History of Bambili
Bambili is the name of the place where the Mbili people live. It is a break-away village of the Tikari tribe that migrated from northern Cameroon and resettled in Ndop. They were later supplanted by another larger migrant group from Widikum that has hitherto been the ruling family in Bambili. The Ncho’odilem family (the original Mbili royal family) has consequently been left with only ceremonial functions in the governing of the village. The current ruler, the fourrteenth, is Afungchwi III, and Ncho’odilem is a sub-chief. The traditional ruler of Bambili is called Ifuo ‘chief’ or ‘fon.’ The palace, the residence of the royal family, has been changed twice.
Bambili is a hilly and densely forested village with a population of about 65,000 inhabitants, which includes immigrants drawn there by the educational institutions, including the University of Bamenda, the Higher Teachers’ Training College, the School of Agriculture, and Southern Cameroons’ oldest high school, Cameroon College of Arts, Science, and Technology. Bambili is located about ten miles from Bamenda town and spans an area of approximately 225 square miles. The village is divided into twenty-eight small administrative units called quarters administered by quarter heads appointed by the fon. Among other duties, quarter heads are charged with settling minor civil disputes at quarter level. Above the quarter heads is the Traditional Council, a twelve- to fifteen-member advisory council drawn from all the quarters. The Traditional Council has no fixed term, although its members are chosen to serve concomitantly with the Tuba’ Sub-District local council (that too has no fixed term).
The Traditional Council is headed by a chairman chosen by the fon and his counselors. It advises the fon on a wide range of issues of importance to the village, such as land distribution, infrastructure, public service projects (in particular, water and electricity), and relations with neighbors. There currently remains little, if any, land for the Traditional Council to distribute or sell in Nibie, the fastest-developing quarter in Bambili, and most land purchases are directly negotiated by buyer and seller.
The Name Mbili
The word Mbili is an orthographic simplification of Mbeligi [mbǝligì], designating either a substantive (the inhabitants of Bambili, the geographical site) or an adjective (that which pertains to the village Bambili). The word is composed of two underlying forms: mbe and ligi (‘people’ + ‘sleep’). According to Michael Foleng, the German explorer Dr. Eugen Zintgraff explored Cameroon in the late 1880s and early 1890s. During his mission to the Bamenda Grassfield, his Bali guide and informant frequently used the form ba- (from the Bali language for ‘the people of’) before the name of each village he introduced to the explorer. Thus, when they arrived in Bambili, the guide might have said “ba Mbeligi,” and Zintgraff wrote Bambili. It is, therefore, with systematic ambiguity that people commonly say “the people of Bambili. By the same token, people commonly use the forms Bambili and Mbili interchangeably. Mbili natives refer to themselves as Mbeligi, to their language as agi’í Mbeligi (“agi’” meaning ‘language’), and to their village as alá’á Mbeligi (“alá’” meaning ‘village’).
According to Gregory Ashi, when the breakaway Bafut clique of the Tikari tribe eventually arrived at the present Lake Bambili
there was yet another split, and the Mbili faction decided to settle there. He then explains: “…one group went right ahead towards Bafut, the other claimed they were extremely exhausted and wanted a few days’ rest; but they subsequently decided to settle there. The more adventurous faction that continued straight ahead mockingly branded the backsliders as “the sleepers,” hence the name Mbeligi.”
This historical explanation ties in with the linguistic explanation: the prefix mbe– transforms the verb lígí ‘sleep’ into the noun mbeligi ‘sleepers.’ This explanation also ties in with the explanation of the origin of the Bafut people.
Present-day Bambili
Today, Bambili is a university town with a population of about 65,000 residents, including about 20,000 students attending the University of Bamenda. Bambili is also home to the former British Southern Cameroon’s oldest high school, Cameroon College of Arts, Science, and Technology (CCAST). The non-natives speak English, Pidgin English, and/or French. Until as recently as the 1990s, the population of the village was 17,000. The demographic changes have resulted in a reduced use of Mbili as the natives increasingly speak English, Pidgin English, and French. Mbili is almost entirely a spoken language, so there are efforts to promote literacy in the language.
As Narrated By Dr. Funwi, Ayuninjam; member of the Constitutional Committee.