Namji

The Nanji or Dowayo live in northern Cameroon, in mountainous area, in Poli, department of Faro, neighbors of the Mambila. They are known mainly for their fertility dolls, very stylized and decorated with cauris, multicolored glass beads and sometimes talismans. These dolls usually wear a hairstyle that mimics that of some women of certain Cameroonian clans. In addition to being a toy for girls, they play an important role in fertility-related beliefs, so that when a young woman reaches the age of conception she carries one of these beautifully dressed dolls on her back, and will provide the same care as if she were a real child, in order to promote fertility and a future conception. They are widely used by sterile women in the rituals of fecuendity. In all these cases, the wrist becomes a substitute child. The almost totality of these dolls is made of wood but they also make them in bronze, by the well-known system of lost wax. They live mainly from agriculture. They are animists and speak dowayo, their number is close to the 20.000 Namjis.