User:Ryal1ll/Chamba people

The Chamba people are a significant ethnic group in the north eastern Nigeria. The closest chamba neighbours are the Mumuye, the Fulani and the Jukun and Kutep people. In Cameroon, the successors of Leko and chamba speakers are divided into several states: Bali Nyonga, Bali Kumbat, Bali-Gham, Bali-Gangsin, and Bali-Gashu. The Basari people of Togo and Ghana also go by the name Chamba, but they are ethnically distinct.

Language
The Chamba people, also known as Samba, Tchamba, Tsamba, Daka and Chamba-Ndagan, are an African ethnic group found in the Gongola State of east-central Nigeria and neighboring parts of north Cameroon. They speak two distantly related languages: Chamba Leko, of the Leko–Nimbari languages, and Chamba Daka, of the Dakoid languages, both of which are a Niger-Congo language.

Boyd says that the “Chamba Leko speakers are restricted to the easternmost part of the central area, for the most part on the Cameroon part of the modern border. The remainder of the Chamba are Daka-speaking”. The Chamba speakers still speak various other dialects that are different from place to place. The central area is where the Chamba Daka (Sama Nnakenyare) live. That area is found in North east of Nigeria on the Cameroon border in Adamawa State.[citation needed]

Germany was the original colonial power that annexed the Chambaland, but when Germany lost the First World War, this territory in Africa was divided by the League of Nations between British and France. “Where the majority of the Chamba live, straddles the present border between Nigeria and Cameroon”.

Beliefs
The Chamba people have their own particular religious beliefs. The traditional religion of the Chamba is premised on a creator solar God (Su) and ancestor spirits who live with this creator. The sun god does not interact with living beings, but the ancestor spirits do. The dead (wurumbu) are believed to continue living, but they live below the ground. They follow the same style and sophistication as humans, but they are believed to be wiser and with supernatural power. Special people among the Chamba are believed to be able to interact with these ancestral spirits and they are revered by the Chamba people.

A minority, or about 15%, of the Chamba people adhere to Islam. The Chamba people were one of the targets of Fulani jihads in the 18th and 19th century. They were enslaved, and many migrated south into the mountains. They retaliated by becoming raiding bands who attacked slave and trading caravans.

Society and Culture
The Chamba traditionally live in grassland area, farming cereal staples, and cash crops such as cocoa and coffee. One main crop that the Chamba farm is guinea corn. The Chamba are composed of different clans that can have varying styles of chiefdoms. Some are led by women, men, or both. These clans work based on the collective belief in the "the authoritative masculinity of relatively older men and women."

The Chamba live in villages. Outside of the villages is an uninhabited forest region called the bush. The areas of the bush closest to the village are places that the Chamba collect materials for building fires, making utilitarian objects like baskets and mats, hunting, and gathering. These areas of the bush are accessed both by men and women. The inner bush is considered more dangerous and associated with the male gender.

Cults
One form of Chamba social control is through the use of cults. There are both men's and women's cults that an individual may only gain membership through an initiation process. Cult members are expected to keep the rituals, rites, and practices secret.

Initiation processes are different for each gender's cult. Circumcision is a part of the men's cult initiation, through which the process allows boys into enter into manhood. For women, their marker of transition into womanhood is not through initiation but through marriage. Often, women do not join cults until they are married. For women's cults, sometimes tooth evulsion is part of initiation. However, tooth evulsion is less practiced now and varies by region and particular group.

Art
They are skilled artists known for their pottery, metal work and sculpture.

Masking Traditions
Masks representing the wild are typically composed of a wooden mask and a costume made of long fibers. The complete look is supposed to give the illusion of one complete entity with the mask, costume, and performer becoming a single unit.

One specific type of mask is called a buffalo or bushcow mask. Each clan of the Chamba usually has a bushcow mask.These masks are painted different colors to determine whether the mask is male or female. Some clans will have both a female and male bushcow mask.The features of the mask are composed of both animal and human attributes. The horns of the bushcow mask refer to the "female bushcow ancestor." These masks are supposed to represent the power of the bush. The masks function in conjunction with Chamba events like circumcision, initiation of chiefs, and funerals. These masks are stored in the bush. When they perform for special occasions, the masks leave the bush and enter into the village.

Statues
Chamba statues are figural, usually depicting a male, a female, or both a male and female. The figures usually appear in a single form or a double form in which two figures are attached at to a base.

References[edit]

 * 1) ^ Jump up to: a b
 * 2) ^ Jump up to: a b ;  Richard Fardon, Raiders & refugees: trends in Chamba political development, 1750-1950
 * 3) ^ ; Richard Fardon, Raiders & refugees: trends in Chamba political development, 1750-1950
 * 4) ^ Jump up to: a b c d Chamba Religion
 * 5) ^ RICHARD FARDON (1983), A CHRONOLOGY OF PRE-COLONIAL CHAMBA HISTORY, Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, Bd. 29 (1983), pages 67-92
 * 6) ^ Jump up to: a b c
 * 7) ^