Abumbi II, the 11th fon, or king, of Bafut, Cameroon, has
close to 100 wives. They weren’t all his to start with. According to local
tradition, when a fon dies, his successor inherits all his wives and then
marries his own queens. He inherited 72 of the women from his late father. He
has also taken on over 500 children from all of his wives.
“The queens have a great role to play in the fondom,” notes
Prince Nickson, also of Bafut, noting that it is up to these women behind the
man to shape him in his kingly role.
“Behind every successful man must be a very successful,
staunch woman,” says Abumbi’s third wife, Queen Constance. “Our tradition has
it that when you are king, the elderly wives remain to hand down the tradition
to the younger wives, and also to teach the king the tradition because the king
had been a prince, not a king.”
Despite the fact that polygamy is legal in Cameroon, the
data shows that there are far fewer polygamous marriages across the African
continent. The practice is being challenged by changing values, the spread of
the Christian faith, the growing appeal of the western way of life but also the
rising costs of having large families.
It is against this backdrop that Cameroon’s traditional
rulers must walk the fine line between two often conflicting cultures.
“During colonialism other values came in, of governance,
different from the traditional values we had and therefore there is this
constant conflict between the traditional values and modern western values,” admits Fon Abumbi II, who has ruled
Bafut, the largest fondom in the region, for 47 years.
According to him:
“My role is to blend them, to find the way forward so my
subjects can enjoy the fruits of development and modernity without destroying
their culture. Without a culture, you are not a human being, you are an animal.
And therefore the chieftaincy institution is the guarantor of our culture.”
“I understand that we might be quick to judge the lifestyle
of the kings, but just like in the United Kingdom, African kingdoms and kings
are bound to a rich culture and history. (Practices) like inheritance of all
your father’s wives is nothing but a moral obligation.
On meeting the queens of Fon Ndofua Zofia II of Babungo —
one of Cameroon’s youngest traditional rulers — Methu CNN correspondent said:
“All his young wives, forced on him by tradition, spoke fluent English in a
French-speaking region and were great marketers.
It is this seeming contradiction that makes life in the
fondom fascinating and confusing. Are they stuck in the past or keeping pace
with the present? Fon Zofoa III doesn’t think you have to choose. He may have
“inherited” 72 wives and more than 500 children after his father’s death, but
he considers himself a very modern king. “To run a kingdom nowadays in this
era, you must be educated because things are moving very fast. Like they used
to say, education is light, ignorance is darkness.
