the turn of the century, but failed. The Fon Abumbi I was openly hostile to the Germans, and diplomacy was not pursued.

The idea of decentralized governance by local people was put into practice in July 1917 in the British Cameroon when the District officer inaugurated an 'Instructional Court' in Bamenda. This was an assembly of chiefs from surrounding communities who were summoned to be instructed in the new native court ordinance and to go on to form the new courts. The membership of the court consisted of 27 chiefs with the Fon of Bafut Abumbi I appointed as president due to his role as the "supreme fon," Wikepedia reports.

Bafut is one of the two regions in Cameroon (the other being Bali, Cameroon), where traditional power structures are still in place. The Fon of Bafut also holds several important administrative positions including that of the head of the North West Fons' Union (NOWEFU), and member of the Management Board of the North-West Development Authority (MIDENO).

The Fon participates in virtually all the important ceremonies of Bafut. One of the most important ceremonies is the annual dance Abin e Mfor or Dance of the Fon: This annual event, held in December is also known as the Abin Lela, or Dance of the Flutes. Village nobles play traditional flutes and fire guns to mark the proceedings. It is the climactic point of the annual ritual cycle, and is supposed to signify the death and rebirth of the year (i.e. a new year ceremony). The ethnic dance is performed in traditional dress. Luminaries of society (the Fon of Bafut and his advisors) form a spiral in the centre. The general public dances concentric rings around the spiral in a counter-clockwise fashion. Present-day African American ring dance ceremonies probably owe their origins to such ceremonies, Wikipedia said.

Social worker and educator Liz Moore asked the Fon about the philosophy of education in Bafut. The king said his society views education as the primary responsibility of the family, particularly the child's mother and father. He said the schools and teachers are partners, supporting parent in their role as primarily responsible for the education of the child. He said corporeal punishment, administered publicly, in the presence of the child's parents and peers, is a tool to force attention and compliance by students.

"If a child has not arrived at school for two or three days in a row, but instead has gone to town to be with other errant youth, the teacher or headmaster will come to the child's home and tell the parents that the child has not been in school. Punishment to the child, in front of the parents might be a specific number of strikes with a cane," King Abumbi II said.

Himself a lawyer by training, Abumbi II said he owns several schools as well as herding, and agriculture production, and mining enterprises. His palace in Bafut is on a world list of important structures that are endangered. Some 30,000 tourist a year visit the palace, 8,000 from the United States, with almost none of them African Americans," the King said.

Former Minnesota Viking superstar, Carl Eller asked what opportunities there are for commerce between Black Americans and the people of Bafut. Abumbi II said creating the connection was a high priority. He said it should begin with more visits by Cameroonians to the Black community, and, in reciprocity, visits by Black Americans to Bafut, and Cameroon. "When you come to Bafut," the King said, "I will show you the same hospitality you have shown me."

*Published with authorization from Insight News