Mbum language

The Mbum are of Sudano Sahellian origin, particularly from Saner in Yemen. They migrated to the South of Egypt in about 100BC from where they settled along the Nile Valley with the Nubians around the 3th Century. From there they migrated to join the great empires of Western Sudan in about the 7th to the 8th century. Islamism was gaining ground and they fought to resist external Islamic influence. Continuous pressure cause them to migrate further south wards and they were the first external people to settle in the area today known as the Adamawa region of Cameroon whose original population were the Obwi people in the Plains of Tikari and the Pygmies in the forest of the Ngambe area Adamawa Plateau in Cameroon. They arrived there around the 6th to the 7th centuries ago. They have had a long and close relationship with the neighboring Dii people in the eastern parts of Adamawa Province to the extent that it is frequently difficult to make any distinction between the two. Their relationship with the Islamists, who entered the region in the early 16th century and later with the Fulani from the Futa Jalon areas who migrated to the area in the early 19th century as nomads and secondly being captured and used by Islamists as slave raiders is more complex. Because of the supremacy of Islam within the slave empires, therefore the Fulani became often perceived as a ruling class; nevertheless, the Mbum have historically participated actively in the states set up by the Fulani in the Adamawa at Kimi from Ngangha. Because of conflicts with male supremacist Islamists, their Queen, Wouteng, allowed her eldest daughter Ma Ngu to migrate with her followers to create their own state in Ngu In the Tikari plain in the 13th century. These people eventually migrated to the Nkambe Plateau in the late 16th century due to Islamist triangular slave trade. These people became known as Wimbum in a dialect they carved to identify themselves from the close Dii people.

Mbum is a complex dialect continuum consisting of several varieties. ALCAM (2012) considers Mbum, Larang, Pana and Gbata to be four distinct but closely related languages. Pana (also spoken in Chad), Karang, Kali-dek and Kuo are eastern varieties that may be separate languages.[2]

To the south, Gbata is spoken in the northern part of the arrondissement of Bélabo in Lom-et-Djerem department, Eastern Region. There, it is spoken in Woutchaba and Deng-Deng, located to the west and east of the Sanaga River, respectively.[2] Blench (2006) considers Gbete (Gbata) to be a separate language.

The LiMbum is spoken to the South West especially in the Donga Mantung and around the Nkambe and Ndu Sub Divisions.

Mbum is spoken in:[2]

• Adamaoua Region
  • Vina department (Ngaoundéré and Mbe communes)
  • Djerem department (Ngaoundal and Tibati communes)
  • Faro-et-Déo department (Tignère communes)
• North Region
  • Mayo-Rey department (Touboro commune)
  • Faro department (Poli commune)
• North West Region*

Limbum is spoken in the Donga Mantung Particularly in Ndu and Nkambe Subdivisions.

There were 38,600 speakers in Cameroon (SIL 1962). It is also spoken in the Central African Republic (CAR). The total population in both Cameroon and CAR is estimated at 51,000 (SIL 1962).[2]

• Roger Blench, 2004. List of Adamawa languages (ms)

• A rapid appraisal survey of Gbete by Jason Diller & Kari Jordan-Diller, 2002. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-050.