King of Kamerun
How did it come to pass that an African king, striving to defend the unalienable rights of his people, in his land, was tried for treason by foreign occupiers, found guilty and hanged?
To properly answer this question, we must travel back to 15th-century Africa, to the Duala region of the country that came to be known as Cameroon.
“Why did Africa let Europe cart away millions of Africa’s souls from the continent to the four corners of the wind? How could Europe lord it over a continent ten times its size?” – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o – Wizard of the Crow
The Germans actually came “late” to Cameroon. They landed there in 1862 – led by the explorer Gustav Nachtigal – quite a few centuries after famous Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó and his men first sailed to the Wouri Estuary of Duala in 1472. The Duala region was part of an ancient African Kingdom, ruled by kings and chieftains from 4 major ruling lineages – the Akwa, Bell, Priso and Deido. Noticing the abundance of shrimp in the Duala waters, the Portuguese named the area Rio dos Camarões – River of Shrimps.
The French and British were the next set of Europeans to arrive in the area, lured there by the prospect of a profitable trade by barter, where they exchanged their Alcohol, arms, cloth and salt for slaves, rubber and palm oil. The Duala region was of particular interest to the British since neighbouring Northern and Southern Nigeria were already British colonies. However, they now faced fierce competition for control of this area from the Germans, who despite being relatively new, had quickly established themselves in the region as a force to be reckoned with. By 1868, the Germans had become the dominant European traders in the region and had largely displaced the British and the French. That same year, Hamburg businessman, Adolf Woerman set up his trading company, C Woerman in Duala, making it the first German trading company to be formally established in the region.
What was on the surface a mutually profitable transatlantic trade between the Africans and the Europeans, concealed what was essentially a “Scramble for Africa” by European nations. Europe was going through a severe economic depression at the time and the British, French and Germans sought to exploit Africa’s abundant natural and human resources in order to boost dwindling fortunes at home.
Though the booming transatlantic trade continued for hundreds of years, the ever-present scourge of Malaria discouraged the Europeans from settling permanently in the area and from venturing deeper into the African hinterland. However, as large quantities of the powerful antimalarial drug Quinine, discovered in 1820, became widely available in the late 1870s, the Europeans began to venture deeper into the African hinterland, secure in the knowledge that any Malaria infection could be promptly treated.
From the 1870s, the Germans began to push deeper into the hinterland of Cameroon, increasing trade and direct contact with other tribes, in search of more trade opportunities and greater profit. With a mix of coercion and intimidation, they did away with native middlemen and began trading directly with the tribes in Cameroon’s hinterlands. They also wished to acquire African colonies just like the other European countries before them had done.
The German leader, Otto Von Bismarck, being a fervent nationalist who believed more in developing the fatherland from within, had not been terribly enthusiastic about the Africa trade and colonial adventures. However, noting the success of Woerman’s company and the potential for importing a limitless amount of cheap agricultural produce to the fatherland from Cameroon, he was won over and with his blessing, other major German companies like Thormählen and Jantzen set up shop in Cameroon.
He however, still insisted that the German trading companies themselves should take the driver’s seat in administering the colony, “first the merchant, then the soldier” and that the home government would only play a supportive military role to put down any attempts by the native population to attack German investments and interests in the region.
Meanwhile, the coastal Duala tribes, increasingly fearful of powerful enemies – Muslim invaders who were relentlessly waging Jihad across Northern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon, as well unfriendly neighbouring tribes – decided that it would be in their best interests to sign a Protectorate Treaty with an ally who possessed superior military strength. They eventually decided that Germany would be that Protector. So, on July 12 1884, kings and chiefs from the major Duala tribes signed a protection treaty with Germany, represented by Johannes Voss of the trading firm Jantzen & Thormählen and Eduard Schmidt of Adolph Woermann GmbH. King Bell and King Akwa and some other Duala chiefs represented the Duala tribes and peoples.
The Germans regarded the treaties simply as a means of gaining access to and control over the resources of the people they pledged to protect. Thus, before the ink had even dried on the document, the Germans began to violate the terms of the treaty, stealing lands and resources from the indigenous people, pushing them into forced labour and committing large scale genocide in the process.
“Colonialism. The enforced spread of the rule of reason. But who is going to spread it among the colonizers?” – Anthony Burgess
Important clauses in the treaty, which specified that all existing property rights and customs were to be maintained and that the Germans were to pay a trading tax to the Duala kings, were routinely violated. Moreover, some historians have argued that the Treaty was not even one in the real sense of the word but rather, “an agreement between German private firms and Duala princes” because treaties, in the real sense of the word, can only be made between States.
Other critics of the Duala Treaty point out that important clauses from the first draft of the treaty, clauses which specified that Duala kings and chiefs would retain their trade monopolies, were deliberately left out of the final version by the Germans. Some prominent Duala kings violently opposed the treaty and refused to sign it and one such sovereign, Prince Lock Priso II declared war against the Germans to demonstrate his opposition. The short-lived war lasted only 12 days in December 1884 before Priso II and his men were routed and forced to sign a peace treaty with the Germans. His brave resistance could be regarded as the first sign that the Protection Treaty would not be in the best interest of the Cameroonians in the long run.
Nevertheless, for the time being at least, the region was calm and the Germans were able to go ahead with their ambitious plans which included building the largest railway network and port in Africa. They also set up massive plantations all over Southwest (now) Kamerun, growing cocoa, rubber, palm oil, bananas and tobacco. A large labour force was needed to work the plantations and the Germans employed exceedingly harsh methods to acquire workers.
“Colonialism hardly ever exploits the whole of a country. It contents itself with bringing to light the natural resources, which it extracts, and exports to meet the needs of the mother country’s industries, thereby allowing certain sectors of the colony to become relatively rich. But the rest of the colony follows its path of under-development and poverty, or at all events sinks into it more deeply.” – Frantz Fanon
