Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:41:52.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Germanophone’ elite of Douala under the French mandate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Jonathan Derrick
Jonathan Derrick
Affiliation:
University of Ilorin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The centres of early Western education in West Africa, from whom came the junior staff of the Europeans in the early and middle colonial periods, included Douala, whose people provided most of such staff in German Kamerun and then in French Mandated Cameroun. The development of these coastal elites, insufficiently studied generally, has a particular historical interest in Douala because of the change of colonial regime.

The influences of Christianity and German education on the Dualas was extensive by 1914. Duala clerks, however, adapted readily to work under French rule. The Dualas generally profited as owners of urban land and of cash crop plantations under the French, until the 1930s, as under the Germans.

Continual anti-colonial protests were made under both regimes. But those against the French were attributed to the German culture or pro-German feelings of the protest leaders, or even active German intrigue among them. In fact former staff of the Germans who lived in the French period off plantation and other self-employment income were the hard core of protest leaders behind such acts as the 1929 self-government petition. Notable among them was Ferdinand Edinguele Meetom. But other ‘Germanophones’ were loyal to the French and helped to form their indispensable clerical staff. Generally, they continued to develop on the same lines under both regimes, with little change.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 1980 , pp. 255 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P., The Rulers of German Africa 1884‐1914 (1977), 84.Google Scholar

2 This is true of Cole, P. D., Traditional and Modern Elites in the Politics of LagosGoogle Scholar; Johnson, G. Wesley, The Emergence of Black Politics in Senegal (1971)Google Scholar; and, less so, Kimble, D., A Political History of Ghana 1850‐1928 (1963)Google Scholar. But Freetown is better served, with the more comprehensive study by Spitzer, L., The Creoles of Sierra Leone (1974).Google Scholar

3 Gann, and Duignan, , The Rulers…, 84.Google Scholar

4 Joseph, R., Radical Nationalism in Cameroun (Oxford, 1977), 34 ff.Google Scholar

5 Joseph, R., ‘The German question in French Cameroun, 1919–1939’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, xvii 65–90.Google Scholar

6 le Vine, V., The Cameroons from Mandate to Independence (Berkeley, 1964).Google Scholar

7 Johnson, W., The Cameroon Federation (Princeton, 1970).Google Scholar

8 Gouellain, R., Douala: Ville et Histoire (Paris, 1975).Google Scholar

9 Cornevin, R., Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1961), 446 ff.Google Scholar

10 On German rule see Stöcker, H., Kamerun unter Deutscher Kolonialherrschaft (Berlin, 1960, 1968).Google Scholar

11 Austen, R., ‘Slavery among the Duala of Cameroon’, unpublished MS, 26 ff.Google Scholar

12 van Slageren, J., Les Origines de l'Eglise Evangélique du Cameroun, 55.Google Scholar

13 Rudin, H., Germans in the Cameroons, 55.Google Scholar

14 Interviews, Doumbe-Mouloby, , Mod'a Bebe Bell, Leopold Moume Etia and others, Douala, 1972.Google Scholar

15 Interviews, Mod'a Bebe Bell, Sam Mandesi Bell, Douala; papers of Paramount Chief René Douala Manga Bell, Douala; on Mukuri, , letters of French Ambassador, Berlin, to Minister of Foreign Affairs, 24 May 1921Google Scholar, and of Commissioner (governor), French Cameroun, to Ministry of Colonies, 29 July 1922Google Scholar, in Box Cameroun AP III 29 & 30, Archives Nationales Section Outremer, Paris.

16 See a semi-fictional account of a German school in Kamerun in Ikelle-Matiba, Jean, Cette Afrique-là!Google Scholar

17 Doumbe-Moulongo, M., ‘Le Ngondo’, Revue Camerounaise d'Histoire, i, (1971).Google Scholar

18 Interview, Albert Mod'a Bebe Bell.

19 Journal des Missions Evangéliques, Paris, second half of 1920, 195.Google Scholar

20 Report to the Minister of the Colonies on the Administration of the Occupied Territory of Cameroun from the Conquest until 1 July 1921Google Scholar, appendix (dated 7 Sept. 1921 ) to Journal Officiel de la République Française, 447.Google Scholar

21 Reproduced (in French translation) in file Cameroun Affaires Politiques (hereafter abbreviated AP) III 29 & 30, Archives Nationales Section Outremer (hereafter abbreviated SOM), Paris.

22 Special Police Commissioner, Douala, , to Commissioner Marchand, 3 Dec. 1931Google Scholar, file Affaires Politiques et Administratives 11202/N, Cameroon Archives, Yaounde.

23 Joseph, R., ‘The German Question…’, and documents cited there, especially the many Menées Allemandes APA (Affaires Politiques et'Administratives) files at the Yaounde Archives.Google Scholar

24 Interview, Moses Ekal'a Pidi.

25 Moukouri, J. Kuoh, Les Doigts NoirsGoogle Scholar, Yaounde (an important reminiscence of the life of a clerk under the French); and interview.

26 Annual Report for Douala Circonscription for 1930Google Scholar, in file APA 10005/A, Cameroon Archives.

27 See text (in French translation) in file APA 10890, Cameroon Archives.

28 On the land case there are abundant documents in the French Colonial Ministry Archives, e.g. reports of talks in December 1926 in Box Cameroun AP II 29, Archives SOM, Paris; and in the private papers of paramount chief René Bell, Douala Manga, whom I thank for access to them in 1972.Google Scholar

29 Commissioner to Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa, 22 Jan. 1919Google Scholar, Box Cameroun AP II 28, Archives SOM, Paris.

30 The activity of these people is examined in my Ph.D. thesis at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, ‘Douala under the French Mandate, 1916–36’, 1979.Google Scholar

31 Douala Circonscription Annual Report for 1930Google Scholar, file APA 10005/A, Cameroon Archives.

32 R. L. Buell's near-contemporary account of this, a rather inaccurate one (The Native Problem in Africa, 11, 304 ff.Google Scholar), is now supplemented by my thesis (see note 30).

33 Interview, Jacques Kuoh Moukouri, Douala, 1972.Google Scholar

34 Kala-Lobe, I., ‘The Greatness and Decline of Mun'a Moto’, Présence Africaine no. 37, 2nd quarter 1961Google Scholar, English edition, 69 ff. This article is largely a valuable account of Douala plantations.

35 Suret-Canale, J., French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 455.Google Scholar

36 He won a legal action for recovery of this land in 1937 and got it back in 1944.Google Scholar

37 Marchand, to Minister, 17 March and 22 May 1930Google Scholar, Box Cameroun AP II 29 & 30, Archives SOM, Paris.

38 Owona, A., ‘La Curieuse Figure de Vincent Ganty’, Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outremer, lvi, cciv (1969).Google Scholar

39 Interview, Edinguele Meetom. It could have been the December 1929 petition, but his memory was vague.

40 Petition of 11 August 1929Google Scholar, file 1, Box Cameroun AP 615, Archives SOM, Paris.

41 On the movements in France see Langley, J. A., Pan-Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa, chapter VII.Google Scholar

42 Owona, op. cit.; Circular on Revolutionary Activity concerning the colonies, sent from French Colonies Ministry, 30 June 1930, file APA 10367, Cameroon Archives; Report of 21st session (Oct.-Nov. 1931) of Permanent Mandates Commission, Geneva.

43 Minister of Colonies to Commissioner, Paris 27 March 1935Google Scholar, file on Bile, J. E. in Box Cameroun AP II 28, Archives SOM, Paris; Circular on revolutionary activity, issued by Colonies Ministry 31 Dec. 1929Google Scholar, file APA 10367, Cameroon Archives.

44 Text in René Douala Manga Bell papers, Douala.

45 Decree on Native Justice in French Cameroun, 13 April 1921.Google Scholar

46 Chef de Circonscription, Douala, , to Commissioner, 24 May 1927Google Scholar, file APA 10934/B, Cameroon Archives.

47 But see below.

48 Interview, Dr Ekwe Bell, Douala.

49 Etia, L. Moume, ‘Nyango Mangoule ma Deido’, unpublished MS, Douala; Chef de Circonscription to Commissioner, 27 July 1931Google Scholar, and related correspondence in file APA 11217/B, Cameroon Archives.

50 For example Special Police Commissioner, Douala, , to Commissioner for Cameroun, 7 Sept. 1931Google Scholar, file APA 11201/N, Cameroon Archives.

51 Permanent Mandates Commission, Geneva, , Report of 21st session, 1931Google Scholar; Douala Circonscription Annual Report 1932Google Scholar, file APA 11757, Cameroon Archives.

52 Gouellain, (Douala…, 230)Google Scholar overstates the impact of the Slump.

53 See note 43.

54 Report by Head of Secretariat-General, Yaounde, , quoted in Commissioner to Minister, 2 Nov. 1934Google Scholar; translation of German document by Dikongue, Mukuri; report by head of Sûreté, Douala, Oct. 1934Google Scholar; Box Cameroun AP II 30, Archives SOM, Paris. Also undated note in Cameroon files isolated from other documents, Archives SOM. And Journal Officiel du Cameroun, 1 Sept. 1933 and 1 Oct. 1933.Google Scholar

55 See my paper ‘Free French and Africans in Douala, 1940–41’, presented to the Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Zaria, 1978.