533
themselves pronounce the word as Mabila, which is probably a variant of Mbula,
a common tribal title in Nigeria (in the form Mbula, Bura, etc.) and meaning
"The Men". The title has long been applied by neighbouring tribes to the group
classed as Mambila, and it is no doubt from them that it was adopted by the
Fulani of Banyo, who succeeded in reducing many of the Mambila groups during
the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Mambila have no common title for
themselves. Each village group calls itself by the name of its own locality or
by that of the founder of the village or by that of some specially
distinguished chief. There was and is no tribal organization, and the next-door
neighbour was usually the principal enemy, in spite of intermarriage.
(Intermarriage commonly creates hostility. Indeed a Mambila, if asked who are
his traditional enemies, will answer: "The members of such-and-such a village,
for we marry [3]
their
daughters and they marry ours.") The only common title that the Mambila admit
is that of "Nor", i.e. "The Men", a term which was formerly sufficient to
describe all the people they knew, viz. those who inhabited the Mambila Plateau
and spoke dialects of the same language. But this generic term is now seen to
be unsuitable, for the Mambila have come to know other "men" than those who
share their own language and culture. [Notes5]
Certain groups describe themselves collectively as Torbi[4],
and it was asserted that the Torbi are quite distinct from the Mambila, all the
Torbi speaking a common dialect and having common customs. Investigation,
however, showed that the so-called Torbi [5]
(viz. the villagers of Kuma, Jabu, Gikaum, Jeke, Titong, Kabri, Barrat, Baso,
Yurum, Wa, Nyege, Ngubin, Tem, and Genbu) had not a uniform dialect or uniform
customs, and that not all of the villages so described accepted the term of
Torbi. Moreover, the term appeared to be applied to villages which had accepted
the suzerainty of the Fulani, those described as "Mambila" being those who had
maintained their independence of the Fulani.
In view of the Fulani-sounding suffix in the term "Torbi" it seemed probable that this term was invented by the Fulani to describe those groups which had accepted Fulani domination.
It was suggested, therefore (by me), that the term "Torbi" was a Fulani term, and in most of the villages visited this suggestion