Nation of Outlaws, State of Violence. Meredith Terretta
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in the landscape of gung. Larger sacred sites that served the spiritual needs of the entire chieftaincy were situated at or near extraordinary natural phenomena in the landscape, such as rock formations or caves often adjacent to a source of water, such as a stream, a waterfall, or a spring. In Baham, the chieftaincy sacred site is called feuveuck and is located near Chiala, the chiefly district at the center of the polity.
At feuveuck in Baham, the flow of water appears to come from the face of the rock itself. As one walks down into its depths, entering the vast, cavelike crevices between the rocks, the air suddenly becomes cooler and more humid. Sounds echo off the rock, amplified by the acoustic space. The boulders form alcoves and partitions, and the spatial arrangement inside the site recalls a human dwelling; present-day inhabitants describe one area as the kitchen, another as the parlor of the gods. The stones inside feuveuck bear signs of sacrifice: orange remnants of palm oil splashed against the rock, white grains of salt collecting in crevices, scattered djem djem (pods full of seeds, associated with twins), and small chicks, strutting along the ground beneath the rocks as they peep.
Like other Grassfields community sacred sites, feuveuck marks the gathering place of the forefathers of Baham at the time of gung’s foundation. At these sites, the founding fathers are said to have planned the settlement of the chieftaincy, selected its leader, and thanked the gods for their guidance and protection.41 Whether for the site’s history or its natural characteristics, the community believed that divine benedictions for the chieftaincy were first channeled through feuveuck. To ensure the continued benevolence of the gods, the living had to carry out sacrifices, which served too as a reminder of the presence of the divine in this sacred site and the need to adhere to the moral norms of justice upheld by the forefathers. Sacrificers, guardians of the site, and kamsi (lit., nobleman of God) officiated at community sacrifices to express gratitude to Si, to purify the chieftaincy of mystical attacks, to promote harmony among the residents, both living and dead, and to ensure reproductive and agricultural fertility. For inhabitants of Grassfields chieftaincies, acts of sacrifice at cheup’si carried collective identity and memory, and thanksgiving: they were acknowledgments of the spirits in their lives, who could bless or curse them.
Chuep’si also served as loci for the administration of justice at different levels. The administration of justice reflected the involvement of spirits and gods in the mediation of human conflict, crime, and punishment.42 Major community sacred sites such as feuveuck were the locale for public confessions or truth-telling ceremonies undertaken after times of conflict or misfortune.43 Public confessions or declarations of innocence occurred most often at district-level chuep’si, presided over by district chiefs (wabo or mfonte) and the site guardian, and attended by all inhabitants. On rare occasions, if truth-seeking or public confessions involved an entire chieftaincy and its inhabitants, they were held at the chieftaincy’s communal sacred site. In 1967, after the long period of independence-era war and violence in Baham, a public confession meant to restore peace was held at the chieftaincy’s central sacred site, or feuveuck.44
Serious matters of justice were brought before the fo, and smaller conflicts were dealt with at the district or compound level. The fo’s jurisdiction included cases of criminal acts and transgressions of the chieftaincy laws, including murder, rape, flagrant adultery, theft of precious objects, insulting the fo, or repeat offenses. The fo also intervened in smaller cases when an agreement could not be reached. The fo’s court resembled a trial and was carried out not on the sacred site but in the fo’s palace. In serious matters brought before the fo, guilt or innocence could be a life or death matter. In the fo’s court, the defendant, the accuser, the witnesses, and those presiding carried out the trial in an elaborate performance including investigation and witness testimony during which the accused and sometimes the accuser underwent various truth-telling trials.45 The ultimate symbol of justice and honesty in the Grassfields was the tortoise. Only the fo could use the tortoise in rendering judgment, and the verdict could not be appealed.46 While the accuser and the accused declared their respective version of events, a tortoise was released. If it crawled to the feet of the fo, the defendant was declared innocent. If it crawled toward the defendant, he was considered guilty. Depending on the gravity of the crime, the punishments entailed hanging, live burial, sale into slavery, banishment from the chieftaincy, or bodily mutilation, such as particular tattoos, or amputation of fingers or ears. Each bodily marking referred to a specific crime, thus warning the rest of the community of the wrongdoer’s past behavior.
Truth telling and oathing were common features of justice in the fo’s palace, just as they were at sacred sites. In both cases, individuals either declared their innocence aloud, by asking the gods to punish them promptly if they had committed a crime, or confessed their guilt and begged for leniency.47 These declarations reminded participants of the presence of divine administrators of justice and established the credibility of those performing the truth-telling ceremonies. If the accusations were unfounded, the accuser faced severe spiritual repercussions.48
When truth-telling ceremonies did not require the fo’s presence, they took place on sacred sites in the chieftaincy’s districts and family compounds. Matters such as disputes between families over property boundaries, payment or reimbursement of bridewealth, divorce, thefts, vandalism, or difficult marriage arrangements were treated at the district level. Notables and any elders available to serve as counselors and mediators presided over the “trial.” Matters judged at the district level were usually settled by reconciliation of the parties and fines or corporal punishment.
Family conflicts were resolved at the lineage chuep’si put in place at the time of each new compound’s establishment. According to Grassfields oral histories, after a founding fo conquered or annexed autochthonous populations, he distributed large sections of the territory to the nine cofounders of the village (members of the kamveu council), his mwala, and the lesser mfonte, or the leaders of the la’a, or districts. These privileged notables distributed the land within their own districts, in the fo’s name, dividing the land among lineage heads, who in turn redistributed it among wives (for cultivation) or sons (to establish their own compounds and become heads of dynasties).49 The new occupant of a plot of land provided the fonte or the fo with gifts, both when making the initial request for a parcel of land (a goat and palm oil) and after having settled it (salt).50
After being granted the plot of land, the founder (or lineage head) of the compound arranged a ceremony to “plant” a small sacred site, chuep’si mbem, in the presence of witnesses from the surrounding compounds.51 A ritual specialist planted a yam tree (Ficus aganophila Hutch.) and trees of peace, pfeukang (Dracaena deistelina), and placed a stone at their roots.52 The yam marked a family’s right to occupy and use the plot of land. The uprooting or destruction of the yam, especially by burning, desecrated the cheup’si and constituted an assault on the gods and on the fo’s authority as land distributor. The deliberate destruction of a yam was a crime dealt with at the chief’s palace, and a finding of guilt carried a sentence of forced labor in the service of the fo.53 The creation of a chuep’si within a compound legitimized the founding patriarch as the lineage head—the site’s primary sacrificer—and secured his offspring’s right to reside on the land.
The spirit protectors (mbem) of a lineage dwelt in the site around the altar. The chuep’si mbem ensured everyday access to spirit guardians who protected a particular lineage and interceded between them and a more distant being. The chuep’si mbem in family compounds personalized Si and established a permanent contact with the sacred through the land. The site was a visual, inviolable symbol of a lineage’s connection with the sacred. At the level of the lineage compound, the chuep’si was the place where family members settled their disputes.
In case of family conflict, the lineage head called a family gathering at the chuep’si, where each person involved had a chance to speak before the spirits of the site. This event represented a dramatic deviation from the daily norm, since each wife and her children usually led a semiautonomous existence centered around the maternal kitchen/hut.54 Each family member made his or her declaration of truth at the chuep’si and asked for divine punishment in case of falsehood within seven to nine days—by death, accident, or insanity.55