Mafa: Also known as the Matakam, they cluster in the highlands (and their adjacent plains) of the Mandara Mountains in what is now northern Cameroon. The Mafas - who are the largest ethnic group in these highlands are known for their Sares, or conical roofs on their huts, Each Sare is occupied by one family. However, the more wives that a man has then the more Sares that are grouped together. The Mafas are also known for their religious art and arts & crafts.
Water has an extremely important spiritual (and economic....they are mainly corn farmers) dimension in their culture. It is considered a source of fertility and wealth, but also danger, magic, and psychological pitfalls. The Mafas consider water to be a cultural rather a natural resource, and have rain priests. Twins have a special position in Mafa culture. The birth of tsakalay (twins) is considered a great blessing, as they are believed to be endowed with special gifts from the gods and are considered to be clairvoyant. However, they are also believed to possess dangerous powers: They can bring blindness, madness, or, as in the case above, premature death to their parents.
Mokolo is the urban area that is the center of the Mafa people. University of Calgary (Canada) researchers found a a set of ancient granite fortresses - believed to be tombs, and called the Strongholds of Cameroon - in their home mountainous region back in 2002.
Kotoko: They cluster in what is modern-day northern Cameroon / northeastern Nigeria / southwestern Chad. The Kotokos had an ancient monarchy - which rose after the Sao civilization went into decline - which included several smaller kingdoms. Islam spread in most of the area by the 19th century, through missionaries and conquerors (given that my oldest known ancestor in this line, C.D., was born in Mississippi in 1845 and U.S. Census records report that her parents were also both born in Mississippi, my ancestors may have already been in the United States by this point). The monarchy was eventually subsumed into the Bornu empire. Divided into small states with fortified cities as their capitals, the Kotokos consider themselves "owners of the land" by virtue of their long residence. For example, neighboring Arabs in Chad pay tribute for the right to farm and herd. The Kotokos also have a monopoly over fishing and water transport. Rights to the waters of the Logone and Chari rivers are divided among the cities, each of which has a "chief of the waters," whose communications with the water spirits determine the opening of the fishing season. However, strife with neighboring Arabs have pushed the Chadic Kotokos more into Cameroon.
Masa: Appears to be a pretty small tribe, residing along the banks of the Logone River and along the border of what is now northern Cameroon / southwestern Chad. Population, including related peoples (Musgu, Sigila, Mussoi, Marba, Dari), about 300,000 (1967, estimate). The language of the Masa belongs to the Semito-Hamitic family. The religion of the Masa is Sunni Islam; some Masa retain local traditional beliefs. Occupations are farming, livestock raising, and fishing.
All three groups speak Afro-Asiatic languages, and are in the Chadic language group. There is a debate among biologists and linguists in the Annals of Human Biology over whether all three tribes of which I am a descendant (plus a fourth one, the Hide people) are more genetically and linguistically similar to other tribes in Western Africa, or to tribes in Eastern Africa and the Upper and Middle Nile Valley.
http://www.bookerrising.net/2006/04/african-ancestry-dna-test-my-results.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15739384
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Masa
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
