Mmuock (sometimes Mmock) is the Anglicised form of Muòk ()—sometimes written as Mǒk (see next paragraph). Mmuock is a tribe in the West/Southwest of
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
. Belonging to the
Bamilike
The Bamileke are a Central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau of Cameroon.
Languages
The Bamileke languages belong to the Grassfields branch of the Niger-Congo language family, which is sometimes labeled as a " Bantuoid lan ...
ethnic group, the Mmuock tribe comprises four villages:
Mmuock Leteh, Mmuock Fossimondi, Mmockmbie, and Mmock Leleng . The first three villages are found in the English-speaking
Lebialem
Lebialem is a department of Southwest Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 617 km and as of 2005 had a total population of 113,736. The capital of the department lies at Menji.
Since the outbreak of the Anglophone Crisis i ...
Division in the
Southwest Region of Cameroon, while Mmock Leleng lies in the french-speaking
West Region.
The Mmuock tribe speaks the
Mmuock (Mmock) language. Due to dialectal differences, the name of the tribe is pronounced in Mmuock-Leteh and Mmuock-Fossimondi as , and in the other two villages as . As a result, there are two Anglicised spellings: Mmuock and Mmock.
Etymology
The word ''Muòk'' (or ''Moòk'') means fire in the Mmuock language.
There have been two different origin stories to the name. According to the first story, when four brothers, who later founded the four villages, separated, each was to make a fire if attacked; the smoke from the fire would alert the others. According to the second story, the name was given by the people of
Bafou as a result of their inability to defeat and capture the four brothers.
Names of days of the week
In the Mmuock culture, there are eight days in the week. The week days, in order, are as follow:
# Ngangà (the first day)
# Mbeqgnúá (Betaâgnúá)
# Mbeqlěq
# Njϐngong (Ngong)
# Mbeqńkœó
# Njœêlekœr̄
# Fa'à
# Télǎng (Njœeláh).
The first day, ''Ngangè'', is a public holiday and a day of rest; no manual labour is permitted. The second day is the market day.
References
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Ethnic groups in Cameroon