03/01/2024
The Great Njoya.

By Regan Yuh
Ibrahim Njoya is a name that could soon be eroded by history if not mentioned once so often.
A visionary, inventor, scholar, philosopher, writer, artist/sculptor, architect, traveler,cartographer and politician ahead of his time.
Born in 1879 in the kingdom of Fumban In West Africa, Njoya became king at 11, after the death of his father in battle. During his reign, he avoided the warring ways of his predecessors and transformed his kingdom into a world heritage site.
Seeing German colonizers advance into his part of Africa during the scramble, Ibrahim Njoya used a philosophy of pacifism. He adapted a friendly attitude, and adapted from them, what he could use for the benefit of his own kingdom. The Germans named their newly carved territory kameroun, but acknowledged the autonomy of the Fumban kingdom after Ibrahim Njoya sent his personally sculpted and exquisitely decorated throne as a gift to Berlin for Kaiser Wilhelms II’s birthday . The Kaiser was touched, called him his “Royal Brother”. Ibrahim also befriended the then German colonial governor Jesko Von Puttkama, who was impressed his intellect The friendship between the German colonial governor and the Foumban King is said to have been so close that the king gave one of his many wives, a virgin maiden (Njoya himself had over 100 wives and 134 children, a tradition he inherited from his predecessors) to the Governor whom he later had child with. This probably prompted Puttkama to keep going back to Kameroun, where he managed to become Colonial governor for six terms. It was during his tenures that the Fumban kingdom flourished.
Ibrahim Njoya recognized maps were tools for colonial powers, and he co-opted this power to represent his kingdom in an indigenous way. He personally surveyed his territory an drew a map in the early 20 century, which showed villages, mountains, and river borders of the ancient Bamoun kingdom, a relic which is currently in the library of Congress Geography and Maps Division. He then developed his kingdom into a sophisticated society where he promoted his philosophy of ‘Njoyaism’ which blended the Muslim and Christian religions together with African traditions. Njoya set up schools where children were educated in the Bamum and German cultures. They learned to read and write in an alphabet of about 80 characters invented by Ibrahim Njoya. It was known as ‘A-ka-u-ku’ after its first four letters. He used this alphabet to write the history of the customs of the Bamoum people which was primarily by oral transmission .He also wrote 15 books ( including romance novels), and an encyclopedia about traditional pharmacopoeia.
Ibrahim Njoya was not only a widely respected art connoisseur, he was also a sculptor and architect, who transformed Foumban into a city that became the epicenter of African art and culture, attracting art dealers across the globe. He invented a machine to grind corn which became a blueprint for subsequent models and drove the mass production of corn flour. His most impressive work is a state of the art kings castle he designed and constructed which baffled German ethnographers who thought Njoya must’ve copied the building style of the Europeans, but the prominent indigenous elements that defined the structure such as encircling verandahs, deep eaves, carved wood posts, raffia palm form-works, and laterite clay bricks, all had the fingerprints of Njoya’s architectural genius. This spectacular display of African architecture has now become part of UNESCO World Heritage.
Ibrahim Njoya’s smooth reign for 49 years, came to an end after the First World War. The French who took control of the territory after the defeat of the Germans, did not extend friendship to the king who was viewed as a German sympathizer. He was exiled from his Fumban kingdom to Yaounde where he died in 1933, and so was his vision for an African society which is innovative in its own right with traditional elements, and not overwhelmingly influenced by western imperialism.
