Mandara Mountains Homepage

This website is for all ethnographers who are interested in the study of the northern Mandara mountains of N. Cameroon and N.E. Nigeria which I call the northern Mandaras.

The inhabitants are today referred to by English speaking scholars as montagnards, a French word, which replaces the less acceptable term “hill dwellers”.

They exist mainly through terrace farming, but many men also do seasonal work in towns or cultivate beans along the southern shores of Lake Chad.

The Northern Montagnards section informs on the history and life of the peoples and gives access to more data, presented by Mandaras Publishing - web presentations of images and field notes, academic contributions for download and printed publications as well as CDs - on various aspects of their environment, rituals and material lives.

The site contains a substantial bibliography of the ethnographic, linguistic, archaeological and geographical literature dealing with the peoples of the northern Mandaras, their history and environments. The site also carries a list of ethnic groups known to us so far. Each ethnonym listed is hyperlinked to a separate page giving a brief description of the ethnic group it is associated with. Please feel free to participate in the updating of the site.