Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

The concept of ‘genesis’ or ‘origin’ in history has given rise to several schools of thought each seeking to provide a framework through which the origin of people could be meaningfully examined. These include the Diffusionist, Anti-Diffusionist, Procreationist, and Evolutionist schools of thought. This paper therefore, examines each of these schools with a view to situating Kamwe (Higgi) origin(s) migration(s) and settlement patterns in their proper historical perspectives. An analysis of the aforementioned schools of thought reveal that the Kamwe (Higgi) people fit more adequately within the framework of the Evolutionist school of thought which maintains that socio-cultural affinities emerging from shared historical experience over time, constitute the bedrock for understanding the origins of people. Oral traditions and opinions of elders from the field of research convey the fact that the people who today answer to the designation ‘Kamwe or Higgi’ were in the earliest times, a collection of small socio-cultural units of the Sukur, the Marghi and Fali; essentially, they inhabit modern day Michika, Madagali and Mubi North Local Government Areas and indeed, the Mandara Mountains’ range lying immediately aside the Nigeria-Cameroun border. However, over time, these socio-cultural units coalesced by sheer forces of history such as wars, inter-marriage, trade and commerce and subsequently developed a number of shared cultural characteristics which today distinguish them as member of a common nation. To elucidate this position, the paper further, examines the views of Kamwe (Higgi) elders in order to recapture briefly, how they in turn see their past as they relate to their own myths of origin(s) migration(s) and settlement which is the subject-matter of this research paper.

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