King, elders connect in Royal visit to community

8/8/2019 King, elders connect in Royal visit to community

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By Al McFarlane and B.P. Ford

The Editors

Spike Moss summed it up beautifully. Your Majesty, he said, addressing

H.R.M. King Abumbi II, the Fon of Bafut, for years I have been

teaching our children, telling them, You are the sons and daughters of

kings and queens! Sometimes its hard for them to believe that kingship runs

in our veins. In a country that enslaved us, robbed us of our freedom and

dignity, stole our labor and our lives, and that continues to try to marginalize

our culture and distort our identity, its hard to keep them believing there is

something greater in them than all the negative assaults that come from

outside. That negativity breeds self hatred and self destruction. That is why

our young men are killing each other.

I want to thank you for meeting with the elders of our community.Your visit helps us refresh our own sense of purpose, our sense of

sovereignty, our duty to the ancestors and to the Creator, Moss said.

Moss and other leaders of civic, cultural and social service

institutions met King Abumbi II at a breakfast hosted by Insight

News at Sunnyside Caf, 1815 Glenwood Avenue, in the heart of

North Minneapolis. King Abumbi II is the hereditary leader of the

kingdom of Bafut, which is a region in the northwest of the nation

of Cameroon, in central Africa. Abumbi II is the 11th Fon, which

means king, to rule the kingdom. His first visit to the United States,

the Fon said his mission was to meet with Cameroonians in general

and in particular, his subjects from the Fondom of Bafut, who now

live in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston and

Twin Cities. He returned to Cameroon Sunday, Aug, 26th, after

completing a three week tour of the U.S.

While in Twin Cities, the Fon received a formal welcome by

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and officials of Minneapolis Institute

of Art, where his delegation was given a tour of the MIAs extensive

African Art collection. Rybak also gave the royal visitor a tour of the

I-35W bridge disaster and recovery area and operations.

H.R.M. Abumbi II, Fon of Bafut with Spike Moss.

His Royal Majesty Abumbi II,

Fon of Bafut following eldersmeeting with the King at

Sunnyside Caf

Story continues on page 6

King,elders connect in

Royal visit to community

Photos: studiotobechi
http://insightnews.com/search.asp?mode=display&articleID=3449


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Top: Liz Moore; H.R.M. Abumbi II, Fon of Bafut; Elizabeth Samuels; Ora Hokes and Kelley Hardemann following elders meeting with

the King at Sunnyside Caf. Bottom (left to right): Reverend Ian Bethel, Pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Tabernacle; Reverend

Randolph Staten, Co-chair of the Coalition of Black Churches/African American Leadership Summit; H.R.M. Abumbi II, Fon of Bafut;Peter Hayden, President, Turning Point Inc and Clarence Hightower, President, Minneapolis Urban League.

Photos: studiotobechi


3/7H.R.M. Abumbi II with host, Al McFarlane, Editor-in-Chief of Insight News at the Elders Meeting.

Photos: Suluki Fardan


4/7Bottom: Victorene Ambe, a member of the Fons Royal Court who resides in Minnesota.

Photos: Suluki


5/7Top: Khalil Wright with H.R.M. Abumbi II. Bottom: Kelley Hardemann and Khalil Wright with his grandfather, Insight News photographer Suluki Fardan

Photo: Suluki Fardan

Photo: studiotobech


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Alice Baker, Sunnyside Caf; Ex-MN Vikings superstar and Hall of Fame professional football player, Carl Eller and H.R.M. Abumbi II, Fon of Bafut

The meeting with Elders of the Black community was a special

highlight for the Fon, his spokesperson said.

Minneapolis Urban League President, Clarence Hightower asked

Abumbi II how he came to be king.

Fon Abumbi II said his being named king to succeed his father,Achirimbi II, the tenth king or Fon of Bafut who ruled over the town

of Bafut and adjoining areas (the Fondom of Bafut). Achirimbi II

ruled from 1932 to 1968, and was preceded by Abumbi I and

succeeded by Abumbi II.

The Fon said his society is polygamous, and that as the leader of

the nation, he is also the leading polygamist. While he has some 25

wives, he said his father had hundreds of wives and his grandfather

had more than a thousand wives. The idea behind polygamy in his

society, he said, was the belief that every man and every woman

should be married. Since there were more women than men,

polygamous marriages enabled the society to achieve the goal of

nearly 100 percent marriage among its population. He said divorce

was uncommon.In response to Hightowers question, Abumbi II said he was the

choice of his father and his fathers advisors, and beyond that, he was

the choice of the Spirit. He said his culture practiced ancestor worship

and that as Fon, he was the principal intermediary between the living

and the dead.

He said he was the 400th son of his father. All of the sons were

elegible for selection to succeed the father as king. He said his

selection therefore, reflected the will and guidance of the

ancestorsthe Spirit.

His father, Fon Achirimbi II is famous for having remarked about

the choice to join independent Cameroon or independent Nigeria

from the British Cameroons in 1961. Achrimbi II called it a choice

between the Fire and the Deep Sea.

He was considered by many as being progressive and willing toexperiment with new ideas. He was treated with respect by both

colonial administrators and nationalist politicians, according to

internet information resource, Wikipedia.

The Germans tried to put a puppet ruler in place of the Fon after

the Bafut Wars at the turn of the century, but failed. The Fon Abumbi

I was openly hostile to the Germans, and diplomacy was not pursued.

The idea of decentralized governance by local people was put into

practice in July 1917 in the British Cameroon when the District officer

inaugurated an Instructional Court in Bamenda.

This was an assembly of chiefs from surrounding communities who

were summoned to be instructed in the new native court ordinance

and to go on to form the new courts.

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H.R.M. King Abumbi II with Al McFarlane

Continued on next page

Photo: Suluki Fardan

Photo: studiotobech


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The membership of the court consisted of

27 chiefs with the Fon of Bafut Abumbi I

appointed as president due to his role as the

supreme fon, Wikipedia reports.

Bafut is one of the two regions in

Cameroon (the other being Bali, Cameroon),

where traditional power structures are still in

place. The Fon of Bafut also holds several

important administrative positions including

that of the head of the North West Fons

Union (NOWEFU), and member of theManagement Board of the North-West

Development Authority (MIDENO).

The Fon participates in virtually all the

important ceremonies of Bafut. One of the

most important ceremonies is the annual

dance Abin e Mfor or Dance of the Fon:

This annual event, held in December is also

known as the Abin Lela, or Dance of the

Flutes. Village nobles play traditional flutes

and fire guns to mark the proceedings. It is

the climactic point of the annual ritual cycle,

and is supposed to signify the death and

rebirth of the year (i.e. a new year

ceremony). The ethnic dance is performed in

traditional dress. Luminaries of society (the

Fon of Bafut and his advisors) form a spiral

in the centre. The general public dances

concentric rings around the spiral in a

counter-clockwise fashion. Present-day

African American ring dance ceremonies

probably owe their origins to such

ceremonies, Wikipedia said.

Social worker and educator Liz Moore

asked the Fon about the philosophy of

education in Bafut. The king said his society

views education as the primary responsibility

of the family, particularly the childs mother

and father. He said the schools and teachers

are partners, supporting parent in their roleas primarily responsible for the education of

the child. He said corporeal punishment,

administered publicly, in the presence of the

childs parents and peers, is a tool to force

attention and compliance by students.

If a child has not arrived at school for

two or three days in a row, but instead has

gone to town to be with other er rant youth,

the teacher or headmaster will come to the

childs home and tell the parents that the

child has not been in school. Punishment to

the child, in front of the parents might be a

specific number of strikes with a cane, King

Abumbi II said.Himself a lawyer by training, Abumbi II

said he owns several schools as well as

herding, and agriculture production, and

mining enterprises. His palace in Bafut is on

a world list of important structures that are

endangered. Some 30,000 tourist a year visit

the palace, 8,000 from the United States,

with almost none of them African

Americans, the King said.

Former Minnesota Viking superstar, Carl

Eller asked what opportunities there are for

commerce between Black Americans and the

people of Bafut. Abumbi II said creating the

connection was a high priority. He said it

should begin with more visits by

Cameroonians to the Black community, and,

in reciprocity, visits by Black Americans to

Bafut, and Cameroon. When you come to

Bafut, the King said, I will show you the

same hospitality you have shown me.

H.R.M. Abumbi II, Fon of BafutPhoto: Suluki Fardan

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King, elders connect in Royal visit to community