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The Bamileke (French Bamiléké) are a collection of Semi-Bantu (or Grassfields Bantu) ethnic groups most highly concentrated in the western highlands of Cameroon's West Province, west of the Noun River and southeast of the Bamboutos Mountains and in the Mungo region of the Littoral, Southwest, and Centre Provinces. The Bamileke divide themselves into over 100 individual groups, each under the rule of a chief or fon. Nonetheless, all of these groups are related historically, culturally, and linguistically. With over 2,120,000 individuals in the late 20th century, the Bamileke are the most numerous semi-Bantu group. They speak a number of related tongues from the Bantoid branch of the Niger-Congo language family. These languages are closely related, however, and some classifications identify a Bamileke dialect continuum with seventeen or more dialects.
Tribal distinctions
The Bamileke did not consider themselves a single people until colonial times. Even today, individual Bamileke usually regard themselves as members of one or another chiefdom (or fondom). Of these, the fondoms of Bafang, Bafoussam, Bandjoun, Bangante, Bawaju, Dschang, and Mbouda are the most prominent. The Bamileke also share much history and culture with the neighbouring fondoms of the Northwest province, but the groups have been divided since their territories were split between the French and English in colonial times.
Languages
Following Ethnologue classification, we can identify 11 different languages or dialects: More on [ Bamileke ]
I posted 3 photos on Facebook in the album "Bamileke Mask Added 10-20-09" http://bit.ly/15LGCz
rkmeredith (Ronald Meredith) Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:44:34 -0000
I posted 3 photos on Facebook in the album "Bamileke Mask Added 10-20-09" http://bit.ly/15LGCz
@binamillinois as a bamileke am not fine cuz i got no skool to go to cant u help ur bami sis
lyndasimeu (lynda kamdem) Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:19:01 -0000
@binamillinois as a bamileke am not fine cuz i got no skool to go to cant u help ur bami sis
video of a new style of bamileke end tables that have recently arrived. http://bit.ly/2h7MG
greybreaks (greybreaks) Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:40:54 -0000
video of a new style of bamileke end tables that have recently arrived. http://bit.ly/2h7MG
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Dschang Syllable Structure - Scholarly paper on an aspect of the phonetics of Dschang, one of the Bamileke languages.
Grassfields Bantu Fieldwork: Dschang Lexicon - Documentats the words of the language Yémba (Bamileke Dschang), their meanings, and their pronunciations.
Grassfields Bantu Fieldwork: Dschang Tone Paradigms - A multidimensional exploration of online linguistic field data by Steven Bird, focused on tonology of the language Yémba (Bamileke Dschang).
Linguistic Classification - of Cameroonian languages, including the Bamileke languages: Fe'fe', Ghomala', Kwa', Medumba, Mengaka, Nda'nda', Ngiemboon, Ngomba, Ngombale, Ngwe, Yemba. A link to the Ethnologue.
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