page_title: Musgum people
section_title: History and culture
hierarchical_section_title: Musgum people / History and culture
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Cette image représente des cases Mousgoum, ce peuple des plaines du Nord-Cameroun du Sud-ouest du Tchad et de l'Est du Nigéria. Faites en boue séchée, elles sont reproduites ici à la Fondation Jean Félicien Gacha à Bangoulap, dans la région de l'Ouest.
context_page_description: The Musgum or Mulwi are a Chadic ethnic group in Cameroon and Chad. They speak Musgu, a Chadic language, which had 61,500 speakers in Cameroon in 1982 and 24,408 speakers in Chad in 1993. The Musgum call themselves Mulwi.
context_section_description: The Musgum are Afro-Asiatic in origin, having displaced the Paleo-Sudanese at the present territory along with other Neo-Sudanese groups. They are first of all warrior people. When the Fulani people arrived in their territories, they tried to subdue and compel them to accept Islam by war, but they did not succeed by this way. That is why some of their chiefs such as Zigla, Awersing etc. came out with their troops to drive them out and to take back their areas. As such a tremendous battle was held in the village of Bogo in Diamaré Division ( its name comes from a Musgum word meaning "noise" and refers to the site of the battle). At the fullness of time, that war was followed by the victory of Musgum troops and the loss of the territory by the Fulani groups. That caused them to flee away from Bogo to Adamawa. After having succeeded in Norh and Adamawa region, some of the Fulani people went back to Bogo where they adopted the procedure of islamization by ruse. This is a process whereby a Fulani man decides deliberately to give his daughter  to a wealthy Musgum man, or to a man known by his community as chief of a village. Obviously, their aim was to inherit by a blood relationship the wealth and chiefdoms. For instance, the kingdom of Bogo which is the Musgum kingdom mixed with Fulani by marriage covenant. Be it in Cameroon or in Chad, Musgum areas are ruled by a native Musgum chief and not by an outsider. For example, the Sultanate of Pouss, the Lamidat of Guirvidig, the Sultanate of Zina, and the Lamidat of Bogo. Musgum people are also known as initiators of "Laba" or Labana, which is a traditional rite for fighting. In the present day world, the dream of a young Musgum  man is to practice a military activity.
  Fishing is an important activity for the Musgum during the dry and rainy season when the Logone River floods. This has led to ethnic tensions with their rival fishermen of the Kotoko ethnic group (who are also of the Chadic branch of the Afro-Asiatic stock).
caption: Musgum Hut
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