Rudolf Duala Manga Bell
Encyclopedia
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell was a Duala
king
and resistance leader
in the German
colony
of Kamerun
. After being educated in both Kamerun and Europe, he succeeded his father, Manga Ndumbe Bell
, on 2 September 1908. Manga Bell styled himself after European rulers, and he generally supported the colonial German authorities. He was quite wealthy and educated, although his father left him a substantial debt.
In 1910, the German Reichstag
developed a plan by which the riverain Duala would be moved inland to allow for wholly European riverside settlements. Manga Bell became the leader of pan-Duala resistance to the policy. He and the other chiefs at first pressured the administration through letters, petitions, and legal arguments, but these were ignored or rebutted. Manga Bell turned to other European governments for aid, and he sent representatives to the leaders of other Cameroonian peoples to suggest the overthrow of the German regime. Sultan Ibrahim Njoya
of the Bamum people
reported his actions to the authorities, and the Duala leader was arrested. After a summary trial, Manga Bell was hanged
for high treason
on 8 August 1914. His actions made him a martyr
in Cameroonian eyes. Writers such as Mark W. DeLancey, Mark Dike DeLancey, and Helmuth Stoecker view his actions as an early example of Cameroonian nationalism
.
in the German colony of Kamerun
. He was the eldest son of Manga Ndumbe Bell
, king
of the Bell lineage of the Duala people
. Manga Bell was raised to appreciate both African and European ways of life. His Westernised uncle, David Mandessi Bell, had a great impact on him, and the young Manga Bell attended school in both Douala and Germany
. During the 1890s, he attended the Gymnasium of Ulm, Germany, although no direct record of his time there survives. Manga Bell was made Ein-Jähriger, indicating that he held a certificate for education beyond the primary level but below the Abitur
earned for completion of secondary studies. When the prince returned to Kamerun, he was one of the most highly educated men in the colony by Western standards. He made other periodic visits to Europe, such as when he travelled to Berlin
, Germany, and Manchester
, England
, with his father in 1902. In Manchester, he met the mayor at town hall and was mentioned in the October edition of the African Times (where the editor doubted that he and his father were actual royalty). Manga Bell married Emily Engome Dayas, the daughter of an English
trader and a Duala woman.
When his father died on 2 September 1908, Manga Bell became the king of the Duala Bell lineage. He was traditionally installed on 2 May 1910 by the paramount chief
of Bonaberi
. Manga Bell inherited an 8,000 mark pension, cocoa and timber
interests in the Mungo River
valley, property and real estate
in Douala, and a lucrative position as head of an appeals court with jurisdiction over the Cameroon littoral. His father and grandfather, Ndumbe Lobe Bell
, left him in a strong political position with Bell dominant over the other Duala lineages. However, his father also left him a substantial debt of 7,000 marks
. Rudolf Duala Manga Bell was forced to rent buildings to European interests and move his own offices inland to the Douala neighbourhood of Bali. He owned 200 hectares of cocoa plantations in 1913, a large amount by Duala standards; his debt had been reduced to 3,000 marks by 13 July 1912.
Manga Bell's reign was European in character. His relations with the Germans were largely positive, and he was viewed as a good citizen and collaborator. Nevertheless, at times he ran afoul of the colonial administrators. In 1910, for example, the German authorities arrested him and accused him (with no proof) of collusion with a large bank robbery
.
to allow European-only settlement of the area. The expropriations affected all of the Duala lineages except Bonaberi, so Duala public opinion was strongly against it, and for the first time in their history, the Duala clans presented a united front. Manga Bell's position as leader of the dominant Bell clan, coupled with his character, education, and finances, made him a natural leader for this opposition. Manga Bell and other Duala rulers sent a letter to the Reichstag
in November 1911 to protest the land seizures. The Germans were surprised at Manga Bell's involvement, but they ignored the complaint. The chiefs sent another letter in March 1912. Still, the Germans moved forward with their plan on 15 January 1913. The chiefs warned in writing on 20 February 1913 that this violation "may well prompt the natives to consider whether it might be wiser under the circumstances to revoke the[ German-Duala Treaty of 1884 and enter into a treaty with another power." Manga Bell argued that the expropriation plan ignored the treaty's promise "that the land cultivated by us now and the places the towns are built on shall be the property of the present owners and their successors" and contradicted statements by Governor Theodor Seitz that he would leave Bell lands alone as he constructed a railroad in the colony. The Germans countered that the German-Duala treaty gave them the authority to manage Duala lands as they saw fit. That August, they removed Manga Bell from office and from the civil service
and stripped him of his annual pension of 3,000 marks. In his place, they propped up his brother, Henri Lobe Bell
.
The Reichstag debated the expropriation for the first half of 1914. Manga Bell enlisted the aid of Hellmut von Gerlach
, a German journalist. Gerlach managed to secure a suspension order from the Reichstag Budget Commission in March, but the order was overturned when Colonial Secretary Wilhelm Solf
convinced elements of the press, businessmen in the colony, politicians, and other groups to finally rally behind the expropriation. Manga Bell and the Duala requested permission to send envoys to Germany to plead their case, but the authorities denied them. In secret, Manga Bell sent Adolf Ngoso Din to Germany to hire a lawyer for the Duala and pursue the matter in court.
The desperate Manga Bell turned to other European governments and to the leaders of other African ethnic groups for support. The contents of his correspondence with European powers are unknown; he may have simply sought to spread word of his cause. His envoys to African leaders reached Bali
, Balong, Dschang
, Foumban
, Ngaoundéré
, Yabassi
, and Yaoundé
. Karl Atangana
, leader of the Ewondo and Bane peoples
, kept Manga Bell's plan secret but urged the Duala leader to reconsider. In Bulu
lands on the other hand, Martin-Paul Samba
agreed to contact the French
for military support if Manga Bell petitioned the British
. However, there is no evidence that Manga Bell ever did so. In Foumban, Ibrahim Njoya
, sultan of the Bamum people
, rejected the plan and informed the Basel Mission
on 27 April 1914 that Manga Bell was planning a pan-Kamerun rebellion. The missionaries alerted the Germans.
Historians are split on the nature of Manga Bell's actions. Mark W. DeLancey and Mark Dike DeLancey name him "an early nationalist", and Helmuth Stoecker says that his actions "had begun to organize a resistance movement embracing the whole of Cameroon and cutting across tribal differences". However, Ralph A. Austen and Jonathan Derrick argue that "it is unlikely that any such radical action against the European regime was intended."
On 6 May 1914, Bezirksamtmann Herrmann Röhm wrote to the Kuti Agricultural Station (where Manga Bell's envoy was being held),
On 1 June, Röhm wrote to the administration in Buea
that based on his calculations of Manga Bell's annual income from cocoa and timber exports, and accounting for his debts to European interests, the Duala merchants would likely not see it in their interests to oppose the expropriation further. At the urging of Solf, the Germans arrested Manga Bell and Ngoso Din and charged them with high treason
. Their trial was held on 7 August 1914. World War I
had just begun, and an attack by the Allied West Africa Campaign
in Kamerun was imminent; accordingly, the trial was rushed. No direct record of the proceedings survives. The dossier of evidence used against Manga Bell claimed that he had been raising funds from inland and that his outspoken opposition was causing unrest among the inland peoples. The regime claimed that Manga Bell had admitted to contacting foreign countries for aid against Germany, but a 1927 recollection by the official defense attorney—riddled as it is with inaccuracies and racist statements—claims that Manga Bell maintained his innocence throughout. Requests for the accused men's lives to be spared came from Heinrich Vieter
of the Catholic Pallottine Mission, the Basel Mission
, and the Baptist Mission, but Governor Karl Ebermeier rejected their pleas. On 8 August 1914, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and Adolf Ngoso Din were hanged
. The Allies captured Douala seven weeks later, on 27 September 1914.
made him a martyr
to the people of Cameroon and painted the Duala as an heroic people. His story became legend
and came to represent "the myth of extreme colonial oppression, based upon the catastrophic climax of German rule in Douala". Manga Bell was still popular well into the 1920s. "Tet'Ekombo", a hymn to him composed in 1929, has remained popular. In 1935, his body was exhumed and reburied behind his house in Bonanjo, Douala. An obelisk was erected there on 8 August 1936, the 20th anniversary of his execution.
The Germans and later colonial powers in Cameroon became wary of the Duala and never again allowed a powerful chieftaincy to take hold among them. After the French became the colonial power in East Cameroon after World War I, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell's brother Richard Ndumbe Manga Bell continued to fight to regain the lost Duala lands. Manga Bell's son, Alexandre Douala Manga Bell, took office under the French in 1951. His father's reputation as a Duala martyr lent Alexandre Douala Manga Bell great standing among the Duala.
Cameroon faced a long civil war when the outlawed nationalist
Union des Populations du Cameroun political party in the 1950s and '60s waged its maquis against French and Cameroonian forces. As a result, overt nationalist sentiment was shunned and figures such as Manga Bell were largely forgotten or only briefly treated in history books. However, signs show that Cameroon is coming to grips with its nationalistic past; for example, in March 1985, the École Militaire Inter-Armes, part of the military of Cameroon
, named a graduating class of cadet officers after Manga Bell.
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...
king
Rulers of the Duala
The rulers of the Duala are the headmen, chiefs, paramount chiefs, and kings of the Duala people of Cameroon. The earliest known Duala rulers, according to Duala oral history, were Mbongo and his son Mbedi. From Mbedi's home at Pīti, northeast of the modern city of Douala, his sons migrated southward...
and resistance leader
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
in the German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
colony
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
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:...
. After being educated in both Kamerun and Europe, he succeeded his father, Manga Ndumbe Bell
Manga Ndumbe Bell
Auguste Manga Ndumbe Bell was a leader of the Duala people of southern Cameroon from 1897 to 1908 during the period after the German colonialists assumed control of the region as the Kamerun colony.-Background:...
, on 2 September 1908. Manga Bell styled himself after European rulers, and he generally supported the colonial German authorities. He was quite wealthy and educated, although his father left him a substantial debt.
In 1910, the German Reichstag
Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
developed a plan by which the riverain Duala would be moved inland to allow for wholly European riverside settlements. Manga Bell became the leader of pan-Duala resistance to the policy. He and the other chiefs at first pressured the administration through letters, petitions, and legal arguments, but these were ignored or rebutted. Manga Bell turned to other European governments for aid, and he sent representatives to the leaders of other Cameroonian peoples to suggest the overthrow of the German regime. Sultan Ibrahim Njoya
Ibrahim Njoya
King Ibrahim Njoya , distinguished ruler, intellectual, and inventor, was 17th in a long dynasty of kings that ruled over Bamum and its people in western Cameroon dating back to the 14th century. He succeeded his father Nsangu and ruled from 1886/7 until his death in 1933...
of the Bamum people
Bamum people
The Bamum, sometimes called Bamoum, Bamun, Bamoun, or Mum, are an ethnic group of Cameroon with around 215,000 members.-Religion:...
reported his actions to the authorities, and the Duala leader was arrested. After a summary trial, Manga Bell was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
for high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
on 8 August 1914. His actions made him a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
in Cameroonian eyes. Writers such as Mark W. DeLancey, Mark Dike DeLancey, and Helmuth Stoecker view his actions as an early example of Cameroonian nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
.
Early life and reign
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell was born in 1873 in DoualaDouala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Province. Home to Cameroon's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport, it is the commercial capital of the country...
in the German 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:...
. He was the eldest son of Manga Ndumbe Bell
Manga Ndumbe Bell
Auguste Manga Ndumbe Bell was a leader of the Duala people of southern Cameroon from 1897 to 1908 during the period after the German colonialists assumed control of the region as the Kamerun colony.-Background:...
, king
Rulers of the Duala
The rulers of the Duala are the headmen, chiefs, paramount chiefs, and kings of the Duala people of Cameroon. The earliest known Duala rulers, according to Duala oral history, were Mbongo and his son Mbedi. From Mbedi's home at Pīti, northeast of the modern city of Douala, his sons migrated southward...
of the Bell lineage of the Duala people
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...
. Manga Bell was raised to appreciate both African and European ways of life. His Westernised uncle, David Mandessi Bell, had a great impact on him, and the young Manga Bell attended school in both Douala and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. During the 1890s, he attended the Gymnasium of Ulm, Germany, although no direct record of his time there survives. Manga Bell was made Ein-Jähriger, indicating that he held a certificate for education beyond the primary level but below the Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
earned for completion of secondary studies. When the prince returned to Kamerun, he was one of the most highly educated men in the colony by Western standards. He made other periodic visits to Europe, such as when he travelled to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany, and Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with his father in 1902. In Manchester, he met the mayor at town hall and was mentioned in the October edition of the African Times (where the editor doubted that he and his father were actual royalty). Manga Bell married Emily Engome Dayas, the daughter of an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
trader and a Duala woman.
When his father died on 2 September 1908, Manga Bell became the king of the Duala Bell lineage. He was traditionally installed on 2 May 1910 by the paramount chief
Paramount chief
A paramount chief is the highest-level traditional chief or political leader in a regional or local polity or country typically administered politically with a chief-based system. This definition is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple...
of Bonaberi
Bonabéri
Bonabéri is a port in the Littoral Province of Cameroon. It is located on the western side of the harbour across the Wouri River from the larger port of Douala.- External links :* *...
. Manga Bell inherited an 8,000 mark pension, cocoa and timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
interests in the Mungo River
Mungo River, Cameroon
The Mungo River is a large river in Cameroon that drains the mountains in the southern portion of the Cameroon line of active and extinct volcanoes.-Course:The Mungo river has a catchment area of ....
valley, property and real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
in Douala, and a lucrative position as head of an appeals court with jurisdiction over the Cameroon littoral. His father and grandfather, Ndumbe Lobe Bell
Ndumbe Lobe Bell
Ndumbé Lobé Bell or King Bell was a leader of the Duala people in Southern Cameroon during the period when the Germans established their colony of Kamerun...
, left him in a strong political position with Bell dominant over the other Duala lineages. However, his father also left him a substantial debt of 7,000 marks
German gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...
. Rudolf Duala Manga Bell was forced to rent buildings to European interests and move his own offices inland to the Douala neighbourhood of Bali. He owned 200 hectares of cocoa plantations in 1913, a large amount by Duala standards; his debt had been reduced to 3,000 marks by 13 July 1912.
Manga Bell's reign was European in character. His relations with the Germans were largely positive, and he was viewed as a good citizen and collaborator. Nevertheless, at times he ran afoul of the colonial administrators. In 1910, for example, the German authorities arrested him and accused him (with no proof) of collusion with a large bank robbery
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
.
Duala land problem
Manga Bell's real problems with the regime began later in 1910. The Germans outlined a plan to relocate the Duala people inland from the Wouri RiverWouri 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...
to allow European-only settlement of the area. The expropriations affected all of the Duala lineages except Bonaberi, so Duala public opinion was strongly against it, and for the first time in their history, the Duala clans presented a united front. Manga Bell's position as leader of the dominant Bell clan, coupled with his character, education, and finances, made him a natural leader for this opposition. Manga Bell and other Duala rulers sent a letter to the Reichstag
Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
in November 1911 to protest the land seizures. The Germans were surprised at Manga Bell's involvement, but they ignored the complaint. The chiefs sent another letter in March 1912. Still, the Germans moved forward with their plan on 15 January 1913. The chiefs warned in writing on 20 February 1913 that this violation "may well prompt the natives to consider whether it might be wiser under the circumstances to revoke the
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
and stripped him of his annual pension of 3,000 marks. In his place, they propped up his brother, Henri Lobe Bell
Henri Lobe Bell
Henri Lobe Manga Bell was the second child of King Auguste Manga Ndumbe Bell of the Duala people of Kamerun, and younger brother of King Rudolf Duala Manga Bell. He was married to Olga Welly....
.
The Reichstag debated the expropriation for the first half of 1914. Manga Bell enlisted the aid of Hellmut von Gerlach
Hellmut von Gerlach
Hellmut Georg von Gerlach was a German journalist and politician.-Life:Hellmut von Gerlach, the son of landowner Max von Gerlach, was born in Mönchmotschelnitz in Silesia. He studied law at the universities of Gent, Strasbourg, Leipzig, and Berlin, and was a member of the Verein Deutscher Studenten...
, a German journalist. Gerlach managed to secure a suspension order from the Reichstag Budget Commission in March, but the order was overturned when Colonial Secretary Wilhelm Solf
Wilhelm Solf
Wilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.-Early life:Wilhelm Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended secondary schools in Anklam in western Pomerania and in Mannheim...
convinced elements of the press, businessmen in the colony, politicians, and other groups to finally rally behind the expropriation. Manga Bell and the Duala requested permission to send envoys to Germany to plead their case, but the authorities denied them. In secret, Manga Bell sent Adolf Ngoso Din to Germany to hire a lawyer for the Duala and pursue the matter in court.
The desperate Manga Bell turned to other European governments and to the leaders of other African ethnic groups for support. The contents of his correspondence with European powers are unknown; he may have simply sought to spread word of his cause. His envoys to African leaders reached Bali
Bali, Cameroon
Bali is a town and commune in Cameroon, lying west of Bamenda. It has a population of 32,000 . Formerly the centre of a kingdom, it is known for its palace and its regular festival....
, Balong, Dschang
Dschang
Dschang is a city located in the West Province of Cameroon, with an estimated population of 87,000 in 2001, growing dramatically from 21,705 recorded in 1981. The 2006 Population is estimated to be 200,000 inhabitants....
, Foumban
Foumban
Foumban or Fumban is a city in Cameroon, lying north east of Bafoussam. It has a population of 83,522 . It is a major town for the Bamoun people and is home to a museum of traditional arts and culture...
, Ngaoundéré
Ngaoundéré
Ngaoundéré or N'Gaoundéré is the capital of the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It had a population of 152,698 . It lies at the northern end of the railway to Yaoundé and is also home to an airport. The current city was founded in approximately 1835 by the Fulani leader Ardo Njobdi, although the...
, Yabassi
Yabassi
Yabassi is a town and commune in western Cameroon, and capital of the Nkam department. Its population in 2001 was estimated at 12,000. The main dialect spoken is the Bassa Yabassi. However, there are also other dialects originating in the Nkam which are spoken....
, and Yaoundé
Yaoundé
-Transportation:Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport is a major civilian hub, while nearby Yaoundé Airport is used by the military. Railway lines run west to the port city of Douala and north to N'Gaoundéré. Many bus companies operate from the city; particularly in the Nsam and Mvan neighborhoods...
. Karl Atangana
Charles Atangana
Charles Atangana , also known by his birth name, Ntsama, and his German name, Karl, was the paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane ethnic groups during much of the colonial period in Cameroon...
, leader of the Ewondo and Bane peoples
Beti-Pahuin
The Beti-Pahuin are a group of related peoples who inhabit the rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Though they separate themselves into several individual ethnic groups, they all share a common history and culture. They were...
, kept Manga Bell's plan secret but urged the Duala leader to reconsider. In Bulu
Beti-Pahuin
The Beti-Pahuin are a group of related peoples who inhabit the rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Though they separate themselves into several individual ethnic groups, they all share a common history and culture. They were...
lands on the other hand, Martin-Paul Samba
Martin-Paul Samba
Martin-Paul Samba, born Mebenga m'Ebono , was a Bulu military officer during the Imperial German colonial period of Cameroon. M'Ebobo became a favourite of the German colonials during his upbringing in Kribi, a coastal settlement in southern Cameroon...
agreed to contact the French
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
for military support if Manga Bell petitioned the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. However, there is no evidence that Manga Bell ever did so. In Foumban, Ibrahim Njoya
Ibrahim Njoya
King Ibrahim Njoya , distinguished ruler, intellectual, and inventor, was 17th in a long dynasty of kings that ruled over Bamum and its people in western Cameroon dating back to the 14th century. He succeeded his father Nsangu and ruled from 1886/7 until his death in 1933...
, sultan of the Bamum people
Bamum people
The Bamum, sometimes called Bamoum, Bamun, Bamoun, or Mum, are an ethnic group of Cameroon with around 215,000 members.-Religion:...
, rejected the plan and informed the Basel Mission
Basel Mission
The Basel Mission is a Christian missionary society active from 1815 to 2001, when it was merged into Mission 21, the successor organization of Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione founded in 2001....
on 27 April 1914 that Manga Bell was planning a pan-Kamerun rebellion. The missionaries alerted the Germans.
Historians are split on the nature of Manga Bell's actions. Mark W. DeLancey and Mark Dike DeLancey name him "an early nationalist", and Helmuth Stoecker says that his actions "had begun to organize a resistance movement embracing the whole of Cameroon and cutting across tribal differences". However, Ralph A. Austen and Jonathan Derrick argue that "it is unlikely that any such radical action against the European regime was intended."
On 6 May 1914, Bezirksamtmann Herrmann Röhm wrote to the Kuti Agricultural Station (where Manga Bell's envoy was being held),
We are not confronted with any direct danger of some kind of violent action by the Duala. For now the main value of the statements from Ndane [the envoy to Njoya] lies in the fact that they contain material for proceeding against those chiefs who are guilty of actual deliberate agitation in refusal of the expropriation and of resistance that reaches all the way over to Germany.
Buea
Buea is the capital of the Southwest Region of Cameroon. The town is located on the eastern slopes of Mount Cameroon and has a population of 90,088 . Buea was the colonial capital of the German Kamerun from 1901 to 1919,and the capital of the Southern Cameroons from 1949 until 1961...
that based on his calculations of Manga Bell's annual income from cocoa and timber exports, and accounting for his debts to European interests, the Duala merchants would likely not see it in their interests to oppose the expropriation further. At the urging of Solf, the Germans arrested Manga Bell and Ngoso Din and charged them with high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
. Their trial was held on 7 August 1914. World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
had just begun, and an attack by the Allied West Africa Campaign
West Africa Campaign (World War I)
The West Africa Campaign of World War I consisted of two small and fairly short military operations to capture the German colonies in West Africa: Togoland and Kamerun.-Overview:...
in Kamerun was imminent; accordingly, the trial was rushed. No direct record of the proceedings survives. The dossier of evidence used against Manga Bell claimed that he had been raising funds from inland and that his outspoken opposition was causing unrest among the inland peoples. The regime claimed that Manga Bell had admitted to contacting foreign countries for aid against Germany, but a 1927 recollection by the official defense attorney—riddled as it is with inaccuracies and racist statements—claims that Manga Bell maintained his innocence throughout. Requests for the accused men's lives to be spared came from Heinrich Vieter
Heinrich Vieter
Heinrich Vieter was a German Pallottine missionary to the German colony of Kamerun. Vieter arrived in Douala with seven other members of the mission on 25 October 1890. Over the next 13 years, Vieter led the Pallottines as they opened missions and schools across the territory...
of the Catholic Pallottine Mission, the Basel Mission
Basel Mission
The Basel Mission is a Christian missionary society active from 1815 to 2001, when it was merged into Mission 21, the successor organization of Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione founded in 2001....
, and the Baptist Mission, but Governor Karl Ebermeier rejected their pleas. On 8 August 1914, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and Adolf Ngoso Din were hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. The Allies captured Douala seven weeks later, on 27 September 1914.
Legacy
Manga Bell's executionCapital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
made him a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
to the people of Cameroon and painted the Duala as an heroic people. His story became legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
and came to represent "the myth of extreme colonial oppression, based upon the catastrophic climax of German rule in Douala". Manga Bell was still popular well into the 1920s. "Tet'Ekombo", a hymn to him composed in 1929, has remained popular. In 1935, his body was exhumed and reburied behind his house in Bonanjo, Douala. An obelisk was erected there on 8 August 1936, the 20th anniversary of his execution.
The Germans and later colonial powers in Cameroon became wary of the Duala and never again allowed a powerful chieftaincy to take hold among them. After the French became the colonial power in East Cameroon after World War I, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell's brother Richard Ndumbe Manga Bell continued to fight to regain the lost Duala lands. Manga Bell's son, Alexandre Douala Manga Bell, took office under the French in 1951. His father's reputation as a Duala martyr lent Alexandre Douala Manga Bell great standing among the Duala.
Cameroon faced a long civil war when the outlawed nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
Union des Populations du Cameroun political party in the 1950s and '60s waged its maquis against French and Cameroonian forces. As a result, overt nationalist sentiment was shunned and figures such as Manga Bell were largely forgotten or only briefly treated in history books. However, signs show that Cameroon is coming to grips with its nationalistic past; for example, in March 1985, the École Militaire Inter-Armes, part of the military of Cameroon
Military of Cameroon
The Cameroonian Armed Forces generally has been an apolitical force where civilian control of the military predominates. Traditional dependence on the French defense capability, although reduced, continues to be the case as French military advisers remain closely involved in preparing the...
, named a graduating class of cadet officers after Manga Bell.