ABSTRACT
The kingdom of Kom is situated in the open country in the mountainous heart of Bamenda, called by its German explorers the 'Grassfields'. It was one of some seventy small states and village chiefdoms with allegedly Tikar or Ndobo-derived dynasties in what is now West Cameroon. During the nineteenth century five kingdoms with Tikar- or Ndobo-derived dynasties—Nso, Kom, Bafut, Bum, and Ndu— extended their boundaries by incorporating and making tributary neighbouring village chiefdoms. There are two main social categories in Kom proper: royals and commoners. Much of Kom occupies a high mountain terrain at an average height of 5,000 feet above sea-level; in the heart of the country on a spur at some 6,300 feet is the capital, Laikom, where the Foyn has his palace and there are a few compounds occupied by retainers and priest-elders. The cult of the royal ancestors was one of the central institutions of Kom.
