Ewale A Mbedi

Ewale a Mbedi was the eponymous ancestor of the Duala people of Cameroon (named for a variant spelling of his name, Dwala). According to the oral histories of the Duala and related Sawa peoples of the Cameroon coast, Ewale hailed from a place called Piti. He and his followers migrated southwest to the coast and settled at the present-day location of Douala. The area was inhabited by the Bassa and/or Bakoko, who were driven inland by the new arrivals. Meanwhile, Ewale and his followers set up trade with European merchant ships.

Historians and anthropologists find Ewale's existence and major deeds to be mostly plausible. The stories lack overt mythological elements, and the genealogies of the rulers of the Duala place Ewale at a feasible distance before historical Duala chiefs and kings. The most reasonable estimation places the migration from Piti in the late 16th century. Although many of the stories ascribe this move to a desire to trade with Europeans on the coast, a more likely reason may be that Piti had simply become too crowded. Driving away the Bassa and Bakoko is believable in that these peoples were farmers, not traders or fishermen, so a coastal homeland was not a necessity for them.