Charles Atangana
Encyclopedia
German name
German names consist of one or several Vornamen and a Nachname . The Vorname is usually gender-specific.-Forenames:...
, Karl, was 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 the Ewondo and Bane
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...
ethnic groups during much of the colonial period
History of Cameroon
This article documents the history of Cameroon.-Early history:The earliest inhabitants of Cameroon were probably the Baka . They still inhabit the forests of the south and east provinces. Bantu speakers originating in the Cameroonian highlands were among the first groups to move out before other...
in 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...
. Although from an unremarkable background, Atangana's loyalty and friendship with colonial priests and administrators secured him successively more prominent posts in the colonial government
German colonial empire
The German colonial empire was an overseas domain formed in the late 19th century as part of the German Empire. Short-lived colonial efforts by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Imperial Germany's colonial efforts began in 1884...
. He proved himself an intelligent and diplomatic administrator and an eager collaborator, and he was eventually named paramount chief of two Beti-Pahuin
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...
subgroups, the Ewondo and Bane peoples. His loyalty and acquiescence to the German Empire
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...
was unquestioning, and he even accompanied the Germans on their escape from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
in 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...
.
After a brief stay in Europe, Atangana returned to his homeland in Cameroon, which by then was a League of Nations mandate
League of Nations mandate
A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League...
territory under the administration of the French Third Republic
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...
. The French doubted his loyalties at first, but Atangana served them with the same ardour he had shown the Germans and regained his post as paramount chief. During the remainder of his life, he oversaw the Westernisation
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
of his subjects and the improvement of his domains despite the erosion of his powers due to French policies and unrest among his people. He never advocated resistance to the European powers, preferring to embrace European civilisation and technology as a means of personal enrichment and in the service of African interests. After his death in 1943, Atangana was largely forgotten. However, since Cameroon's independence in 1960, Cameroonian scholars have rediscovered his story.
Early life
Ntsama Atangana was born sometime between 1876 and 1885 in MvolyéMvolyé
Mvolyé or Mvolye is a neighbourhood of Yaoundé, Cameroon. Around 1900, during Cameroon's colonial period, the site was part of the lands ruled by Karl Atangana. He then donated part of the area to the German Pallottine Fathers, a Roman Catholic missionary group. The Ewondo people had previously...
, a small village in what is today 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...
, Cameroon. His parents gave him the drum name "He who is known by the nations". He was the eleventh of twelve children born to Essomba Atangana, a headman
Village head
The village headman or village chief is a central government post. The village headman is the person appointed to administer an area that is often a single village.The headman has several official duties in the village...
of the Mvog Atemenge sublineage of the Ewondo ethnic group. Essomba Atangana was one of thousands of minor Beti
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...
leaders living between the Sanaga
Sanaga River
The Sanaga River is a river of South Province, Cameroon, Centre Province, Cameroon, and West Province, Cameroon. Its length is 890 kilometers.The Sanaga River forms a boundary between two tropical moist forest ecoregions...
and Nyong
Nyong River
The Nyong is a river in Cameroon. The river flows approximately 640 km to empty into the Gulf of Guinea.-Transport:The town of Mbalmayo, which has a railhead, lies on the north bank of this river. The towns of Akonolinga and Abong-Mbang also lie on it....
rivers, each charged with providing for his compound and the extended family and slaves who lived there. His father died when Ntsama Atangana was about six years old.
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...
appeared near his village in 1887 in search of a direct route to the ivory trade
Ivory trade
The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, Asian and African elephants....
in the savannas to the north. They had claimed Beti lands as part of their 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:...
colony in 1884, and by February 1889 they had established a permanent base in the area, which they named Jaunde after the local people. The Ewondo opposed the foreigners at first, although Atangana was probably not yet old enough to participate in the fighting. After the defeat of Omgba Bissogo
Omgba Bissogo
Omgba Bissogo was an Ewondo tribal chief and warrior who, during the colonial period in Cameroon in 1895, led a rebellion against forces of the German Empire. Omgba Bissogo was head of the Ewondo Mvog Ottou sublineage. Bissogo and his forces won a battle against the Germans and won their initial...
in 1895 and others like it, Ewondo resistance waned. The Germans randomly appointed chiefs and mayors to serve under them, and took local youths to perform menial tasks; Atangana was among them, sent by his uncle to be a houseboy.
Ewondo who learned German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
were highly favoured in the early days of the colonial regime. Station commander Hans Dominik
Hans Dominik
Hans Dominik was a German colonial officer of the Schutztruppe . He was the long-time commander of the Jaunde military station in Kamerun.- Early life and career :...
sent four such individuals to attend the mission
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...
school of the German Pallottine Fathers
Pallottine mission to Kamerun
The Pallottine Mission to Kamerun was a Roman Catholic mission to the German colony of Kamerun run by the Pallottines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When the German Empire became the colonial power of Kamerun in 1884, French Catholic groups were denied permission to set up a mission in...
in Kribi
Kribi
-Location:The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan Department, South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies approximately , by road, south of Douala, the loargest city in Cameroon and the busiest seaport in the country...
, a settlement on the coast. There, Atangana learned German language, history, and geography; mathematics; and Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Father 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...
especially liked the boy, and Atangana became the first Ewondo baptised a Roman Catholic; he took the Christian name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
Karl. Atangana's schooling had just ended when members of the Bulu ethnic group, one closely related to the Ewondo, invaded Kribi and sacked the school and church in 1899. Atangana waited out the revolt in Douala
Douala
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...
with the Fathers until the colonial militia defeated the rebels the following year.
Early career
In August 1900, the commander of German forces at Victoria (present-day Limbe) appointed Atangana interpreterInterpreting
Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...
for 500 Bulu hostages, who were being pressed into labour
Unfree labour
Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery as well as all other related institutions .-Payment for unfree labour:If payment occurs, it may be in one or more of the following forms:...
. Atangana kept the post for six months and took up extra duties as a nurse. The colonisers next sent Atangana to Buea
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...
to work as an office clerk. At some point between the end of his schooling in Kribi and the end of his service in Victoria, Atangana met Marie Biloa, a woman from a village called Mekumba. Although she was a little older and living as a kept woman by a German functionary, Atangana married her. She would eventually bear him two children: Jean Ndengue and Katerina (or Catherine) Edzimbi.
Atangana was a devout Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and he supported the church throughout his life with land and gifts. He opposed popular Beti syncretist
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
practices, and he was an opponent of an Ewondo initiation rite called the Sso
Sso (rite)
The Sso was an initiation rite practiced by the Beti of Cameroon in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The participants were young men between 15 and 25 years of age who, by completing the rite, became adults and enjoyed added privileges, such as passage into the land of the ancestors at death....
; his efforts led to its eventual eradication from Beti society. In 1901 he secured land for the Pallottine Fathers to build a mission in Jaunde, thus opening East and South Kamerun to Catholic proselytisation
Proselytism
Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix προσ- and the verb ἔρχομαι in the form of προσήλυτος...
. Nevertheless, Atangana supported traditional Ewondo customs on marriage. On widows, he said,
My colleagues and I . . . can only reply in demanding the upholding of custom, which requires the widow to be the property of the heir until her liberation, which can only take effect after the return of her bridewealth. She must remain with him as long as this return is not made.
Early in 1902, the colonial government appointed him their representative to the Ewondo people, and interpreter and clerk for the Germans posted in Jaunde. He was tasked with organising a census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
and tax collection system. He chose 300 headmen to be tax collectors, of whom the Germans approved 233. Atangana negotiated a cut of 5% for the collectors, much to their delight.
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...
and thus averting a confrontation between the tribesmen and the Germans. Atangana helped open posts in such wide-ranging places as Bafia
Bafia
Bafia is a Cameroonian town and commune in the Centre Province region, the capital of Mbam-et-Inoubou department. It lies north of the country's capital Yaoundé. Bafia has approximately 55,700, making it the third largest city in the province behind Yaoundé and Mbalmayo. Most citizens belong to...
, Abong-Mbang
Abong-Mbang
Abong-Mbang is a town and commune in the East Province of Cameroon. Abong-Mbang is located at a crossroads of National Route 10 and the road that leads south to Lomié. Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, is 311 km to the west, and Bertoua, the capital of the East Province, lies 27 km to...
, Mouloudou
Mouloudou
Mouloudou is a settlement in the East Province of Cameroon. Of the tropical forest in the area, 1,082,454 km² is protected for community hunting. Mouloudou was the site of a German station during the colonial period. The station was set up by Hans Dominik with the aid of Karl Atangana.-References:*...
, 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...
, Garoua
Garoua
Garoua is the capital of the North Province of Cameroon, lying on the Benue River. The city had 235,996 inhabitants at the 2005 Census, and is an important river port.- Overview :...
, and Maroua
Maroua
Maroua is the capital of the Far North Region of Cameroon, on the Ferngo and Kaliao Rivers. The city had 201,371 inhabitants at the 2005 Census,and is a centre of cotton industry. The city also has an airport located near the town of Salak, an agricultural school and ethnographic museum. To the...
. The Germans largely kept themselves segregated from their African subjects, but Dominik and Atangana defied these standards and grew close, even dining together in the same tent on occasion. Back in Jaunde, Atangana gained responsibilities valued by the regime, such as overseeing a poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
in October 1908.
In 1907, members of the Mvog Ada sublineage revolted against the colonial government over Atangana's appointment as their official interpreter. The plot included a conspiracy to poison Atangana, but word leaked to him. He informed his masters, and on 11 April, six plotters were put to death and two others imprisoned.
Dominik died on 16 November 1910. That same year, Atangana returned to Jaunde and received an administrative post, perhaps as head of the Ewondo-Bane court, which resided over civil disputes
Civil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
and small claims
Small claims court
Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and the name by which such a court is known varies by jurisdiction; it may be known as a county or magistrate's court...
and was the conduit through which the Germans transmitted communiqués (and gauged the response to them). However, he resigned the post when the head of his sublineage died; Atangana took over as headman of the sublineage and Mvolyé village.
In late 1911, Atangana voyaged to Germany to teach Ewondo
Ewondo language
Ewondo is the language of the Ewondo people of Cameroon. The language had 577,700 native speakers in 1982. Ewondo is a trade language. Dialects include Badjia , Bafeuk, Bamvele , Bane, Beti, Enoah, Evouzok, Fong, Mbida-Bani, Mvete, Mvog-Niengue, Omvang, Yabekolo , Yabeka, and Yabekanga...
at the Colonial Institute of the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
. He stayed there for about one year and transcribed Ewondo history and folklore for translation into German. His writings eventually became the Jaunde-Texte
Jaunde-Texte von Karl Atangana und Paul Messi
Jaunde-Texte von Karl Atangana und Paul Messi is a book written by Karl Atangana and Paul Messi and edited by linguist Martin Heppe. Atangana compiled the book while living in Hamburg, Germany, from 1911 to 1913. It consists of his letters and of the folklore and oral history he had learned as a...
, an important source document on Ewondo history and culture. In 1913, he met Kaiser Wilhelm II
William II, German Emperor
Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe...
in Germany and Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He returned to Kamerun the following year.
Paramount chief
The Germans had seen some success in uniting disparate groups under single individuals called paramount chiefParamount 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...
s (Oberhäuptlinge). Atangana was chosen for this position among the Ewondo and Bane either before his trip to Germany or soon after. This was technically only a temporary appointment; his subjects would have to approve it a year later to make it permanent. They had little alternative; Atangana was already the primary conduit of information to and from the Germans.
Some emulation of European manners and dress was expected of all chiefs, but Atangana seems to have genuinely preferred European styles to African ones. He endeavoured to fit himself into the German mould of an ideal administrator. He wrote, "To dare to approach the Germans it is necessary to abandon the traits which displease them, to become their friend and then be valued by them." Accordingly, Atangana ate German food; formed a European-style, 20-piece orchestra; and ordered a large, Germanic mansion to be built. This latter project requiring construction of a brickyard and sawmill and earned Atangana another epithet, Mindili Ebulu, "the man whose house is so large that it had a roof divided into nine sections instead of the two sections of an ordinary dwelling." The number nine has great significance in Beti folklore.
Atangana was suspicious of anyone who might supplant him as the Germans' favourite. He wrote,
A number of persons who associated themselves with Europeans and proved themselves useful to white people achieved positions in the native society through fraud and extortion. But the Europeans, having noticed it, stopped it. They could discern natives of the noble class by their loyalty and honesty.
Atangana won over other chiefs and headmen through gifts, tax cuts, flattery, and intervention on their behalf. He lavished attention on visitors from out of town, letting them stay at his palace and use his horses, and treating them to feasts. In addition to flattering them, this allowed him to monitor their activities and dealings with the colonial authorities. His clerk appointees in Jaunde informed him of the doings of both the Germans and his subjects. Atangana gained a substantial amount of wealth. He owned workshops and sold produce from five plantations to provision impressed railway construction workers.
The paramount chief maintained some loyalty for his subjects. He persuaded the Germans to carry out infrastructure improvements such as the building of roads, schools, health clinics, and churches; and he defended his subjects from colonial reprisals. In one instance, an Ewondo interpreter fired a gun during a dispute with a German, an offence punishable with a stiff prison sentence. Atangana interceded, and the man's punishment was reduced to porter
Porter (carrier)
A porter, also called a bearer, is a person who shifts objects for others.-Historical meaning:Human adaptability and flexibility early led to the use of humans for shifting gear...
duty. However, the paramount chief remained completely loyal to the governors. In 1914, for example, representatives of 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...
leader Rudolf Duala Manga Bell
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell
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...
tried to secure Atangana's backing for a pan-Kamerun revolt. Atangana kept the plot under wraps, but he instructed the envoy to urge Manga Bell to reconsider.
Atangana's appointment irritated members of the Bulu ethnic group. They feared they might one day lose German favour, or worse yet, fall under the dominion of the Ewondo. This culminated in the 1912 Bulu uprising led by 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...
, a German-trained man much like Atangana. The rebellion was crushed and Samba executed.
World War I
The Allied West African CampaignWest 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:...
of 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...
reached Kamerun in 1914. Douala fell on 17 September, and the Germans regrouped at Jaunde. Beti informants alerted Atangana as to the Allies' progress, and as the loss of Jaunde seemed inevitable, Atangana prepared to escape with his masters. He and the chiefs under him gave their posts to weaker relatives so they could more easily take them back should the Germans return. They held out in Jaunde until 1 January 1916, when troops of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
captured the town, and the German soldiers and missionaries fled into the forest. Atangana and 72 Ewondo and Bane chiefs, along with 14–20,000 villagers (mostly soldiers and their families), led them through. A Beti folk song, "Atangana Ntsama, the War Is Over", tells of the retreat and shows the conflict between those Beti who supported Atangana and those who opposed him:
- Atangana Ntsama, the war is over . . .
- Hè! Atangana Ntsama, the war is over!
- The cannon are broken,
- Go tell it to the son of Ndono Edoa,
- To the great man who is the son of Ndono Edoa,
- Run quickly, why do you languish there?
- All you Ewondo, come and run quickly,
- Come and run quickly, brothers;
- Go tell it to Mindili Ebulu, son of Ndono Edoa.
- How is it that you would like me to leave so many goods behind?
- Hè! They will surprise you in your greed!
- Such richness. I should take some!
- You others, move off, what are you doing there?
- Friend, there were as many goods as in a market;
- Friend, we have marched through all of that without taking anything!
They reached Spanish Guinea
Spanish Guinea
Spanish Guinea was an African colony of Spain that became the independent nation of Equatorial Guinea.-History:The Portuguese explorer, Fernão do Pó, seeking a route to India, is credited with having discovered the island of Bioko in 1472. He called it Formosa , but it quickly took on the name of...
in February and surrendered to the unaligned representatives of Spain under the Restoration
Spain under the Restoration
The Restoration was the name given to the period that began on December 29, 1874 after the First Spanish Republic ended with the restoration of Alfonso XII to the throne after a coup d'état by Martinez Campos, and ended on April 14, 1931 with the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic.After...
. The Spanish government of Álvaro Figueroa Torres gave the Beti land to settle and agreed to transport the Germans to the nearby island of 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...
. Atangana and members of his family accompanied them. In 1918, the Germans sent Atangana and six other chiefs to Spain, where they would witness if necessary that the Germans had treated their African subjects humanely. In September 1919, Atangana had an audience with King Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
and urged him to support the Germans in these proceedings. Atangana remained in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
for two years and stayed a month in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
to retrieve money he had deposited through 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....
.
Meanwhile, Ewondo lands came under the administration of the French Third Republic
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...
under a League of Nations mandate
League of Nations mandate
A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League...
. Atangana, now known by the French version of his name, Charles, wrote the French government to swear his allegiance and demand readmittance to his homeland. He received his wish in June 1920 and arrived in Douala on 28 November 1920.
Later life
Atangana's unfailing loyalty and subservience to Germany prevented the French from ever fully trusting him. His first task under the new colonial regimeFrench colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
was to supervise gangs of forced road-construction labourers in the town of 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....
. In Atangana's absence, the French had appointed a Beti headman named Joseph Atemengue
Joseph Atemengue
Joseph Atemengue was an Ewondo headman and court leader during the French colonial period in Cameroon. After the defeat of Germany in World War I, France gained control of Ewondo lands in Cameroon. They did not trust the German-appointed paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane peoples, Charles...
as their local representative in Jaunde (now known by the French spelling, Yaoundé). However, Atemengue never enjoyed the popularity Atangana had among the Beti. Atangana tried to secure an alliance with him by sending his 20-year-old, German-educated daughter, Katerina, to marry him, but she eventually fled from the much older Atemengue and back to her father. Atangana's work performance convinced the French to let him return to Yaoundé in late 1921 or early 1922.
Soon thereafter, Atemengue was made chief of the local court, and Atangana was again appointed paramount chief (chef supérieur). He received a seat on the Council of Notables
Council of Notables
A Council of Notables is a political body comprising persons of note in a community who are chosen by the governing authority in the region for their special knowledge, experience, skills, status or accomplishments. Such councils have existed in many regions and countries throughout the world...
, a body the French had introduced to act as liaisons to their subjects and advisors to the administration. Atangana set up a cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
based on those he had observed in Spain, but he never allowed it to do much, and its members were not accustomed to European-style administration. It disbanded in 1925.
The French granted the chiefs significantly less power than had their German predecessors. Atangana's major role was simple: to enforce the dictats of French rule. Governor General Van Vollenhoven wrote in 1917 that, "the chiefs have no power of their own of any kind because there are not two authorities in the circle: French authority and indigenous authority; there is only one. Only the commander of the circle commands." As a colonial administrator, Atangana was expected to collect taxes, help the French introduce cocoa and coffee
Coffea
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Seeds of several species are the source of the popular beverage coffee. Coffee ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded...
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, and mobilise chiefs to secure the labour to work these estates. In 1924, the French introduced a requisition system to procure food for the Yaoundé urban community and for rail labourers; Atangana was responsible for rallying the chiefs to gather the necessary provisions from rural farmers; the exact methods used by the chiefs was left to them. Cocoa production in the South
South Province (Cameroon)
The South Region is located in the southwestern and south-central portion of the Republic of Cameroon...
and Centre
Centre Province
The Centre Region occupies 69,000 km² of the central plains of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the north by the Adamawa Region, to the south by the South Region, to the east by the East Region, and to the West by the Littoral and West Regions. It is the second largest of...
provinces increased even during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, partially as a result of these efforts. He reorganised the chiefs and their duties and tried to Westernise his subjects by encouraging them to wear European-style clothing, utilise new building methods and house styles, and work to improve roads.
Most of the chiefs respected Atangana as their spokesman and leader, and the Beti at large deferred to him prestige and power. A new system of status had evolved under his rule: a cadre of minor bureaucrats, envoys, interpreters, and office staff worked for Atangana and the other chiefs independent of the French government and were completely dependent on the chiefs. Atangana set up a private police force, for example, known as the fulus in Ewondo. The entire class recognised its reliance on the chiefs and gave them loyalty in exchange for protection and pay, and the chiefs relied on these functionaries to swiftly fulfill their duties to the French regime.
Nevertheless, the Beti at large detested French forced labour practices and taxes. Some people fled to the bush
The Bush
"The bush" is a term used for rural, undeveloped land or country areas in certain countries.-Australia:The term is iconic in Australia. In reference to the landscape, "bush" describes a wooded area, intermediate between a shrubland and a forest, generally of dry and nitrogen-poor soil, mostly...
before the tax collector arrived; others circumvented taxes by counting wives as out-of-town visitors or waiting until the last minute to pay and thus reducing the collector's cut of the tax money. If the taxes were not collected to the satisfaction of the colonial administrators, Atangana himself was expected to make up some of the difference. To counter these minor rebellions, chiefs could punish their subjects with 15 days in jail or 100 franc fines without due process of law. This was meant to be reserved for only certain infractions, but Atangana and other chiefs interpreted it broadly to include all sorts of difficult behaviour. Atangana and his sub-chiefs were expected to discipline such difficult subjects. He exerted continual pressure on the sub-chiefs, who in turn placed constant pressure on the villagers to pay taxes and supply labourers.
Nevertheless, his wealth continued to grow. In 1922, his salary was 6,000 francs per year, and in 1938, it had risen to 24,000 francs per year. Atangana also received 2% of all taxes collected by lower chiefs, pay for his legal role, and stipends for organising road construction. Oral informants have reported that as early as 1924, he owned enormous plantations with as much as 1 km² of cocoa, 1.1 km² of palms, 5 km² of food crops, and 500 head of livestock. The amounts may be exaggerated, but Atangana was by all accounts a wealthy man. He owned two lorries and a car by 1926, which he used to haul produce from his plantations. By the 1930s, important chiefs such as Atangana could earn more than 400,000 francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
per year on tax collecting alone.
The 278 Beti chiefs under Atangana's control began to oppose his primacy by the mid-1920s. His control fell especially among the Bane. In 1924, the Bane filed a complaint against Atangana in court, claiming, "We work always and it is Atangana who receives the money. For all the things that we have sent to the Europeans, such as chickens and eggs, through Atangana, we have received nothing." They plotted to raise their own paramount chief and to drum up sentiment against Atangana among the common people. The French arrested the plotters for refusing to pay their taxes and provide labourers. This left Atangana still head of the Bane, but his influence had been severely curtailed.
In 1925, the French reduced the number of Beti chiefs to 40 and removed the chiefs of Yaoundé from Atangana's direct control. However, in 1928 the Yaoundé chiefs were deemed quarrelsome and incompetent, and Atangana was once again placed over them. In 1929, he wrote a work on traditional Beti society in which he tried to hide his unremarkable childhood by taking the title of "King" and claiming descent from a fictitious line of Ewondo royalty. By the end of the decade, he was the head of perhaps 130,000 people, the chief of Mvolyé village, and the supervisor of eight sectional chiefs and 72 village chiefs. In reality, his position was one of prestige but little actual power.
Collecting taxes and finding labour grew increasingly difficult as the decade progressed, thanks to greater access to paying employment in Yaoundé and on the plantations. Atangana's 1938 proposal for the reorganisation of Yaoundé's administration shows the frustration he experienced at that time:
the local people do not know what endurance means . . . [and] work with ill-will for the administration or for private concerns, where they seek refuge as a safeguard when the administration gives the chiefs an order in the public interest or for their own good.
He further complained, "Notables, with their diminished influence, are almost inert in relation to the growing number of their recalcitrant subjects" and suggested that a chief could hardly control more than 5,000 people. Atangana is not even mentioned in a French report on their African leaders from 1939. However, he retained the right to announce the appointment of new chiefs and to claim that both he and the French had selected them.
Atangana travelled frequently in the French colonial period. He made a point of attending his subjects' weddings and funerals, for example. He had more opportunities to visit Europe, including the Paris Colonial Exposition
Paris Colonial Exposition
The Paris Colonial Exhibition was a six-month colonial exhibition held in Paris, France in 1931 that attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense resources of France's colonial possessions.-History :The exposition opened on 6 May 1931 in the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of...
in 1931 and the French Colonial Conference
French Colonial Conference
-References:* Ahanda, Marie-Thérèse Assiga : . Bonaberi.com. Accessed 30 October 2006.* Maunier, René, transl. by Lorimer, E. A. . The Sociology of Colonies: An Introduction to the Study of Race Contact, Part One. London: Routledge....
in 1935. In 1938, his wife died. Atangana was a handsome man by Ewondo standards: strong, well groomed, with a reputation as a good fighter, dancer, and husband. He remarried on 6 January 1940 to Julienne or Yuliana Ngonoa, a young Beti woman of the Mvog Manga sublineage from the village Nkolafamba. She bore him two children: Marie-Thérèse
Marie-Thérèse Assiga Ahanda
Marie-Thérèse Catherine Atangana Assiga Ahanda is a Cameroonian novelist and chemist and the paramount chief of the Ewondo people. Ahanda is the daughter of Charles Atangana—paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane peoples under the German and French colonial regimes—by his second wife, Julienne Ngonoa...
and René Grégoire. Atangana seems to have adhered to Catholic strictures against polygamy, despite the fact that other Beti chiefs at the time had several hundred wives.
Atangana lobbied in his later life for public health causes, such as the eradication of sleeping sickness. He never supported the expansion of Cameroun
Cameroun
Cameroun was a French and British mandate territory in central Africa, now constituting the majority of the territory of the Republic of Cameroon....
's public school system, since he believed that educated subjects might one day challenge his rule. Atangana's health began to fail him beginning in August 1943. On 1 September, he died in Mvolyé, Yaoundé.
Legacy
No one took over as paramount chief upon Atangana's death. His opulent palace went unoccupied and fell into ruins. However, traditional Cameroonian chieftaincies were re-established on 11 July 1977 by Decree #77/609, and by the 1990s, Cameroonian ethnic groups had rejuvenated these dormant traditions. Atangana's daughter Marie-Thérèse became the new Ewondo paramount chief. In December 2000, she began the renovation of his palace at Efoulan, Yaoundé, a project that would cost an estimated 150,000,000 francs CFACFA franc
The CFA franc is the name of two currencies used in Africa which are guaranteed by the French treasury. The two CFA franc currencies are the West African CFA franc and the Central African CFA franc...
.
The colonialism that Atangana had supported was ruinous in Cameroon. Production centred on enriching the chiefs, wooing of foreign investment, and the apparatus of colonial administration, and building only that infrastructure that would aid in the transport and export of cash crops. Nevertheless, Atangana's story became part of Beti folklore. For example, Beti storytellers related his tale in oral poems and songs that took up to a full night to recite. His legacy was largely forgotten by the nation at large between his death and Cameroonian independence. However, the 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...
scholarship that blossomed after Cameroon's independence in 1960 resurrected his story. Charles Atangana Avenue in downtown Yaoundé is named for him. A statue in his likeness tops a hill nearby, which had fallen into disrepair by 2000.