Rudolf Duala Manga Bell

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rudolf Duala Manga Bell
King
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell
Reign2 September 1908 – 8 August 1914
Coronation2 May 1910
PredecessorManga Ndumbe Bell
Born1873
Douala, Kamerun
Died(1914-08-08)8 August 1914 (aged 40-41)
Wife
Names
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell
FatherManga Ndumbe Bell

Rudolf Duala Manga Bell (1873 – 8 August 1914) was a

king and resistance leader in the German colony of Kamerun (Cameroon). After being educated in both Kamerun and Europe, he succeeded his father Manga Ndumbe Bell
on 2 September 1908.

Bell styled himself after European rulers and at first 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 to relocate the Duala people living along the river, to 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

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.

Early life and reign

Manga Bell was born in 1873 in

king of the Bell lineage of the Duala people. Manga Bell was raised to appreciate both African and European ways of life. His Westernized uncle David Mandessi Bell had a great impact on him,[1] and as a youth he attended school in both Douala and Germany.[2] 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.[3] When the prince returned to Kamerun, he was one of the most highly educated men in the colony by Western standards.[4] 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).[5] Manga Bell married Emily Engome Dayas, the daughter of an English trader and a Duala woman.[1]

When his father died on 2 September 1908, Manga Bell succeeded as the king of the Duala Bell lineage. He was traditionally installed on 2 May 1910 by the

marks.[10] Rudolf Duala Manga Bell was forced to rent buildings to European interests and move his own offices inland to the Douala neighbourhood of Bali.[11] He owned 200 hectares of cocoa plantations in 1913, a large amount by Duala standards;[12] his debt had been reduced to 3,000 marks by 13 July 1912.[13]

Manga Bell's reign was European in character.[1] His relations with the Germans were largely positive, and he was viewed as a good citizen and collaborator.[11] 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.[4]

Duala land problem

Wouri estuary showing Duala settlements around 1850

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 River to allow European-only settlement of the area. The expropriations affected all of the Duala lineages except Bonaberi,[11] so Duala public opinion was strongly against it, and for the first time in their history, the Duala clans presented a united front.[4] 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,[11] 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.[14] 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."[15] 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"[16] and contradicted statements by Governor Theodor Seitz that he would leave Bell lands alone as he constructed a railroad in the colony.[17] 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.[18] In his place, they propped up his brother, Henri Lobe Bell.[19]

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.[15] Manga Bell and the Duala requested permission to send envoys to Germany to plead their case, but the authorities denied them.[20] In secret, Manga Bell sent Adolf Ngoso Din to Germany to hire a lawyer for the Duala and pursue the matter in court.[21]

The desperate yet motivated Manga Bell, turned to other European governments and to the leaders of other African ethnic groups for support.

Bulu lands on the other hand, Martin-Paul Samba agreed to contact the French for military support if Manga Bell petitioned the British.[25] However, there is no evidence that Manga Bell ever did so.[26] 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.[25]

As King Manga Bell was prosecuted under the German occupation, he found a refuge by his relative and best friend, King Ekandjoum Joseph. The latter also claimed the rights of his kingdom and his Moungo people.

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".[15] However, Ralph A. Austen and Jonathan Derrick argue that "it is unlikely that any such radical action against the European regime was intended."[27]

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.[28]

Manga Bell's funeral

On 1 June 1914 Röhm wrote to the administration in

Pallottine Mission, the Basel Mission, and the Baptist Mission, but Governor Karl Ebermaier rejected their pleas.[33] On 8 August 1914,[34] Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and Adolf Ngoso Din were hanged. The Allies captured Douala seven weeks later on 27 September 1914.[35]

Legacy

Manga Bell's execution made him a martyr to the people of Cameroon and painted the Duala as an heroic people.[36] His story became legend[4] and came to represent "the myth of extreme colonial oppression, based upon the catastrophic climax of German rule in Douala".[37] 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.[38]

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.

French Cameroun after World War I, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell's brother Richard Ndumbe Manga Bell continued to fight to regain the lost Duala lands.[40] Manga Bell's son Alexandre Douala Manga Bell took office under the French in 1951.[19] His father's reputation as a Duala martyr lent Alexandre Douala Manga Bell great standing among the Duala.[41]

Cameroon faced a long civil war when the outlawed nationalist

military of Cameroon, named a graduating class of cadet officers after Manga Bell.[2]

Following public discussions about the reassessment of Germany's colonial past, the district assembly of the Berlin-Mitte district announced in 2018, that the Nachtigalplatz, named after colonialist explorer Gustav Nachtigal, would be renamed after Emily and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell.

In 2019, a short film, "The German King,"[43] was released depicting the end of Manga Bell's life. It won several awards at film festivals including the Fisheye Film Festival in the United Kingdom[44] and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.[45]

From April 14, 2021 to December 31, 2022, the Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK) is presenting the multimedia exhibition "Hey Hamburg, do you know Duala Manga Bell?", the first comprehensive exhibition about his life. The exhibition is aimed specifically at young visitors and families and questions social attitudes towards colonial heritage and racism.[46]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Austen and Derrick 126.
  2. ^ a b DeLancey and DeLancey 168.
  3. ^ Austen and Derrick 221 note 167.
  4. ^ a b c d e Austen and Derrick 132.
  5. ^ Brunschwig 54; Green 23.
  6. ^ Ngoh 350.
  7. ^ Brunschwig 54.
  8. ^ Austen and Derrick 130, 132
  9. ^ Austen 14.
  10. ^ Austen and Derrick 132–3.
  11. ^ a b c d Austen and Derrick 133.
  12. ^ Clarence-Smith 157.
  13. ^ Austen and Derrick 221 note 169.
  14. ^ Ngoh 106–7.
  15. ^ a b c Stoecker 172.
  16. ^ Quoted in Stoecker 172.
  17. ^ Austen and Derrick 129, Ngoh 107.
  18. ^ Austen and Derrick 135, Ngoh 108.
  19. ^ a b Austen and Derrick 144.
  20. ^ a b Ngoh 107.
  21. ^ Austen and Derrick 128; Ngoh 74, 107
  22. ^ Austen and Derrick 128–9; Dorward 421.
  23. ^ a b Austen and Derrick 136.
  24. ^ Quinn 99.
  25. ^ a b Austen and Derrick 136, Ngoh 108.
  26. ^ Austen 21.
  27. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 168, Austen and Derrick 136.
  28. ^ Letter quoted in Austen and Derrick 136.
  29. ^ Austen and Derrick 130.
  30. ^ Austen and Derrick 128; Stoecker 173.
  31. ^ a b Ngoh 115.
  32. ^ Austen and Derrick 222 note 179.
  33. ^ Ngoh 74, 115; Austen and Derrick 222 note 177.
  34. ^ Austen and Derrick 129 and Ngoh 115 both support this date; DeLancey and DeLancey 168 give the date as 14 August.
  35. ^ Austen and Derrick 138.
  36. ^ Austen and Derrick 129.
  37. ^ Austen and Derrick 93.
  38. ^ Austen and Derrick 171.
  39. ^ Austen and Derrick 135.
  40. ^ Hill 150 note 2.
  41. ^ Austen 15.
  42. ^ Bayart 43.
  43. ^ "The German King". imdb.com. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  44. ^ "2020 Festival - Fisheye Film Festival". fisheyefilmfest.uk. 7 December 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  45. ^ "Rhode Island International Film Festival (2019)". imdb.com. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  46. ^ MARKK. "Hey Hamburg, do you know Duala Manga Bell?". markk-hamburg.de. Retrieved 31 August 2021.

References

  • Austen, Ralph A. (1983). "The Metamorphoses of the Middlemen: The Duala, Europeans, and the Cameroon Hinterland, ca. 1800–ca. 1960". The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1.
  • Austen, Ralph A., and Derrick, Jonathan (1999): Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: The Duala and their Hinterland, c. 1600–c.1960. Cambridge University Press.
  • Bayart, Jean-François (1989). "Cameroon". Contemporary West African States. Cambridge University Press.
  • Brunschwig, Henri (1974). "De la Résistance Africaine à l'Impérialisme Européen". The Journal of African History, Vol. 15, No. 1.
  • Clarence-Smith, William Gervase (2000). Cocoa and Chocolate, 1765–1914. London: Routledge.
  • DeLancey, Mark W., and DeLancey, Mark Dike (2000): Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon (3rd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
  • Dorward, D. C. (1986). "German West Africa, 1905–1914". The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 7: c. 1905–c. 1940. Cambridge University Press.
  • Green, Jeffrey (1998). Black Edwardians: Black People in Britain, 1901–14. New York: Frank Cass Publishers.
  • Hill, Robert A., ed. (2006). The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: Africa for the Africans, 1923–1945, Vol. X. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Ngoh, Victor Julius (1996): History of Cameroon Since 1800. Limbe: Presbook.
  • Quinn, Frederick E. (1990): "Rain Forest Encounters: The Beti Meet the Germans, 1887–1916". Introduction to the History of Cameroon in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Stoecker, Helmuth (Zölner, Bernd, trans.) (1986). "Colonial Rule after the Defeat of the Uprisings". German Imperialism in Africa: From the Beginnings until the Second World War. London: C. Hurst & Col (Publishers) Ltd.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rudolf_Duala_Manga_Bell&oldid=1213566364"