GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING: ADAMAOUA

Figure 4.1: The chefferie in Galim. Entrance facing the plaza.

Figure 4.2: The Lamidos of Galim. Mural in His Majesty Hayatou’s private garden.

It is difficult to estimate the size of the Nizaa population, at least until the results from the census in 2005 are ready. The number 10 000, based on the census in 1987, is often cited, but they are probably more numerous today, nearly 20 years later. All the villages have grown, but not exclusively Nizaa have swelled their ranks, other people also have come to live there. Still, if I should venture a guess, I think that 15 000 will be closer to the truth.

Environment

The Adamawa³ plateau is a vast highland plateau stretching across the border from Nigeria and right across Cameroon to the border of the Central African Republique. The mean elevation of much of the Cameroonian part of this area is about 1100 m. The mountain ranges of the Cameroonian dorsal rise up from the highlands in a line stretching from the South-West province through the high plateaus of the North-West and crossing over onto the Adamawa plateau. One of the highest areas is the Tchabal Mbabo massive which lies within the Nizaa area to the North-West. It is a large grassy tableland⁴with a high point of 2460m.

North and westwards it dips rather abruptly down to the plains of Dodeo and Mayo Baleo, core area of the Pere people. These plains continue northwards into the great Benue basin which adjoins most of the northward side of the Adamaoua plateau and continues westward into Nigeria. South and east the Tchabal Mbabo slopes down to the general altitudes of the Adamawa plateau: the village of Wogomdou in the foothills of the high plateau is situated at about 1300 m, while Galim lies at an altitude of just over 1000 m.

The Tchabal Mbabo is aptly called the ’water-tower’ of Cameroon. Several rivers originate in the Tchabal Mbabo massive and an important watershed lies within the Galim area. The Faro river (locally called Paro) belongs to the Niger river basin. It crosses the plateau northwards, joining other rivers and flowing north along the border with Nigeria, before it meets the great Benue river further north. Finally its waters flow into in the Niger flood and reach the sea in Nigeria.

The Meng, on the other hand, belongs to the Atlantic basin. Locally named first Mayo Garbaya, then Mayo Beli, it flows southwards and reaches the sea south of Douala, by way of the Djerem river flowing into the Sanaga. The river Mbam also flows southwards from the Western Mbabo massive, and drains into the Sanaga south of its conjunction with the Djerem.

unlikely, though not definitively ruled out.

3I am here adopting the somewhat established usage of using Adamawa of the larger historical and geographical entity, andAdamaouaof the smaller adminstrative entity of Cameroon (Boutrais 1993a).

4The fulfulde wordcaááal means ‘high grasslands, good pastures’(Boutrais 1995-96, vol.1, p.5-8)

4.1. GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING: ADAMAOUA

Figure 4.3: Provinces and departments of Cameroon

The whole Galim-Tignère subdivision is marked by the many criss-crossing rivers and valleys coming down from the heights of Mbabo. The terrain is convoluted, each larger valley having a host of smaller vales descending into it with tributaries to its river. In contrast to the treeless heights of above 1300 m, most of the area is of the bush savanna vegetation type: fairly open vegetation of bushes and small trees, with denser forestation along the water courses. The rivers are severe obstacles to travelling in rainy season, unless roads with proper bridges are built, and may even so create problems by washing out the bridges or breaking them.

The Nizaa now have their fields mainly on the meadows along the rivers, using the fertile ground here. The gallery forests adjoining the water courses are often cut down as well, to obtain new spaces for agriculture. Before the Fuláe disturbances of the nineteenth century, the Nizaa lived also on the high plateaus of Mbabo, and Hoosere Djinga near Tignère. It is their ancient cultivation of African finger millet (petit mil) and theColeustuber (in Nizaagwàà ) on these mountain prairies which cleared away the shrubbery and created the grasslands later exploited by nomadic Fuláe as pastures (Boutrais 1995-96, 1107). The grassgrown highlands are now left to them and their cattle drifts in a fairly unique arrangement of tiered exploitation (Boutrais 1993a).

During the last 200 years, both agriculture and cattle raising have profoundly shaped both the environment and the local way of life (Boutrais 1993a). The wild fauna have slowly retreated before the pressure of cattle breeding. Lions and other large predators are more or less extinct, elephants and buffalos are gone. Some kinds of antilopes are much hunted and probably dwindling, while warthogs and monkeys have proliferated. The warthogs are not allowed as food for moslems, and thus less ardently hunted by the newly Islamised nizaa. This is part of the problem of tse-tse-fly infestations, because these insects have warthogs as hosts (Boutrais 1995-96, p. 1144-1146). The trypanosomiasis disease have consequently been very difficult to eradicate on the Adamoua plateau lands, earlier praised as a very healthy area for cattle.