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{{short description|Former independent state of Isubu people of Cameroon}}
{{Infobox settlement
<!--See the Table at Infobox Settlement for all fields and descriptions of usage-->
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|official_name = Bimbia
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<!-- Location ------------------>
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|subdivision_name = [[File:Flag of Cameroon.svg|25px]] [[Cameroon]]
|subdivision_type1 = [[Provinces of Cameroon|region]]
|subdivision_name1 = [[Southwest Region (Cameroon)|South-West]]
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[[File:Duala ethnic groups.png|thumb|Map showing the location of the various ethnic groups of coastal Cameroon. Bimbia was the kingdom of the [[Isubu people]]]]
'''Bimbia''' was an independent state of the [[Isubu people]] of [[Cameroon]]
It lies in [[Southwest Region, Cameroon|Southwest Region]], to the south of [[Mount Cameroon]] and to the west of the [[Wouri estuary]]. Is situated at the East coast of the [[Limbe,
'''Bimbia''' consists of three villages:
* [[Dikolo]]
* [[Bona Ngombe]]
* [[Bona Bille]]
In 1932
'''Bimbia''' was the first
==History==
===Origins===
The predominant Isubu [[oral history]] holds that the ethnic group hails from [[Mboko, Cameroon|Mboko]], the area southwest of [[Mount Cameroon]].{{sfn|Fanso|1989|pp=50-51}}
Tradition makes them the descendants of [[Isuwu na Monanga]], who led their migration to the west bank of the [[Wouri River|Wouri estuary]]. When a descendant of Isuwu named [[Mbimbi]] became king, the people began to refer to their territories as Bimbia.{{sfn|Fanso|1989|pp=51}}
===Early European contacts===
[[File:Merrick at Isubu funeral.jpg|right|400px|Joseph Merrick at an Isubu funeral in Cameroon, 1845.]]
[[Portugal|Portuguese]] traders reached the Wouri estuary in 1472. Over the next few decades, more Europeans came to explore the estuary and the rivers that feed it, and to establish [[trading post]]s. The Isubu carved out a role for themselves as middlemen, trading [[ivory]], [[kola nut]]s, and [[capsicum|peppers]] from the interior. However, a major commodity was [[slavery|slaves]], most bound for [[plantation]]s on nearby islands such as [[
Some Bimbia legend{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} grants Ekum’a Makundu, a former [[Dikolo]] chief, to have said that "it was when
[[Alfred Saker]] came with his
By the 16th century, the Isubu were second only to the [[Duala people|Duala]] in trade. The earliest Isubu merchants were likely [[tribal chief]]s or headmen.{{sfn|Fanso|1989|pp=73}}
Bimbia, the primary Isubu settlement, grew quickly.
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===British influence===
[[Great Britain|British]] traders became the dominant European presence in the region by the mid-19th century, and the Crown used them to enforce [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition]] of the [[History of slavery|slave trade]] in the [[Gulf of Guinea]]. In 1844 and 1848, King William signed anti-slavery treaties. In exchange, the traders provided him with annual gifts of alcohol, guns, textiles, and other goods.{{sfn|Fanso|1989|pp=73}}
William was also asked to forbid practices the British viewed as barbaric, such as [[human sacrifice|sacrificing]] a chief's wife upon his death.{{sfn|Austen|Derrick|1999|pp=66}}
With William's blessing, Bimbia became a haven for repatriated slaves and escapees from the illicit trade, which continued for many more years.
The British also endeavored to educate and Christianise the Bimbians.{{sfn|Austen|Derrick|1999|pp=67}}
King William rebuffed the earliest [[missionary|missionaries]] because he did not agree with their insistence on prayer and opposition to [[polygamy]]. In 1844, however, [[Joseph Merrick (missionary)|Joseph Merrick]] convinced William to let him open a church and school in Bimbia.{{sfn|Fanso|1989|pp=102}}
In 1858, the Spanish ousted Protestant missionaries from their base at Fernando Po. King William sold a portion of his domains to the missionary [[Alfred Saker]], who then founded Victoria (today known as [[Limbe, Cameroon|Limbe]]). By 1875, numerous missions and schools sprung up in Victoria and other settlements. Victoria came to be a mixture of freed slaves, working Cameroonians, and Christianised Cameroonians from the various coastal groups. [[Cameroonian Pidgin English]] began to develop at this time.
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On 17 February 1844, King [[William I of Bimbia]] and the chiefs of Bimbia concluded a treaty with Lieutenant Edward Charles Earl, commander of the English brig ''Rapid'' in which the slave trade was prohibited in exchange for goods worth $1,200, and free trade was guaranteed.{{sfn|Anyangwe|2010|pp=15}}
On 19 December 1850, a further treaty with Thomas Rodney Eden, captain of the ''Amphitrite'', regulated trade terms, covering subjects such as payment of "comey", a customary fee paid by trading vessels to chiefs in exchange for permission to trade.{{sfn|Anyangwe|2010|pp=17ff}}
On 7 February 1855, the British Acting Consul, J.W.B. Lynslager, witnessed an engagement in which the chiefs of the Boobee ([[Bubi people|Bubi]]) Islands, adjacent to the Amboise (
<gallery mode="packed" caption="" widths="180px" heights="140px" >
Artifact.JPG|Slavery Artifacts
Prison pour esclaves récalcitrants à Bimbia.jpg|Prison for recalcitrant slaves
File:Bimbia Slave Port.jpg|Bimbia Slave Port
</gallery>
===German protectorate===
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===Fishing and Farming===
The Bimbia are mostly fishermen.
In the thirties, the fishing industry was
===Technics===
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and [[Moleke]].
The women are [[yam (vegetable)|yam]] planters. People come to buy [[benyanya]], smoked [[njanga]], smoked [[mwanjamoto]] and other fish. Women come from chop farm with raw food to exchange for fish and bring things like [[accra banana]], [[Bambara groundnut|groundnuts]] and [[koki beans]].
The women dry all the fish, sell it or battler for household needs. During the dry season, the men go to sea in the night. The women work until morning on the [[efefe]] to sort out the fish in their different species, put on very big baskets called ‘ndenge’ and start drying them on the ‘wokas’. Woka is a stab make of [[bamboos]] from the [[palm tree]]. Then carry the wokas to the ‘etaka’ or bandas where a long fire is made to smoke the fish at night. The dried [[benyanya]] is stored away to give way for other fish to be dried also. When the season for [[meyo]] is over, the season for [[mwanjamoto]] and crayfish (njanga) starts.
Women are, from the sale of fish, responsible for looking after of all the house needs such as soap, oil, salt, kerosene etc.
Men are responsible for the sale of the big [[benyanyas|benyanya]] to pay school fees.
==Chiefs==
[[Dikolo]] has six quarters : Mbeng’a Liwoka, Bali, Wona Wonanya, Wona Ngowe, Wona
Mbimbi and Mabetefutu with their family heads and a traditional chief.
Bimbia chieftaincy stool
* In [[Dikolo]] the Ekum’a Makundu family have the chieftaincy and it is not contested for.
* In [[Bona Ngombe]] the Musuka family have the chieftaincy.
* In [[Bona Bille]] the Billa Lozenge family have the chieftaincy, the descendants of king [[William of Bimbia]].
==References==
{{commons category}}
'''Citations'''
{{reflist|colwidth=20em}}
'''Sources'''
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XgsQRbbbPG0C&pg=PA15
|title=The Secrets of an Aborted Decolonisation
|chapter=British Treaties with the Chiefs of Bimbia and Victoria
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|publisher=African Books Collective
|year=2010
|
*{{cite book |
|title=Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: the Duala and their hinterland, c.1600-c.1960
|first1=Ralph A. |last1=Austen |first2=Jonathan |last2=Derrick
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1999
|
*{{cite book |
|year=1989
|title=Introduction to the History of Cameroon in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, Part 2
|chapter=Trade and diplomacy on the Cameroon coast in the nineteenth century, 1833–1879: the case of Bimbia
|publisher=Palgrave MacMillan
|
*{{cite book |
|year=1989
|title=Cameroon History for Secondary Schools and Colleges: Prehistoric times to the nineteenth century
|location=Hong Kong
|publisher=Macmillan Education Ltd
|
{{refend}}
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