Cameroon - Savannah areas in the North province of Cameroon

Brief presentation:

The aim of this programme is to develop a global understanding of the history of an area of savannah and the agricultural communities that have lived there. The current study area, located in the Bénoué valley (North province of Cameroon), is now part of the Bénoué National Park. It covers 90km2 around Hosséré Djaba, a granitic massif known for having been the seat of government of a large Dìì chiefdom at the edge of the 19th century. The study of the distribution of archaeological surface structures associated with stratigraphic surveys provides us with information on one and a half thousand years of settlement of a Sudanese savannah, from the 5th to the 19th centuries AD. Several communities responsible for the production of different items of pottery seem to have settled in the area during this period, one after the other but at times concurrently as well. A group of metal-workers also seems to have been associated with one or more agricultural communities; the development of centralised power at the foot of the Djaba massif could even be the result of this association. At the end of this occupation, agricultural activities, which were previously conducted on a more extensive and probably nomadic basis, seem to have been centred on the foot of the massif. This phenomenon was probably due to the conflict between the chiefdom of Djaba and the sultanate of Peul de Ray (or Rey-Bouba) shortly after the latter established itself nearby. This conflict ended in around 1830 with the defeat of the Djaba and the departure of survivors to the west. More than a century-and-a-half after they left the sector, the spatial organisation of the chiefdom of the Djaba remains apparent: the settled area is surrounded by an earthen rampart, specific structures (supporting terraces, tabular structures, etc.) and anthropogenic vegetation that provides further evidence of the political centre, metal-work activities were thrown off centre, etc. While the environmental consequences of the final settlement are yet to be determined, they already appear to be varied.