Ndumbe Lobe Bell
Encyclopedia
Ndumbé Lobé Bell or King Bell (1839 – December 1897) was a leader of the Duala people
in Southern Cameroon
during the period when the Germans
established their colony of Kamerun
. He was an astute politician and a highly successful businessman.
region around the Wouri estuary
noted that they were engaged in fishing and agriculture to some extent, but primarily were traders with the people of the interior via the Wouri River
and its tributaries, and via the Dibamba
, Kwa Kwa and Mungo
rivers. The main Duala
communities at the mouth of the Wouri River were Bell Town, with the subordinate Bonapriso to the south and Bonaberi in the opposite shore of the river, and Akwa Town with the subordinate Deido to the north.
Douala was a dependable if minor source of slaves for the Atlantic Slave Trade
.
The British became active in suppressing the trade in the 1820s.
In November 1829 the British ship "Eden" seized the Brazilian slave trader "Ismenia" of Rio de Janeiro after it had given its trade goods to the then King Bell for the purpose of obtaining slaves.
On 7 March 1841, King Bell's predecessor signed a formal treaty with William Simpson Blount, commanding the British ship Pluto, in which he agreed to suppress the sale or transport of slaves in his territory.
With the abolition of slavery, the Duala people expanded their barter trade in palm oil, palm kernels and ivory from the interior in exchange for European goods.
The practice of domestic slavery continued long after abolition of the overseas slave trade. Slaves were not necessarily mistreated. For example, David Mandessi Bell was brought as a slave from the Grassfields region into King Bell's household in the 1870s and became a rich and powerful member of the Bells, although he was not eligible to become chief.
An 1880 guide said the towns of King Bell and King Aqua, "separated only by a little brook, are apparently of great extent and considerable population. The houses are neatly built of bamboo, in wide and regular streets, with numerous plantain and cocoa-nut trees, and even large fields of maize... A considerable trade has been carried on for many years with the natives, who from their activity in collecting palm oil, and their intercourse with Europeans, have become a large and important community, possessing a high degree of civilization".
In practice, both Bell and Akwa suffered from internal divisions and did not have strong control over their subordinate communities, who rivalled them in trade and at times took independent action.
King Ndumbé Lobé Bell succeeded his father Lobé Bebe Bell in 1858, when he was aged about twenty. He was to lead the Bell faction for almost forty years until his death in 1897.
Between 1872 and 1874 there was a conflict between the Akwa and Bell factions over an attempt by Bonapriso to secede to Akwa. King Bell was supported by Deido, which had become independent of Akwa, in this struggle.
In the late 1870s, King Bell managed to exploit a quarrel between the Akwa faction and the Kwa Kwa River traders to begin trading on this river, which leads to the much larger Sanaga River
.
Between 1882 and 1883, just before the German annexation, a violent dispute broke out between King Bell and three of his brothers, supported by Akwa and Bonaberi.
These struggles were all harmful to the Bell trade.
King Bell sought European protection to support his authority, prevent further attempts to defect by segments of his people such as the Bonaberi, and stabilize trade.
On 12 July 1884, King Ndumbé Lobé Bell and King Akwa signed a treaty in which they assigned sovereign rights, legislation and administration of their country in full to the firms of C. Woerman and Jantzen & Thormählen
, represented by the merchants Edward Schmidt and Johann Voss.
The treaty included conditions that existing contracts and property rights be maintained, existing customs respected and the German administration continue to make "comey", or trading tax, payments to the kings as before.
King Bell received 27,000 marks in exchange for signing the treaty, a very large sum at that time.
In a letter to the Earl of Derby
dated 30 September 1884, King Bell explained his reasons for accepting the German offer. He said "Having written to you, through the English Consuls on the West Coast, several times, covering the space of over five years, in which letters I anxiously inquired to know if the English Government would take by annexation my country, I at last despaired, having not received any answer… I hence concluded that neither the Consuls nor yet the English Government cared anything about my country…"
The rulers of Bonaberi and Bonapriso refused to sign the German protectorate treaty in July 1884. King Bell told the British Vice-Consul, Buchan, that the sub-chiefs would prefer British rule, but were waiting to see what the Germans would offer.
In December 1884, the forces of Bonaberi and Bonapriso attacked and burned Bell Town. Newspaper reports said that English traders had incited the sub-chiefs of Joss Town (Bonapriso) and Hickory Town (Bonaberi) against King Bell, saying he had failed to pass on their fair share of the money he was given by the Germans.
The German representative, Max Buchner, called on a small naval squadron to restore the peace, which they did by destroying both Bonaberi and Bonapriso. 25 Africans and one German died during the fighting. The Admiral of the naval squadron assumed authority until the first Governor, Julius von Soden
, arrived in July 1885.
Also, von Soden was committed to eliminating Bell dominance of the trade in the Mungo valley to the northwest of Douala, assisting the firm of Jantzen and Thormählen to expand into this region to start plantations and establish a trading station.
King Bell's English-educated son, Manga, was even exiled to Togo
for two years, where he became friendly with the German commissioner Eugen von Zimmerer
.
Relations improved when von Zimmerer replaced von Soden as governor of the Kamerun colony in 1890.
Manga took care to cultivate the friendship of all the senior German officials in Douala, which helped in gaining support the Bell interests, while the Akwa leader failed to gain effective supporters among the colonialists.
Under Zimmerer, the Germans abandoned attempts to enter the principal Bell trading region in the Mungo River valley and turned instead to the Sanaga, which they closed to all native traders, further damaging Akwa interests.
King Bell was described as a man of natural dignity and decency.
Although there were more people in the Akwa faction, the Bells were more successful commercially and received higher payments than the Akwas after annexation.
King Bell had managed to eliminate the middlemen in the Mungo trade, greatly increasing his profits.
Despite his astute and highly successful commercial and political dealings during a period of social upheaval, King Bell was the target of racist prejudices common among Europeans of that time. A typical verse in a German paper ran:
When King Ndumbé Lobé Bell died in December 1897, he was said to have left 90 wives.
His son Manga Ndumbe Bell
inherited his position and salary, and a few months later was given appeals jurisdiction over all non-Duala peoples of the Littoral, a highly lucrative appointment.
|title=Africa pilot, Part 1
|publisher=Great Britain Hydrographic Dept
|year=1880}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=WXkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA310
|title=Das Staatsarchiv: Sammlung der offiziellen Aktenstücke zur Aussenpolitik der Gegenwart, volumes 44–5
|publisher=Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft
| language = German
|year=1885}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=eIoEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121
|chapter=The Disturbances in the Cameroons
|page=121
|title=American annual cyclopaedia and register of important events
|volume=25
|publisher=D. Appleton and company
|year=1886}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=rzQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA67
|title=House of Commons papers
|volume=19
|publisher=Great Britain Parliament House of Commons
|publisher=HMSO
|year=1831}}
Duala people
The Duala are an ethnic group of Cameroon. They primarily inhabit the littoral region to the coast and form a portion of the Sawa, or Cameroonian coastal peoples...
in Southern 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...
during the period when the Germans
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...
established their 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 an astute politician and a highly successful businessman.
Background
The first European records of the people of the 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...
region around the Wouri estuary
Wouri estuary
The Wouri estuary, or Cameroon estuary is a large tidal estuary in Cameroon where several rivers come together, emptying into the Bight of Biafra. Douala, the largest city in Cameroon, is at the mouth of the Wouri River where it enters the estuary...
noted that they were engaged in fishing and agriculture to some extent, but primarily were traders with the people of the interior via the Wouri River
Wouri River
The Wouri is a river in Cameroon. The river is formed at the confluence of the rivers Nkam and Makombé, northeast of the city of Yabassi. The Wouri then flows about southeast to the Wouri estuary at Douala, the chief port and industrial city in the southwestern part of Cameroon on the Gulf of...
and its tributaries, and via the Dibamba
Dibamba River
The Dibamba River is in the Littoral Region of southern Cameroon, emptying into the Cameroon estuary near the city of Doula.-Location:The Dibamba river has a length of and a catchment area of...
, Kwa Kwa and Mungo
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 ....
rivers. The main 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...
communities at the mouth of the Wouri River were Bell Town, with the subordinate Bonapriso to the south and Bonaberi in the opposite shore of the river, and Akwa Town with the subordinate Deido to the north.
Douala was a dependable if minor source of slaves for the Atlantic Slave Trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
.
The British became active in suppressing the trade in the 1820s.
In November 1829 the British ship "Eden" seized the Brazilian slave trader "Ismenia" of Rio de Janeiro after it had given its trade goods to the then King Bell for the purpose of obtaining slaves.
On 7 March 1841, King Bell's predecessor signed a formal treaty with William Simpson Blount, commanding the British ship Pluto, in which he agreed to suppress the sale or transport of slaves in his territory.
With the abolition of slavery, the Duala people expanded their barter trade in palm oil, palm kernels and ivory from the interior in exchange for European goods.
The practice of domestic slavery continued long after abolition of the overseas slave trade. Slaves were not necessarily mistreated. For example, David Mandessi Bell was brought as a slave from the Grassfields region into King Bell's household in the 1870s and became a rich and powerful member of the Bells, although he was not eligible to become chief.
An 1880 guide said the towns of King Bell and King Aqua, "separated only by a little brook, are apparently of great extent and considerable population. The houses are neatly built of bamboo, in wide and regular streets, with numerous plantain and cocoa-nut trees, and even large fields of maize... A considerable trade has been carried on for many years with the natives, who from their activity in collecting palm oil, and their intercourse with Europeans, have become a large and important community, possessing a high degree of civilization".
Independent rule
The Duala leaders, whom the Europeans called "kings", came from the two lineages of Bell and Akwa.In practice, both Bell and Akwa suffered from internal divisions and did not have strong control over their subordinate communities, who rivalled them in trade and at times took independent action.
King Ndumbé Lobé Bell succeeded his father Lobé Bebe Bell in 1858, when he was aged about twenty. He was to lead the Bell faction for almost forty years until his death in 1897.
Between 1872 and 1874 there was a conflict between the Akwa and Bell factions over an attempt by Bonapriso to secede to Akwa. King Bell was supported by Deido, which had become independent of Akwa, in this struggle.
In the late 1870s, King Bell managed to exploit a quarrel between the Akwa faction and the Kwa Kwa River traders to begin trading on this river, which leads to the much larger Sanaga River
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...
.
Between 1882 and 1883, just before the German annexation, a violent dispute broke out between King Bell and three of his brothers, supported by Akwa and Bonaberi.
These struggles were all harmful to the Bell trade.
German assumption of control
By the later part of the 19th century the British were active in the Wouri estuary both as traders and missionaries and outnumbered the Germans, but accepted that the region fell within the German sphere of colonial authority.King Bell sought European protection to support his authority, prevent further attempts to defect by segments of his people such as the Bonaberi, and stabilize trade.
On 12 July 1884, King Ndumbé Lobé Bell and King Akwa signed a treaty in which they assigned sovereign rights, legislation and administration of their country in full to the firms of C. Woerman and Jantzen & Thormählen
Jantzen & Thormählen
Jantzen & Thormählen was a German firm based on Hamburg that was established to exploit the resources of Cameroon. The firm's commercial and political influence was a major factor in the establishment of the colony of Kamerun in 1884.-Coastal trade:...
, represented by the merchants Edward Schmidt and Johann Voss.
The treaty included conditions that existing contracts and property rights be maintained, existing customs respected and the German administration continue to make "comey", or trading tax, payments to the kings as before.
King Bell received 27,000 marks in exchange for signing the treaty, a very large sum at that time.
In a letter to the Earl of Derby
Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby
Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby KG, PC, FRS , known as Lord Stanley from 1844 to 1869, was a British statesman...
dated 30 September 1884, King Bell explained his reasons for accepting the German offer. He said "Having written to you, through the English Consuls on the West Coast, several times, covering the space of over five years, in which letters I anxiously inquired to know if the English Government would take by annexation my country, I at last despaired, having not received any answer… I hence concluded that neither the Consuls nor yet the English Government cared anything about my country…"
The rulers of Bonaberi and Bonapriso refused to sign the German protectorate treaty in July 1884. King Bell told the British Vice-Consul, Buchan, that the sub-chiefs would prefer British rule, but were waiting to see what the Germans would offer.
In December 1884, the forces of Bonaberi and Bonapriso attacked and burned Bell Town. Newspaper reports said that English traders had incited the sub-chiefs of Joss Town (Bonapriso) and Hickory Town (Bonaberi) against King Bell, saying he had failed to pass on their fair share of the money he was given by the Germans.
The German representative, Max Buchner, called on a small naval squadron to restore the peace, which they did by destroying both Bonaberi and Bonapriso. 25 Africans and one German died during the fighting. The Admiral of the naval squadron assumed authority until the first Governor, Julius von Soden
Julius von Soden
Julius Freiherr von Soden was a German colonial official and politician. He was Governor of the colonies of Kamerun and German East Africa, and later became Chef de Cabinet and Foreign Minister of the King of Württemberg....
, arrived in July 1885.
German protectorate
King Bell's relations with the first Governor were poor. This was in part because of complaints to the central authorities by his nephew Alfred Bell, who was being educated in Germany.Also, von Soden was committed to eliminating Bell dominance of the trade in the Mungo valley to the northwest of Douala, assisting the firm of Jantzen and Thormählen to expand into this region to start plantations and establish a trading station.
King Bell's English-educated son, Manga, was even exiled to Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
for two years, where he became friendly with the German commissioner Eugen von Zimmerer
Eugen von Zimmerer
Eugen Ritter von Zimmerer was a governor of the German colony of Kamerun between 1890 and 1893.-Early career:Zimmerer was born on 24 November 1843 in Germersheim, the son of a Bavarian officer....
.
Relations improved when von Zimmerer replaced von Soden as governor of the Kamerun colony in 1890.
Manga took care to cultivate the friendship of all the senior German officials in Douala, which helped in gaining support the Bell interests, while the Akwa leader failed to gain effective supporters among the colonialists.
Under Zimmerer, the Germans abandoned attempts to enter the principal Bell trading region in the Mungo River valley and turned instead to the Sanaga, which they closed to all native traders, further damaging Akwa interests.
Character
Europeans who described the situation at Douala during the period before and after the formal colonial annexation praised King Bell and his son and heir, Manga, while they thought little of his rival, King Dika Mpondo Akwa.King Bell was described as a man of natural dignity and decency.
Although there were more people in the Akwa faction, the Bells were more successful commercially and received higher payments than the Akwas after annexation.
King Bell had managed to eliminate the middlemen in the Mungo trade, greatly increasing his profits.
Despite his astute and highly successful commercial and political dealings during a period of social upheaval, King Bell was the target of racist prejudices common among Europeans of that time. A typical verse in a German paper ran:
- King Akwa and King Bell
Said lately: "Very well"
They took six measures of rum
And gave their whole kingdom.
When King Ndumbé Lobé Bell died in December 1897, he was said to have left 90 wives.
His son 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:...
inherited his position and salary, and a few months later was given appeals jurisdiction over all non-Duala peoples of the Littoral, a highly lucrative appointment.
Cited books
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=8cmhAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA328|title=Africa pilot, Part 1
|publisher=Great Britain Hydrographic Dept
|year=1880}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=WXkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA310
|title=Das Staatsarchiv: Sammlung der offiziellen Aktenstücke zur Aussenpolitik der Gegenwart, volumes 44–5
|publisher=Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft
| language = German
|year=1885}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=eIoEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121
|chapter=The Disturbances in the Cameroons
|page=121
|title=American annual cyclopaedia and register of important events
|volume=25
|publisher=D. Appleton and company
|year=1886}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=rzQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA67
|title=House of Commons papers
|volume=19
|publisher=Great Britain Parliament House of Commons
|publisher=HMSO
|year=1831}}