¹ Leys, Colin, Underdevelopment in Kenya (Berkeley, Calif., 1974)Google Scholar. Arrighi, Giovanni, ‘Labor Supplies in Historical Perspective’, in G. Arrighi and J. Saul, Essays on the Political Economy of Africa (New York, 1973)Google Scholar. Bundy, Colin, ‘The Emergence and Decline of a South African Peasantry’, African Affairs, lxxi (1972), 369–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

² Hill, Polly, Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana (London, 1963)Google Scholar. Berry, Sara S., Cocoa, Custom and Socio–Economic Change in Rural Western Nigeria (London, 1975)Google Scholar. Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (New York, 1973), 222.Google Scholar

³ Buell, R. L., The Native Problem in Africa (New York, 1928), vol. 2, 2nd ed., 1965, 371.Google Scholar

⁴ Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (New York, 1973), 224.Google Scholar

⁵ Hopkins, op. cit., 244–5: ‘Indigenous marketing channels were called on to supply new geographical regions.…Rising demand was met by the development of specialized food producing regions in West Africa’. U. I. Ukwu, ‘Markets in Iboland’, in Hodder, B. W. and Ukwu, U. I., Markets in West Africa (Ibadan, 1969), 143Google Scholar: ‘Like other permanent stations the administrative nuclei and their associated settlements offered to the rural communities a new kind of opportunity.…There was the daily demand for goods.…Where there was none, a new market sprang up’.

⁶ Rey, P. P., Colonialisme, néo–colonialisme et transition au capitalisme (Paris, 1971), 365–75.Google Scholar

⁷ Kuczynski, R., The Cameroons and Togoland. A Demographic Study (London, 1939), 97.Google Scholar

⁸ Annual Report to the League of Nations (A.R.) (1935), 65.Google Scholar

⁹ Tessman, Gunter, Die Pangwe (Berlin, 1913)Google Scholar. The most complete work on Beti society and culture is Philippe Laburthe–Tolra, ‘Minlaaba’. Thèse, Université de Paris, 1975.

¹⁰ Quinn, Frederik, ‘Changes in Beti Society, 1887–1960’. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970, 77.Google Scholar

¹¹ Laburthe-Tolra, Philippe, Yaoundé d'après Zenker (Yaoundé, 1972), 101 n.Google Scholar

¹² Morgen, Curt von, A Travers le Cameroun du Sud au Nord, translated by Laburthe-Tolra, Philippe (Yaoundé, 1972), 29–30.Google Scholar

¹³ For example, the following report was made in 1919 about Charles Atangana, Superior Chief of Yaoundé under the Germans: ‘Atangana is very rich. During the period of German domination he did a great deal of business, had several workshops, and established five large plantations to provision the railway construction workers’. Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre–Mer, Paris (ANSOM). Carton XXVI, no. 279. Dossier Atangana.

¹⁴ Cameroun National Archives (C.N.A.) APA 11896/C.

¹⁵ Annual Report to the League of Nations Permanent Mandate Commission (A.R.) (1924), 170.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ibid. 170.

¹⁷ ANSOM, Carton xxxvi, no. 279. Dossier Atangana.

¹⁸ One other population, the teams of porters, was also dependent on the administration for food supplies. Certain villages were designated stopping places, where the village chief had the responsibility, for a small remuneration, of keeping their lodgings in good condition, and selling them food at the controlled price set by the government. There are also hints in the archives that local chiefs supplied food to the labourers in private enterprise, but there is not enough information on either of these to discuss them in detail.

¹⁹ A.R. (1923), 77. It should be noted that Yaoundé was not the only source of food for the railway workers, although it was the most important. The Circ. of Ebolowa sent groundnuts, and the Circ. of Dschang sent maize.

²⁰ A.R. (1928), 8.Google Scholar

²¹ In 1934 the Annual Reports start giving figures for total number of days of employment on public works, by circumscription. I have divided this number by three hundred to give a daily average work force.

²² For example, the number of days of paid casual labour on public works in 1934 in the Circumscription of Yaoundé was 90,460 and the number of days worked by prestataires was 703,720Google Scholar. A.R. (1934), 128, 129.Google Scholar

²³ C.N.A., APA 11894/A, Report for the first quarter, 1927: 3,565 prestataire days were spent for the upkeep of the city and 5,400 for the construction of the commercial centreGoogle Scholar. Each person worked ten days.

²⁴ Journal Officiel du Cameroun (J.O.C.), 1926Google Scholar. Arrêté portant à la réorganisation du régime des prestations au Cameroun.

²⁵ Kuczynski, R., The Cameroons and Togoland. A Demographic Study (London, 1939), 108.Google Scholar

²⁶ Prison statistics are given in the Annual Reports for the years 1932–8, by circumscription. For the Circ. of Yaoundé, the average daily population varied from a low of 582 in 1936 to a high of 914 in 1932. Not all of the prisoners were housed in the city, however. The only statistics I have found for the city alone are for 1942 and put the daily population at 227. It is interesting to note that between a third and two-thirds of the daily prison population was serving terms under the indigénat. Annual Reports and C.N.A. APA 11550/A.

²⁷ According to the Annual Report 1926, the Yaoundé hospital had a monthly intake of 120 from the railway sites alone. For three months of the year, Yaoundé also fed the sleeping sickness hospital at Ayos. C.N.A. APA 11954.

²⁸ Kuczynski, R., The Cameroon! and Togoland, 97.Google Scholar

²⁹ After the first season harvest of 1927, the government held a surplus of 45 tons of rice and 118 tons of groundnuts, even after it had ‘ceded’ 78 tons to civil servants, neighbouring circumscriptions, and commercial houses. The High Commissioner suggested selling the rice to the Governor of Gabon at a price f.o.b. more than twice the current local retail prices. C.N.A. APA 11894/A.

³⁰ Quinn, Frederik, ‘Charles Atangana and the Ewondo Chiefs’, Abbia, no. 23 (Dec. 1969), 83–126.Google Scholar

³¹ Leopold–Francois Eze, ‘Le Commandement Indigène de la Région du Nyong et Sanaga (Sud–Cameroun) de 1916 à 1945’ (Thèse, Université de Paris, n.d., 1972?).Google Scholar

³² ANSOM, Dossier Atangana. By comparison, the salaries of French administrators averaged 27,600 fr. p.a. in 1926 (Buell, , The Native Problem, 228Google Scholar) and an indigenous police sergeant's salary is quoted at 600 fr. p.a. (A.R. 1925, 166). The sum of 6,000 fr. was only the fixed part of Atangana's income from the government. He, like the other chiefs, also received tax rebates, payment for organizing road building, and an income for legal and judicial services.

³³ Eze, , ‘Le Commandement’, 107.Google Scholar

³⁴ The other exception is Joseph Atamengue, who received 6,000 fr. p.a. throughout the interwar period in return for services rendered as superior chief during Atangana's exile 1916–22.

³⁵ C.N.A., APA 11954.

³⁶ C.N.A., APA 11894/A.

³⁷ At a session of the Council of Notables, the chief of the Circumscription of Yaoundé promised to use the provisions of the indigénat against any seducers of chiefs' wives who proved unruly. C.N.A., APA 11954.

³⁸ C.N.A., APA 11894/A.

³⁹ Most of this section is reconstructed from interviews with the following people: M. Moise Bengono at Nkolbisson, 28.3.77; M. Laurent Nkolo at Leboudi, 14.3.77; M. Georges Esomba at Saa, 29.3.77; L'Abbé Th. Tsala at Mvolye, 15.3.77. Many others contributed to a lesser degree.

⁴⁰ C.N.A. Local Archives at Saa. Dossier Zogo Fouda Ngono.

⁴¹ A.R. (1924), 196.Google Scholar

⁴² C.N.A. Saa. Dossier Zogo Fouda Ngono.

⁴³ C.N.A. APA 11822/E.

⁴⁴ C.N.A. APA 11894/A.

⁴⁵ A.R. (1929), 67.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ J.O.C. (31 Aug. 1930).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Dugast, Idelette, Monographic de la Tribu des Ndiki (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar. For example, à propos the cooperative: ‘This organization having been created a long time ago, we have not been able, in 1953, to work out exactly what it is supposed to be’. Only the chief saw any of the proceeds (p. 380).

⁴⁸ Dugast, , Monographic, 390, 404.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ A.R. (1934), 74.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ C.N.A., APA 11954.

⁵¹ Porterage figures by circumscription in the Annual Report for 1926 give the days of porterage for Yaoundé at an incredible 9,500 for the entire year (p. 6).

⁵² Buell, R., The Native Problem, 327.Google Scholar

⁵³ C.N.A. APA 11894/A.

⁵⁴ C.N.A., APA 11822/A.

⁵⁵ C.N.A., APA 11641/A.

⁵⁶ C.N.A., APA 11954.

⁵⁷ C.N.A., APA 11954.

⁵⁸ Eze, , ‘Commandement’, 284.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid. 289.

⁶⁰ C.N.A., APA 11550/A.

⁶¹ C.N.A., APA 11954. The movement of people in Cameroun is very similar to that described by Asiwaju for the Ivory Coast. Asiwaju, A. I., ‘Migrations as Revolt: The Example of the Ivory Coast and the Upper Volta Before 1945’, J. Afr. Hist, xvii (1976), 577–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Many of the migrants fled to the British Cameroons, or to Rio Muni.

⁶² A.R. (1926), 10, 13.Google Scholar

⁶³ The stability of wages for African labourers is not, of course, a phenomenon local to Central Cameroun. It is reported for French West Africa: Hélènèd'Almeida-Topor, , ‘Recherches sur l'évolution du travail salarié en AOF pendant la crise économique 1930–36’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, xvi, (1976), 103–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the Ivory Coast: Meillassoux, Claude, Anthropologie Economique des Gouro de Côte d'lvoire (Paris, 1964), 307Google Scholar. For British Cameroon: Kuczynski, , The Cameroons and Togoland, 322.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ A.R. (1925), 5Google Scholar. It is difficult to imagine how the food ration could possibly have cost this much, given the food prices then current.

⁶⁵ C.N.A., APA 11954, 1927.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ A.R. (1932), 130.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ A.R. (1924), 4.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ A.R. (1927), 7.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ A.R. (1922), 79.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Annual Report to the United Nations (A.R.U.N.) (1947), 39.Google Scholar

⁷¹ A.R.U.N. (1950), 118–19.Google Scholar

⁷² A.R.U.N. (1950), 119.Google Scholar

⁷³ For example, as discussed by Berg, E. J., ‘Backward–Sloping Labor Supply Functions in Dual Economies: The Africa Case’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, lxxv (1961), 468–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁴ In 1922 the tax for a man in the Circ. of Yaoundé was 12 fr. In 1936 it was around 32 fr., depending on the Subdivision. In 1922 only women without children paid taxes, at 8 fr. p.a. In 1936 the only women with tax exemptions were women with five or more living children under 14 years of age, whose births were registered. The rest paid about 30 fr. each (A.R. 1922–36). Therefore, for a couple with less than five children, their tax went from 12 fr. to about 60 fr. between 1922 and 1936.

⁷⁵ The dowry was about 500 fr. in Yaoundé in the 1920s; it rose to 2,000 fr. in 1933 and 3,000 fr. by 1938. Nkoudou, Owono, ‘Le problème du mariage dotal au Cameroun Français’, Etudes Camerounaises (1953), 41–83.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ As noted earlier, wages remained stable in other African countries which were subject to different conditions. In a comparative study of real wages two different aspects need to be explained: the stability of wages relative to other prices; and their relative value. As Asiwaju and Buell both note, wages were higher in British than in French colonies, even though they, also, may have been static during the inter7–war period. Asiwaju, A. I., ‘Migrations as Revolt’, 582Google Scholar. Buell, R. L., The Native Problem, 323Google Scholar. Kuczynski, , The Cameroons and Togoland, 322.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ A.R. (1923), 77.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ A.R. (1924), 186Google Scholar. Atangana's wealth was undoubted, but its extent may be the subject of mythology. Some oral sources claim that he had no significant plantations; he was ‘fed by the people’. This is certainly not the case, but whether he in fact owned the hundreds of hectares attributed to him is not clear. For a discussion of Atangana, see Laburthe-Tolra, P., ‘Charles Atangana’, Les Africains, vol. 5, Julien, C. A., ed. (Paris, 1977), 111–41.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ A.N.S.O.M. Agencies des Colonies, Carton 151, Dossier 5.

⁸⁰ C.N.A. Local Archives at Saa.

⁸¹ A.R. (1924), 55.Google Scholar

⁸² A.R. (1938), 88.Google Scholar