About Mankon

In January 1891, with five German offi­cers and about five thousand soldiers recruited from the Bali, Bakongwa and Meta’ tribes, Zintgraff attacked the Mankon people.

The Germans had established their pro­tectorate over Cameroon in July 1884. Defeated in the First World War, they lost all their colonies, which in the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919 were placed under the mandate of the League of Nations, with Cameroon under British and French man­date.

Widekum appears, therefore, to have
been a temporary home for the Mankon people during their travels from the east,
known as sa’nyom (where the sun rises), rather than their orig­inal
home. This is why the Mankon language resembles that of the Bamumkumbit, Babad­jou,
Dschang and Bangwa, but differs from that of the original Widekum people.

The Fondom is situated in the North West Province of Cameroon at an average altitude of 1000 metres. It is an elevated area of plateaux and small hills, which make up part of Cameroon Grassfields or Grassland (prairies).