including the right to membership in any societies to which he belonged. And, until the mid-1960s, when the law governing polygamy was changed, the heir also inherited his father's wives--a considerable economic responsibility. The rights in land held by the deceased were conferred upon the heir subject to the approval of the chief, and, in the event of financial inheritance, the heir was not obliged to share this with other family members. The ramifications of this are significant. First, dispossessed family members were not automatically entitled to live off the wealth of the heir. Siblings who did not share in the inheritance were, therefore, strongly encouraged to make it on their own through individual initiative and by assuming responsibility for earning their livelihood. Second, this practice of individual responsibility in contrast to a system of strong family obligations prevented a drain on individual financial resources. Rather than spend all of the inheritance maintaining unproductive family members, the heir could, in the contemporary period, utilize his resources in more financially productive ways such as for savings and investment. [...] Finally, the system of inheritance, along with the large-scale migration resulting from population density and land pressures, is one of the internal incentives that accounts for Bamileke success in the nontraditional world".[2]Donald L. Horowitz also attributes the economic success of the Bamileke to their inheritance customs, arguing that it encouraged younger sons to seek their own living abroad. He wrote in "Ethnic groups in conflict": "Primogeniture among the Bamileke and matrilineal inheritance among the Minangkabau of Indonesia have contributed powerfully to the propensity of males from both groups to migrate out of their home region in search of opportunity".[3]References[edit]Jump up^ Owono, Julie (25 January 2012). "Unspoken history: The last genocide of the 20th century". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 26 January 2012.Jump up^ A.I.D. Evaluation Special Study No. 15 THE PRIVATE SECTOR: - Individual Initiative, And Economic Growth In An African Plural Society The Bamileke Of Cameroonhttp://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnaal016.pdfJump up^ http://books.google.es/books?id=Q82saX1HVQYC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=%22Primogeniture%22+%22Bamileke%22&source=bl&ots=JMOOcssnc-&sig=BtkVUJrmKPp6ZW48t5fyMx_X4Ak&hl=es&sa=X&ei=UgeLUuChHMSv7AbwnYCYBw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Primogeniture%22%20%22Bamileke%22&f=falseToukam, Dieudonne (2010), Histoire et anthropologie du peuple bamileke, Paris: lHarmattan, 2010, 242p.Toukam, Dieudonne (2008), Parlons bamileke. Langue et culture de Bafoussam, Paris: L'Harmattan, 255p.Fanso, V.G. (1989) Cameroon History for Secondary Schools and Colleges, Vol. 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Nineteenth Century. Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1989.Neba, Aaron, Ph.D. (1999) Modern Geography of the Republic of Cameroon, 3rd ed. Bamenda: Neba Publishers, 1999.Ngoh, Victor Julius (1996) History of Cameroon Since 1800. Limbe: Presbook, 1996.Further reading[edit]Knopfli, Hans (19972002) Crafts and Technologies: Some Traditional Craftsmen and Women of the Western Grassfields of Cameroon. 4 vols. Basel, Switzerland: Basel Mission.External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bamileke.Aleco Yemba.net - Online Dictionaries and Learning Tools for the Yemba Languagehttp://www.shavei.org/category/communities/other_communities/africa/cameroon/?lang=enCameroonThere are some who believe that an ancient Jewish presence may have at one time existed in Cameroon via merchants who arrived from Egypt for trade. According to these accounts, the early communities in Cameroon observed rituals such as separation of dairy and meat products, as well as wearingtefillin.There are also claims that Jews migrated into Cameroon much later, after being forced southward due to the Islamic conquests of North Africa.The