STORY TIME: History of the Bali People

... not to be confused with the Bapi people. 

This story starts with Kate, Colleen, and I walking down a road in Bamenda, feeling cooped up after a week and a half in the same hotel with the same people doing 8 hours a day of training. Even though it was a nice hotel with good food and hot, running water showers, we could only spend so much time sitting in one place without getting a bit stir-crazy. I suspect this is the case with most Peace Corps Volunteers. We see a bar marked MOONLIGHT HOTSPOT, so of course we wander right in. 

Kate & Colleen admiring the moonlight.

- Do you have cold drinks?

- Yes, we have all these drinks, very cold! replies the bartender, gesturing towards a wall lined with different beers and sodas.

Well sign us right up! We each got a beer and sat down on the bench outside. Well, Kate and Colleen sat on the bench and I sat on the table so I could see them while I talked to them, instead of staring at cars and motorcycles zipping by. After 40 minutes of sitting in a new place and chatting, a very tall, fit and well-dressed man walks up. 

- Do you know what my people believe?! he asked me while walking up the stairs into the bar.

- ...What? I asked cautiously, knowing this could well be something I don't want to hear.

- If you sit on the table you will not grow tall like me! 

- That's okay, I don't want to be any taller, I shrugged. 

- But in my culture, it is good to be very tall. Men should be very tall and strong!

And then he bought us all beers. Turns out, this man - this man in a sailor cap and navy blue suit jacket and sparkly white and silver tshirt and dapper black dress shoes - is a FON (the equivalent of a chief in the West or a lamido in the Grand North). His uncle (or maybe his wife Morine's uncle, family connections can be very confusing here) owns the bar and that white car is his and we should come see the Palace of the Fon in Bali.

So what do we do? Get in his car, of course. Exactly what our mothers told us not to do.

With his wife Morine, our new friend the Fon drove us to Paramount Fon's palace in Bali, only 20 minutes up the road from Bamenda. This Fon is one of 17 currently under the authority of the Paramount Fon, but he was taking us to see the REAL DEAL. 

Every Fon's and Chief's and Lamido's palace is unique, but you can always recognize them immediately by their massive and impressive gateways. This one was painted with a lion, an elephant, and a tiger - all symbols of power. As we crossed the threshold, Kate had to take off her flip flops. Apparently the flap-flap noises those shoes make disturb the ancestors, and we had to be respectful. We passed through a big, square room with all the shutters shut, peering through the shuttered darkness to see bamboo benches lined up against the walls and no other furniture. Then we entered the waiting area, a long hallway with more bamboo benches, but outside on a balcony where the sunlight could reach. There, we "rang the doorbell" the traditional way: 

CLAP CLAP CLAP Clap clap clap clap

We clapped our hands together seven times, starting loud and becoming softer and softer, announcing our presence. Then this other guy wandered up; I suppose we might call him the Fon's receptionist. The Paramount Fon was not available, but he gave us a tour of the public places of the palace anyway: the courtyard (complete with giant water-less fountain, wood carvings around all the doors, a giant Fon's chair decorated with another lion and fake flowers...) and the receiving room for visiting dignitaries (no one you would recognize).

Image of former Bali Nyanga Fon
{via}

Before leaving, I managed to throw in my favorite question: Can you tell me the story of your people? 

{Now, this guy was no story-teller. He did not follow a chronological order and didn't have an eye for dramatic events. So this story is fully embellished and in my own words and some parts I even - gasp  - made up. You can't say I didn't warn you.}

This is the story of the Bali people. 

A long time ago, the Bali people lived in Northern Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon. They had settled there after migrating from Sudan around the 10th Century AD. Although they came for the land, the sun was hot and the land grew dry. After many years of famine suffering, they realized they could not continue to live where their crops would not grow, where the land could supply grass nor allow them to cultivate the millet for their horses. They moved south and then west, year after year and century after century, fleeing famine and the expansion of the Islmic Kanem Borno empire. Often, they fought and killed to take new land; because you must always kick someone else out before you can settle yourself. But this meant they were often driven onwards by tribal war and conflict, rather than left to grow millet and tend their horses in peace. 

Then came Princess Na'nyonga, daughter of the Bali fon. She was tall and strong like a man, and though she could never be Fon, she was very respected. Facing fighting the whole way, she led them towards Bamenda and finally to a fertile place. Here, there was water, and the soil was good for millet, and the horses could roam the surrounding hills. Here, the ground was so fertile, they could have not one but TWO growing seasons a year! So they decided to stay, and the Widikum people would not stand in their way; they were unceremoniously kicked off their land and moved into neighboring hills. And the Bali people stayed, and chose the name Bali Nyonga in honor of Princess Na'nyonga. Her son, Nyongpasi, became Fonyonga I, the first ruler of these people. 

Since Fonyonga I, there have been four Fons. Each new Fon replaces an old one who has "gone missing," for Fons never die. Their statues line the road leading up the Paramount Fon's gate, in honor and remembrance. 

And that is the story of the Bali people, according to me. But if you want a more historical review, check out their more historical version on their website, because (as Patrick told me), 

- The last Fon had 50 and more than 500 children. But we are very modern. The Fon is a very modern man. He has only 8 wives.

And there you have it.