Based on research that was awarded the St. Thomas University Special Merit Award in Research in 2019, this book is the first of a three-volume study on the Baki, the original Beti in Cameroon. This volume presents their complex kinship, social ties as well as their migration from their original northern cradle to their present location. The Beti, along with the Fang-Bulu, play an important philosophical, intellectual, historical, economic and political role today in Cameroon and in neighboring Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The innovative approach, methodology and perspective applied in globally documenting the history of the Beti have generated great interest among people familiar with the research.

“Many thanks again – it was a fascinating topic, and a very interesting, self-contained alternative view of what history as a subject might look like outside the standard perspectives and categories of the Western cannon. I had heard about this before, and read a bit about it, but had a hard time imagining it until you gave your presentation. Greatly enjoyed it, and it has helped me make sense of so much other material I have been reading.”

(Dr. Matthew Hayes, Associate Professor, St. Thomas University, Canada Research Chair)