Bimbia was an independent state of Isubu people of Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

, in 1884 annexed by the Germans and incorporated in the colony of Kamerun

Kamerun

German Cameroon was a West African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon.-History:-1800s:...

.
It lies in Southwest Region, to the south of Mount Cameroon

Mount Cameroon

Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ....

 and to the west of the Wouri estuary

Wouri estuary

The Wouri estuary, or Cameroon estuary is a large tidal estuary in Cameroon where several rivers come together, emptying into the Bight of Biafra. Douala, the largest city in Cameroon, is at the mouth of the Wouri River where it enters the estuary...

.

Origins

The predominant Isubu oral history

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

 holds that the ethnic group hails from Mboko, the area southwest of Mount Cameroon

Mount Cameroon

Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ....

.
Tradition makes them the descendants of Isuwu na Monanga, who led their migration to the west bank of the Wouri estuary

Wouri River

The Wouri is a river in Cameroon. The river is formed at the confluence of the rivers Nkam and Makombé, northeast of the city of Yabassi. The Wouri then flows about southeast to the Wouri estuary at Douala, the chief port and industrial city in the southwestern part of Cameroon on the Gulf of...

. When a descendant of Isuwu named Mbimbi became king, the people began to refer to their territories as Bimbia.

Early European contacts

Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 traders reached the Wouri estuary in 1472. Over the next few decades, more Europeans came to explore the estuary and the rivers that feed it, and to establish trading post

Trading post

A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

s. The Isubu carved out a role for themselves as middlemen, trading ivory

Ivory

Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...

, kola nut

Kola nut

Kola Nut is the nut of the kola tree, a genus of trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa, classified in the family Malvaceae, subfamily Sterculioideae . It is related to the South American genus Theobroma, or cocoa...

s, and peppers

Capsicum

Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...

 from the interior. However, a major commodity was slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

s, most bound for plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

s on nearby islands such as Annobon

Annobón

Annobón may refer to:* Annobón Province* Annobonese language* Annobon people...

, Fernando Po

Bioko

Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...

, Príncipe

Príncipe

Príncipe is the northern and smaller of the two major islands of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa. It has an area of 136 km² and a population of approximately 5,000. The island is a heavily eroded volcano over three million years old, surrounded by other...

, and São Tomé

São Tomé

-Transport:São Tomé is served by São Tomé International Airport with regular flights to Europe and other African Countries.-Climate:São Tomé features a tropical wet and dry climate with a relatively lengthy wet season and a short dry season. The wet season runs from October through May while the...

.
By the 16th century, the Isubu were second only to the Duala

Duala people

The Duala are an ethnic group of Cameroon. They primarily inhabit the littoral region to the coast and form a portion of the Sawa, or Cameroonian coastal peoples...

 in trade. The earliest Isubu merchants were likely chief

Tribal chief

A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...

s or headmen.
Bimbia, the primary Isubu settlement, grew quickly.

Europeans traders did their best to support friendly chiefs against their rivals, adulating them with titles such as King, Prince, or Chief. In exchange, these indigenes offered trade monopolies

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

 to their patrons and sometimes ceded land. An Isubu chief named Bile

William I of Bimbia

William I of Bimbia, born Bile, was the chief and king of the Isubu ethnic group, who lived in Bimbia on the coast of Cameroon in the mid-to-late 19th century. British traders recognised the sovereignty of William's Bimbia and titled him "king". William sold land to the British missionary Alfred...

 became leader of the Isubu as King William, although Dick Merchant of Dikolo village and other chiefs eventually opposed his dominance.

British influence

British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 traders became the dominant European presence in the region by the mid-19th century, and the Crown used them to enforce abolition

Abolitionism

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 of the slave trade in the Gulf of Guinea

Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....

. In 1844 and 1848, King William signed anti-slavery treaties. In exchange, the traders provided him with annual gifts of alcohol, guns, textiles, and other goods.
William was also asked to forbid practices the British viewed as barbaric, such as sacrificing

Human sacrifice

Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...

 a chief's wife upon his death.
With William's blessing, Bimbia became a haven for repatriated slaves and escapees from the illicit trade, which continued for many more years.

The British also endeavored to educate and Christianise the Bimbians.
King William rebuffed the earliest missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 because he did not agree with their insistence on prayer and opposition to polygamy

Polygamy

Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...

. In 1844, however, Joseph Merrick

Joseph Merrick (missionary)

Joseph Merrick was a Jamaican Baptist missionary who, assisted by Joseph Jackson Fuller, established the first successful mission on the Cameroon coast of Africa. Merrick began preaching in 1837 in Jamaica and was ordained a full missionary in 1838. In 1842, Reverend John Clarke and Dr. G. K...

 convinced William to let him open a church and school in Bimbia.
In 1858, the Spanish ousted Protestant missionaries from their base at Fernando Po. King William sold a portion of his domains to the missionary Alfred Saker

Alfred Saker

Alfred Saker was a British missionary who founded the Cameroon city of Victoria, now Limbé , in 1858.He translated the Bible into Duala between 1862 and 1872....

, who then founded Victoria (today known as Limbe). By 1875, numerous missions and schools sprung up in Victoria and other settlements. Victoria came to be a mixture of freed slaves, working Cameroonians, and Christianised Cameroonians from the various coastal groups. Cameroonian Pidgin English

Cameroonian Pidgin English

Cameroonian Pidgin English, or Cameroonian Creole, is a language variety of Cameroon. It is also known as Kamtok . Five varieties are currently recognised:...

 began to develop at this time.

Isubu society was changed fundamentally by the European trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

. European goods became status symbol

Status symbol

A status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols...

s, and some rulers appointed Western traders and missionaries as advisors. Large numbers of Isubu grew wealthy, leading to rising class tensions. Competition escalated between coastal groups and even between related settlements. Between 1855 and 1879, the Isubu alone engaged in at least four conflicts, both internal and with rival ethnic groups. Traders exploited this atmosphere, and beginning in 1860, German, French, and Spanish merchants had established contacts and weakened the British monopoly. The Duala had gained a virtual hegemony over trade through the Wouri estuary, and the Isubu had little power left. Young King William

Young King William

Young King William, born Ngombe or Ngomb' a Bila , was, as William II of Bimbia, the chief and king of Bimbia on the coast of Cameroon and of the Isubu ethnic group who lived there. Young King William inherited a kingdom where power was shifting from the monarchy to wealthy traders, a situation...

 was virtually powerless when he succeeded his father in 1878.

Treaties

On 17 February 1844, King William I of Bimbia

William I of Bimbia

William I of Bimbia, born Bile, was the chief and king of the Isubu ethnic group, who lived in Bimbia on the coast of Cameroon in the mid-to-late 19th century. British traders recognised the sovereignty of William's Bimbia and titled him "king". William sold land to the British missionary Alfred...

 and the chiefs of Bimbia concluded a treaty with Lieutenant Edward Charles Earl, commander of the English brig Rapid in which the slave trade was prohibited in exchange for goods worth $1,200, and free trade was guaranteed.
On 19 December 1850, a further treaty with Thomas Rodney Eden, captain of the Amphitrite, regulated trade terms, covering subjects such as payment of "comey", a customary fee paid by trading vessels to chiefs in exchange for permission to trade.
On 7 February 1855, the British Acting Consul, J.W.B. Lynslager, witnessed an engagement in which the chiefs of the Boobee (Bubi) Islands, adjacent to the Amboise (Ambas) Islands, settled the recent dispute and acknowledged King William of Bimbia's authority.

German protectorate

A German protectorate over the Cameroons was declared on 12 July 1884.
In a communication of 15 October 1884 the German Government described the territories included in the protectorate, which included Bimbia.