Maps not only mirror the world but also play a significant role in shaping it. They can be utilized to assert ownership, rationalize acts of aggression, and institutionalize conquest. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 is a prime example, where European powers gathered to divide Africa into areas of control. In this context, maps functioned as the primary tool of colonialism, wielded in a blunt manner.
If It’s on a Map, It Exists
The boundaries that were initially marked as spheres gradually solidified into lines, and by the onset of World War I, almost the entire African continent had been transformed into European colonies. Today, most of those lines continue to serve as the borders of independent African states.
While cartography proved to be a valuable tool for European colonizers in Africa, maps are not limited to serving their interests. In fact, a rare example of an indigenous African kingdom using cartography to validate its existence is the Bamum map, created in the early 20th century. This map depicts the mountain ranges, village locations, and river borders of the Bamum (also known as Bamun or Bamoun), an ancient kingdom located in present-day western Cameroon. It was the brainchild of the kingdom’s remarkable king, Ibrahim Mbouombouo Njoya, who is now remembered as “Njoya the Great.”
Njoya’s Great Map
Ibrahim Mbouombouo Njoya, who reigned from 1886 until his passing in 1933, was the seventeenth Mfon in a dynasty that could trace its lineage back six centuries. Nevertheless, he realized that solely relying on tradition would not be enough to preserve his kingdom. Witnessing the incursion of German colonizers into his region of Africa, he adopted a cordial approach and learned what he could from them to benefit his kingdom.
As a birthday present for Kaiser Wilhelm II, Njoya sent his lavishly decorated throne to Berlin. The Kaiser was moved by the gesture and referred to him as his “royal brother,” thereby recognizing the autonomy of Njoya’s kingdom.
Njoya established schools that taught the German language and Bamum culture to children. They also learned how to read and write using the Bamum alphabet, which was invented by King Njoya himself. He used the script to write the “History and Customs of the Bamum People.” The final version of the script, consisting of only 80 characters, was commonly known as “a-ka-u-ku,” after its first four letters.
Africa, Mapped by Africans
Like with the alphabet, so too with cartography. Njoya created a map—a useful idea from the colonizers—but reconfigured it to serve the purposes of his kingdom. The result is not a European-style map, but rather, it reflects how the Bamum themselves saw their own land. Or, as put by the Twitter account Incunabula, where this map was first published online in March 2022: “A precious example of an African map made by African cartographers.”
In 1912, King Njoya ordered that a survey be taken of his kingdom. A second survey was completed in 1920. Officially, these were meant to adjudicate land disputes. Clearly, he also would have seen how useful maps were in the hands of the Germans as a tool for governance and a display of sovereignty.
Both times, the King himself led the surveying expedition. Each consisted of teams of bush clearers, surveyors, and servants. The surveyors’ work was checked by about 20 topographers. In all, an expedition counted about 60 people.
Purple Rivers and Green Mountains
The surveyors and topographers worked out their own system to represent what they encountered, developing Bamum standards to depict villages, markets, boundaries, and other common elements of topography. The map is oriented toward the west: two disks represent the sun rising (bottom) and setting (top). Rivers are in purple, and mountains in green. The script is, of course, Njoya’s own.
The surveyors did not have access to modern surveying equipment. To assess distances, they used watches to time how long it took them to get from A to B. At each village, a local guide would accompany a survey team to assess the extent of the locality, the names of streams and mountains, and other relevant information.
One of the surviving notebooks from the first expedition shows that Njoya and his train of surveyors, servants, and topographers made 30 stops in 52 days, and managed to cover about two-thirds of the kingdom. After less than two months, the start of the rainy season made roads impassable, putting a stop to the expedition.
Dynastic Capital Since 1394
At the center of the map is the ancient walled city of Foumban, founded in 1394 by Nshare Yen, the first Mfon of the Bamum. To indicate the city’s importance as the seat of the dynasty and capital of the kingdom, it is placed more centrally and shown larger than it actually is.
The rivers that surround the kingdom display a remarkable symmetry—again, an exaggeration of the actual facts on the ground, and likely an attempt to create a sense of geographic unity for Bamum.
The Bamum alphabet is used to list hundreds of placenames along the kingdom’s edge. This shows that the surveyors established the kingdom’s borders on the map by walking its perimeter, akin to the old English (and New England) tradition of “beating the bounds.”
Too German-Friendly
When the French took over German Cameroon after World War I, Njoya was distrusted as having been too friendly with the Germans. He was eventually stripped of any political power and exiled to the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé, where he died two years later.
However, the Bamum dynasty survives to this day, albeit only in ceremonial form. On October 19, 2021, Nfonrifoum Mbombo Njoya Mouhamed Nabil, the 28-year-old son of the previous king and sultan, ascended to the throne as the 20th Mfon of the Bamum. He holds court in the Royal Palace built just over a century ago by the 17th of his line, in the style of a northern German brick mansion. Part of the palace is a museum, in which its builder figures prominently.
These days, Foumban is a popular tourist destination. One of the sights greeting its visitors is a statue of Njoya the Great—inventor, innovator, historian, and mapmaker.