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Category: African and Middle Eastern Division

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

The Genius of Cameroon’s Sultan Ibrahim Njoya

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library preserves some of the papers of Sultan Ibrahim Njoya, the visionary leader of the Bamum kingdom in modern-day Cameroon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Njoya's royal family had ruled their region of the grasslands for hundreds of years. Under pressure from the colonial powers of Germany and then France, he created the first map of the kingdom, a language, an alphabet and a religion. He was a renowed patron of the arts, encouraging teachers, sculptors and artisans.