The rulers of the Duala are the

headmen The Headmen is a group of supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history The Headmen first appeared (as a team) in '' The Defenders'' #21 (March 1975) and were created by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema, ...

, chiefs,

paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and ar ...

s, and kings of the

Duala people The Duala (or Sawa) are a Bantu ethnic group of Cameroon. They primarily inhabit the littoral and southwest region of Cameroon and form a portion of the Sawabantu or "coastal people" of Cameroon. The Dualas readily welcomed German and French c ...

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 ...

. The earliest known Duala rulers, according to Duala oral history, were Mbongo and his son Mbedi. From Mbedi's home at

Pīti ''Pīti'' in Pali (Sanskrit: ''Prīti'') is a mental factor (Pali:''cetasika'', Sanskrit: ''caitasika'') associated with the development of '' jhāna'' (Sanskrit: ''dhyāna'') in Buddhist meditation. According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, ''piti'' i ...

, northeast of the modern city of

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the com ...

, his sons migrated southward.

Ewale a Mbedi Ewale a Mbedi was the eponymous ancestor of the Duala people of Cameroon (named for a variant spelling of his name, Dwala). According to the oral histories of the Duala and related Sawa peoples of the Cameroon coast, Ewale hailed from a place c ...

settled on the Wouri River at the

Bight of Bonny The Bight of Biafra (known as the Bight of Bonny in Nigeria) is a bight off the West African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea. Geography The Bight of Biafra, or Mafra (named after the town Mafra in southern Portugal), betwee ...

(modern

) and became the eponymous founder of the Duala people.Austen and Derrick 9. Over time, the Duala split into various lineages. The earliest of these were the Priso sublineage, which established independence from the Bell lineage in the late 18th century. The Akwa lineage followed suit sometime in the early 19th century. Each of these families established a population centre along the banks of the Wouri. By the 19th century, Douala was thus divided into several of these residential areas, referred to as ''towns''. Beginning as early as the 18th century with Doo a Makongo, European traders began referring to the Duala rulers as ''chiefs'' and ''kings'' (''kine'' in Duala). A dichotomy emerged under which the rulers of Akwa and Bell were kings, while the leaders of smaller lineages were ''chiefs'' or ''

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

s''. These rulers were often given Europeanised names, such as King George or King Akwa. Beginning with the

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

era,

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, French, and

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colonial governments designated various Duala rulers as ''paramount chiefs''. During this era, Duala rulers were often deposed and even exiled for any perceived infraction against the colonial government. Traditions of

royalty Royalty may refer to: * Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc. * Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family * Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...

have since ceased in some of these lineages, although in modern times, the royal line of some lineages has been reconstituted after an interregnum.Worldstatesmen.org.

Early rulers

Bonanjo/Bonadoo/Bell lineage

Bonapriso/Joss sublineage

Bonaberi/Hickory sublineage

Bonambela/Akwa lineage

This list omits several rulers who served but briefly and who were succeeded by brothers rather than sons.

Bonebele/Deido sublineage

Notes

{{reflist

References

*Austen, Ralph A., and Derrick, Jonathan (1999): ''Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: The Duala and their Hinterland, c. 1600–c.1960''. Cambridge University Press.
Cameroon Traditional states
Worldstatesmen.org. Accessed 1 June 2006. Duala, Rulers of the Duala, Rulers of the

Rulers A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...