My Africa Today

The Fon( King ) is the brother of courageous and powerful animals. At night, he has the power to transform himself into a panther, where he haunts the forest, runs through the savana and drinks from torrents. When a panther is killed by a hunter, the Fon from Bamileke region are afraid. Will one of them not perish from the death of his double.

Formerly a chief administator and cabinet chief for the finance Minister of Cameroun in 1964, Kamga Joseph is the thirteenth Fon of Bandjun. On the day of his predecessor's funeral, he was stopped in the Bandjun market by two Bamileke chiefs, "the hangmen", in the middle of the nobles and princes who wept the deceased King. Wearing a head dress made of sisal as a sign of humility, he was taken to the noblemen, the "tafo meru", where he learned during nine weeks how to be a King. Formerly this apprenticeship lasted nine months. During his retreat, the souverain is accompagned by the "nrounq"( love ), a woman he married before his coronation, and the "djvikam", the wife of a nobleman who becomes the first queen. He then returns to the palace, "tsa", where he is responsible for the wives of the defunct Fon, who become his wives.

In 1980, Sijuwade became the fiftieth Oni( King ) of Ife, one of the most ancient African Dynasties.

Formerly, during his coronation, an Oni had to embrace the sword of justice, and enter into his palace on a cloth stiffened by the dry blood of sacrificed men and women.

Today the Oni is a rich businessman, with several vaste properties in Nigeria and England.

According to legend, Oduduwa, the first king of Ife, was expulsed from Mecca by the moslem party. In order to avenge him, Oranyan his great grandson, undertook a punitive expedition which never made it, because of a quarrel with his brothers. Vexed, Oranyan refused to return to Ife. He installed himself in Oyo, leaving his treasures and fetishes with Adimu, his loyal servant. Adimu was the son of a slave, spared from being sacrificed because she was pregnant.

With time, Adimu became the king of Ife, under the name of Oni, which is a contraction of the phrase "omo olowoni", meaning the child of the victim to be sacrificed.

Representing the Abomey dynasty, Joseph Langanfin is the president of CAFRA, the council of Abomey's royal families. With this title, he is considered as the official representative of the kings of Abomey.
He presided at the centenary ceremonies for the death of King Glele, who was his great granfather.

In 1889, following the funeral services of King Glele, his son Kondo was coronated under the name of Gbehanzin, a contraction which means, "the world holds the egg that the earth desires", and took the shark as his royal emblem. The Shark-King wanted to push back Europeans comming from the sea. Since the Berlin treaty in 1884, which divided Africa between European powers, the Kingdom of Abomey excited the envy of the French, who wanted to stop the English progression into the gulf of Guinea.

" The King does not give his country to anyone, ancestral lands are sacred" he told the French, who found with him a serious opponent.