The British colonial administration and jangali collection in the Bamenda grassfields of Cameroon, 1922-1975

treasure of wealth and conflict

Abstract

This paper presents Jangali (tax per head of cattle) introduced into the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon in 1922 by the British Colonial Administration and argues that its collection left a lot of repercussions in the entire region. As opposed to the Germans, who linked the development of cattle rearing in the Bamenda Grassfields to a white settler population, the British colonial administration decided to encourage the settlement of Fulani cattle rearers in this region. The reason behind this policy was that when Britain took over the administration of Southern Cameroons under the League of Nations mandate in 1922, she lacked the finances to run the administration put in place. Due to this fact, the British administration started looking for taxable wealth from which revenue could be obtained. It is in this light that the introduction of cattle rearing in the Bamenda Grassfields was seen as a ―heaven sent solution‖. From the British experience in Northern Nigeria, it was believed that the Fulani cattle owners in this region were to contribute much into the state coffers. It was no surprise therefore, that from the late 1930s to 1940s, jangali became a major source of revenue for the colonial administration in the Bamenda Grassfields. This paper reveals that: the colonial administrators benefited immensely from the tax as it later became the main source of revenue that sustained the running of the colonial administration and fostered developmental projects; that traditional rulers besides prominent individuals appointed were later mandated to do the collection; and that some collectors of the tax, besides the pay packages they received, enjoyed some attached benefits, and due to greed and envy, resorted to conflicts, besides other repercussions. A triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies facilitated the realisation of this write-up. Many of our facts and figures were exploited from colonial records found in both the North West Regional Archives in Bamenda (NWRAB) and the National Archives (NAB) in Buea. Besides, selected informants were contacted from whom was gathered some valuable information. This information complemented what was collected from archives not leaving out the patches of isolated but related literature extracted from published books and articles.