FRENCH CAMEROONS: Out of the Kettle

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Down among the French Cameroons in equatorial Africa, there lived a Sultan, a chief of the Bamoun tribesmen, who decided to be on the side of progress. The 17th Sultan of Foumban invented an alphabet of his own, taught his subjects the virtues of hard work and discipline and sent his son Seydou N'jimoluh Njoya off to learn French in a Protestant mission school. In time, Seydou himself became Sultan and decided to outdo his father in progress. Though he surrounded himself with the traditional swarms of wives and concubines (59 in all), and wore the heavy cloaks and turbans of his ancestors, Sultan Seydou had picked up a few modern ideas at school.

Seydou decided to get some service out of the ancient feudal officers at his father's court. The royal Master of Ceremonies was put in charge of street cleaning; the Keeper of the Weapons was made health commissioner; the general of the nonexistent army was made chief truant officer. With French government help, a new industry, coffee culture, was introduced, and—in direct answer to the newly literate demands of the Sultan's people—a postal service was begun. "With tradition as the father and modernization, brought by the French, as mother," said the Sultan, "we shall produce a healthy child."

Last January energetic French High Commissioner Roland Pré instituted some reforms of his own. Anxious to cut down the top-heavy local administrative setup in the Cameroons, he began looking for likely natives to serve in local municipal offices. When he canvassed the natives of Foumban on their choice for mayor, the answer was a landslide for Sultan Seydou.

Last week, a portly 40 (in the tradition of aldermen as well as sultans), the first native mayor to be elected in the Cameroons beamed happily over the switch in his status. "Election has its good sides," Sultan Seydou told a friend, "because you always know that you have to do the right thing because otherwise you'll be fired by the voters. Acting as absolute ruler is like sitting in a dark, iron kettle with the lid on."