It is the largest in terms of population and area among the four groupings (Balessing, Baloum, Bansoa, Bamendou) in this arrondissement. It is bordered to the North by the Balessing and Baleveng groupings, to the East by the Bansoa and Baloum groupings, to the West by the Bafou grouping, and to the South by the Fotemena, Fokoué, and Fomopéa groupings. Bamendou has approximately 40,000 inhabitants on-site and a diaspora of at least the same size residing mainly in other Cameroonian cities. Moreover, an increasing number of Bamendou residents are settling abroad for various reasons: studies, economic opportunities, family reunification, or exile. Members of the ABE are part of these Bamendou who have settled in Europe.

African culture from the visible to the invisible, Dr. Martin DONLEFACK.

These include the chiefdoms of Dedeng, Balefock, Batoula-Folemo, Messing, Tchueffi, and Mentsa. There were also a multitude of independent human groups that had not yet managed to establish themselves as traditional units like the others. These groups were scattered to the south of Fielah or King Place, the capital of the chiefdom, up to the borders of the Balefock, Batoula, and Missing chiefdoms, a little further south. For example, there are the Mbouo, Mekia, Melah, Tsang, Metchou... The Dedeng chiefdom is the mother root of Bamendou since it is through its chief that Kepantan, founder of the superior chiefdom of Bamendou, left Bangwa with his mother. This dynasty, which today counts 17 monarchs, along with the Balefock chiefdom, constitutes the two oldest chiefdoms of the entire human group called Bamendou.

The name Bamendou comes from the word 'doub' which means senseless. By adding the prefix 'men' which corresponds to the definite article 'the' to obtain 'mendoub', we get the literal translation 'the interested people'. This ethnonym characterizes the intrigue that was at the origin of the foundation and expansion of the Bamendou Chiefdom. Indeed, it was founded by Kepantan, prince of the Andou sub-chiefdom of Bangwa in the Fontem basin. It all starts with an invitation to a funeral that Chief Dedeng receives from Chief Andou, his counterpart and brother (Chief Dedeng is originally from Fontem). After the festivities, Chief Dedeng returns to his chiefdom taking with him one of Chief Andou's wives and his two sons (Kepantan and Kembieh Ndoh). Before leaving Fontem, the mother of the two sons stole her husband's 'kuifoo' which she later gave to her son Kepantan after his loyal services. Upon their arrival in Dedeng, Fo La'a Dedeng assigned each of the two boys a portion of land in his territory. Kembieh Ndoh settled in Zinto and Kepantan in Anock (Donlefack: 2019:10).

More cunning, Kepantan used the 'kuifoo' given to him by his mother to establish a strong chiefdom that subsequently subdued and incorporated the chiefdom of his guardian Fo La'a Dedeng and other neighboring entities. The name 'Mendoub' therefore comes from the view held by the conquered chiefs about Chief Kepantan after he fought and annexed Dedeng, his own guardian. For them, such an act could only be carried out by senseless people, without scruples and morals like Kepantan and his followers.

The cunning involved first gaining Chief Dedeng's trust through semblances of acts of allegiance and submission. Subsequently, the ambitious king Kepantan befriended migrants and exiles, thus constituting a base of trusted men who gradually populated his territory (Donlefack 2019: 10). He consolidated his friendships with the 'ngím nu', a dance he performed with a xylophone, and the 'kuifoo' given to him by his mother. As the Bamendou proverb states, 'there is no chief without a people and without territory.' Kepantan understood this very early, and the ngím nu was therefore a strategy to build a people to establish his own chiefdom.

African sculpture from the visible to the invisible, Martin DONLEFACK.