THE CAMEROONS
[Illustration: VICTORIA, CAMEROON.]
THE
CAMEROONS
BY
ALBERT F. CALVERT, F.C.S.,
_Knight Grand Cross of The Royal Order of Isabel
the Catholic, Knight Grand Cross of The
Royal Order of Alfonso XII., etc._
AUTHOR OF
_The German African Empire_, _South-West Africa_,
_Nigeria and its Tinfields_, _The Political Value of our Colonies_,
_The Exploration of Australia_,
_Mineral Resources of Minas Geraes, Brazil, etc._
London:
T. WERNER LAURIE, LTD.,
8, ESSEX STREET, LONDON.
1917.
_E. Goodman & Son, The Phœnix Press, Taunton._
PREFACE.
Although the designs, which German philosophers conceived and German
statesmen and strategists spent thirty years in perfecting, for the
conquest of our Cape territories and the creation of a Greater Germany
extending from the Mediterranean to Table Bay, are best illustrated and
exposed by the defiantly defensive policy they pursued in South-West
Africa, the rise, development and fall of the German Colonial Empire is
more completely epitomised in the chapter dealing with the Cameroons.
The establishment of the German East African protectorate forms a story
that is intensely interesting, inasmuch as it reveals the duplicity of
Teutonic methods in their relations with native races, European rivals
and their own agents. Bismarck, the last barbarian of genius, repudiated
Dr. Karl Peters when, equipped with private capital and acting on his
own initiative, he was acquiring in the hinterland of Zanzibar a
well-watered, fertile province equal in extent to South Germany, and
obtaining from the Sultan the concession for the ports of Dar-es-Salaam
and Pangani. It was necessary in 1884 for Germany to assure England that
the Imperial Government had no intention of securing possessions in a
region which was admittedly within Britain’s sphere of influence, and
Bismarck pursued Dr. Peters to Africa with an official intimation that
the State would not grant him protection for the lives of his party, or
for any possessions he might acquire opposite Zanzibar. But when the
intrepid Teuton, as the representative of the German East Africa
Company, had accomplished the spade work and returned to Berlin, the
Government continued negotiations with the Sultan through their
Consul-General at Zanzibar. The formal ratification of the treaties made
in the name of the Company, was followed by a revolt of the Arabs, and
when the Company’s representatives had been allowed to be murdered or
put to flight, Bismarck was able to declare that the situation that had
arisen was beyond the control of private enterprise, and an expedition,
under Major von Wissman, was accordingly despatched to East Africa to
suppress the slave traffic which still flourished in that region. For
the furtherance of such a humane and civilising purpose, the
co-operation of the British fleet was readily enlisted, and with this
support and the energetic measures taken by von Wissman’s army of
ex-British native soldiers, the disaffected populace was eventually
“pacified,” even if the slave traffic was not suppressed. The Company’s
claims to the territorial concessions granted under the treaties having
been made good--Great Britain could not, in politeness, protest against
the acquisition of Mount Kilimanjaro, since the amiable Kaiser had
expressed a sentimental wish that the highest peak in Africa might be
within the sphere of German _kultur_!--the Reichstag voted ten and a
half million marks for the maintenance and development of these newly
acquired territories. Then, and not until then, did England realise that
with the connivance of Downing Street and the assistance of British
men-of-war, this rich and important territory, with an area of 384,000
square miles, had become a Protectorate of Germany. Having duped
England, punished the natives, and established their rule, it was only
necessary to recall Dr. Peters and hand him over to the tender mercies
of his official and political enemies, to make this chapter of the
history of German empire building characteristic in its completeness.
What Germany succeeded in doing in East Africa after years of intrigue
and deceit, and the expenditure of much blood and money, she
accomplished in the acquisition of Togoland with a minimum of cost or
trouble. Dr. Nachtigal, in the capacity of German Trade Commissioner,
was sent to West Africa by his Government to enquire into and report
upon the progress of German commerce in those latitudes. He was
despatched at a time when the English Government had completed their
leisurely deliberations upon the appeal of the peoples of Togoland and
the Cameroons to be taken under the protection of the British flag, and
Mr. Hewitt, a British Consul, was voyaging to the Gulf of Guinea for the
purpose of complying with the native request, when Nachtigal arrived
there on his commercial mission. The German Commissioner, acting under
instructions from the Imperial Chancellor, hastily unfurled the flag of
the Fatherland at Lome, in Togoland, and succeeded in reaching Duala,
and formally placing the Cameroons under German rule, before Hewitt
arrived upon the scene. Lord Granville addressed a reproof to Bismarck
for not having divulged the nature of the errand upon which Nachtigal
had been sent, and the incident was closed. In the three decades that
followed, the German administrators in Togoland, with the thoroughness
with which the Teuton is gifted, taught the natives the “sharp lesson”
considered necessary to prepare them for the reception of Germany’s
civilising rule, furnished the colony with 200 miles of railway, over
750 miles of excellent roads of native construction, a score of postal
and telegraph stations, and a telephone system, and established a
wireless station--the most powerful in the world outside Europe--which
was not only in communication with Berlin, 3,450 miles distant, but with
East Africa, the Cameroons and South-West Africa. The final
installations at Kamina were completed in June, 1914; in August the
German operators learnt by wireless that Great Britain had declared war
on Germany; and on 26th August the Kamina Station notified Berlin that
the colony of Togoland, the smallest, completest, and only financially
independent German possession, had capitulated to an Anglo-French force.
The German annexation of South-West Africa was a more intolerably
humiliating and provocative act of aggression; it is one that only
now--after the territory has been recovered by the brilliant campaign of
the Union Army under General Louis Botha--can be forgiven Lord
Granville. Prior to 1883 the natives of Damaraland and Namaqualand,
suspicious of the intentions of Germany, had petitioned to be taken
under British protection. Downing Street experienced a temporary
uneasiness, but Bismarck’s assurance that Germany had no intention of
establishing Crown colonies in Africa, extinguished the fleeting
distrust. The Cape Colony was not so easily satisfied. A British
Commissioner, who was appointed to confer with the native chiefs,
reported favourably upon the proposal to officially confirm the
authority of the Cape Government over the region extending northward
from the Orange River to Portuguese Angoland. Sir Bartle Frere, the
Governor of Cape Colony, urged upon the home Government the desirability
of the step, and the Colonial Office decided upon the formal acquisition
of the port at Walfisch Bay. Bismarck, hesitating to commit what might
be construed as a deliberately hostile act, invited Great Britain to
state her intentions with regard to the rest of the south-west
territory, but failing to receive any definite reply, he decided upon
bold if impudent measures, and in April, 1884, the Chancellor announced
that the territory north of the Orange River was under the protection of
the German Empire. As Bryden says, in his _History of South Africa_,
“it was an unfriendly act, carried out in an unpleasant manner, and the
British Colonists in South Africa are not soon likely to allow it to
pass out of remembrance.” It not only destroyed the symmetry of a
British South Africa, and gave Germany rights in territories marching
with British colonies, but it added 322,450 square miles of African
territory to the German Colonial Empire, for which a Bremen merchant
named Luderitz parted with a hundred pounds and a score of old muskets.
Germany’s method of developing her new possession in South-West Africa
was entirely in keeping with her manner of acquiring it. From the first
she proceeded to colonise on military lines. Railways were constructed
with regard to their strategic importance; they were made on what is
still called the Cape gauge; and were directed towards the Union border.
A standing army was raised and compulsory service was instituted. An
artillery depot established at Windhoek, the capital, contained a
worthless collection of old gun-carriages and bales of locally-collected
hay. This was to secure the colony against the imaginary evil intentions
of the inoffensive and unarmed Ovambos, who inhabit the north-east
corner of the colony. At Keetmanshoop, some hundreds of miles further
from Amboland, but within 150 miles of Cape territory, was a great
arsenal, furnished with guns and shells, rifles and cartridges,
ambulances, transport vehicles, and military stores and supplies
sufficient to equip and maintain an army of fifteen thousand men for two
years. In the face of these facts and figures, we may be forgiven for
doubting the honesty of the German Colonial Secretary’s denial that
Germany ever had any intention of occupying, either permanently or
temporarily, the territory of the South African Union, and of
disregarding the expression of Lord Haldane’s pious belief that the
Kaiser’s life’s purpose was “to make the world better,” and that in
Germany’s method of colonial expansion, “she was penetrating everywhere
to the profit of mankind.”
In some ways the story of Germany’s annexation of the Cameroon
provinces, and her subsequent extension of that area, is the most
interesting of all, because if she secured her footing in East Africa by
subterfuge, and in South-West Africa by the exercise of sharp practice
supplemented by a certain display of bold decision, she edged her way
into the Gulf of Guinea by virtue of no other quality than that of
sheer bluff, but, having consolidated herself in the positions she had
thus gained in West Africa, she allowed the world to understand that she
was determined to expand her sphere of influence, if necessary, by
recourse to arms. In 1885 Germany legalised her occupation of the
Cameroons by placating France with an exchange of unimportant
territories, and renouncing in favour of Britain her nominal claims to
St. Lucia and to Forcados, at the mouth of the Niger River.
Having thus solidified their position, and secured themselves against
what Passarge calls “the intrigues and provocations of the English,” the
German administrators proceeded to Germanize their new province and
systematically to develop its tropical resources. Although they
established customs houses, courts of justice and post-offices, and
constructed about 125 miles of a projected railway system of 285 miles,
and, between 1898 and 1911, increased the total trade of the colony by
nearly forty million marks, the colony did not prove a departmental or
material success. The staffs of the Experimental Institute of
Agriculture at Victoria and the Department of Agriculture at Buea,
devoted their energies to the scientific raising of tropical economic
plants, to experiments in plantation culture, and to the training of
young natives in the virtues of Teutonic industry and organisation,
while, by Government Proclamation, all native children were compelled to
attend the Government schools, acquire an intelligent knowledge of the
language and history of Germany, and practice the art of singing German
patriotic songs. Despite this paternal concern for the agricultural and
educational well-being of the natives, the application of German methods
proved a disappointment. The children at the end of their school course
considered themselves too superior to undertake manual labour, while the
men, resenting the German indifference to their national feeling and
inherited methods of work, developed the spirit of native unrest. A lack
of sympathetic understanding of the natives was attended by culpably
injudicious treatment of them by the German officials, and the relations
between the authorities and the aborigines led to the frequent
employment of the Imperial troops, while the inadequacy of means of
internal communication rendered the progress of “one of the most
productive countries in the world” both slow and difficult.
But, disappointing and costly as was the German failure to administer
and develop the Cameroons, the Teutonic lust for territory was unabated,
and, in its resolve to extend its holding in this quarter of the globe,
the Government did not hesitate to emperil the peace of Europe. When the
German cruiser _Panther_ appeared at Agadir, in July, 1911, the object
of the Wilhelmstrasse was not to protect purely imaginary German
interests in that part of Morocco, but to maintain a menacing attitude
that would compel the French to cede to the Bully of Europe their
territory to the south of the German Cameroons. The negotiations for the
transfer were concluded in June, 1913, and fifteen months later French
and British troops commenced a joint expedition to wrest from the German
authority, by military means, the province from which the former had
been ejected by diplomatic blackmail and the insistant rattle of the
sword in the scabbard.
It is instructive to recall the methods by which Germany acquired her
African possessions, if only for the partial answer it provides to the
question as to what the Allies intend to do with them. It is absolutely
certain that however the Allies agree to dispose of the four colonies in
question, they will never be restored to Germany, notwithstanding the
fact that Herr Dernburg has committed the Emperor to the pledge that he
will never consent to make peace except on terms which include their
surrender. Germany got into Africa as a burglar effects an entrance into
a well-stored building, but it is not because her gains were ill-gotten
that she will be deprived of them. Having experimented in the
civilisation of natives for three decades, she has revealed an utter
inability to colonise for the benefit of mankind, but the hopeless
failure of the German system of imposing her rule upon subject races, is
not the reason why she will henceforth be debarred from participation in
the work of civilising the world. The colonial possessions of Germany,
as well as of England, France and Belgium, form part of the stakes for
which all Europe is in arms, and they will become the spoils of the
conquerors. As the Imperial Chancellor has announced, the future of the
Cameroons will be decided not in West Africa, but in another theatre of
war.
Germany’s explanation of her desire to acquire colonies was based upon
her need for extra territory capable of supporting her growing
population. For this purpose she acquired East Africa, and immediately
set about the task of raising, equipping and drilling a large force of
black troops. She seized the French Cameroons, and at once increased the
handful of natives which the French had found sufficient for the
maintenance of order in the colony, to an army of 1,550 black and 185
white troops, and she had planned the formation of additional corps of
mounted infantry, and the rearming of all the troops with modern rifles.
As soon as wireless telegraphy became a practical means of
communication, a wireless station was installed in Togoland which
rendered the little colony of inestimable potential value from a
military point of view, while in South-West Africa, the extent and
completeness of her defensive and offensive preparations, is abundant
proof that the real value to Germany of this territory lay in the
proximity of the region to the Boer States, disaffected to Great
Britain. “The land was not taken for _bona fide_ colonisation,” wrote
the Rev. William Greswell over thirty years ago, “only as a _point
d’appui_.” Germany pushed forward her military preparations in East,
West and South Africa, as she did in Prussia, because she had convinced
herself of England’s ultimate inability to hold India, Egypt and her
colonial dominions. Her professors assured the Kaiser and his junker
parasites, that the English had lost both “the qualities of creative
genius in religion and the valour in arms of a military caste”, that we
had become “a timorous, craven nation, trusting to its fleet”; and that,
while we had “failed to impress our dominion” on the chiefs of the
Indian Tributary States, the colonies were “shivering with impatience
under the last slight remnant of the English yoke.”
Because of their arrogant attempt to put their theories and their
conclusions to the test, the German people are being stripped of all
their overseas possessions. They have already lost their South-West
Protectorate and Togoland, and the Allies are now successfully engaged
in crushing German resistance in Eastern Africa. It is not my purpose in
this little book to follow the fortunes of the Allied troops; it will be
time enough to write the story of the campaigns when the task is
accomplished, and the future administrations of the colonies are in
operation. My object in the following pages is to give the public the
particulars about the Cameroons which I have collected not without the
expenditure of a considerable amount of time and trouble. A natural
desire to ascertain the nature of the difficulties that would have to be
surmounted by the allied forces, and a desire to learn something of the
natural resources and commercial potentialities of the territory that
was about to be acquired, sent me to bookshops and libraries in search
of works that would satisfy my curiosity. I was disappointed to find
that the information I wanted was not available in English form, English
authors having decided, apparently, that the colony did not lend itself
to interesting or marketable compilation, and since the British
Government had not accredited a Consul to the Cameroons, not even a
belated Consular Report was procurable. In this extremity I turned my
attention to such German publications as were obtainable in this country
and, from the official writings of Dr. Paul Rohrback, Dr. Grotefeld, Dr.
Paul Preuss, Dr. Walter Busse, Herr Eltester, and Siegfreid Passarge, I
gathered a mass of information concerning the geographical and
geological features, the vegetation and forestry, and the natives and
native cultivation, together with an interesting summary of the progress
made under the German system of development and the success they had
attained in their experiments in plantation cultivation. In a paper
written by Captain W. A. Nugent, R.A., who had been a member of the
Boundary Commission in 1907, and acted as British Commissioner
appointed to survey and fix the boundary between the German Cameroons
and Nigeria in 1912, I found a full and admirable description of the
territory traversed. This volume contains the result of my researches,
selected and arranged in such a manner as will, I trust, be found
acceptable to English readers who share my curiosity concerning the
natural resources, the commercial position and the prospects of the
colony, and who also entertain the hope that part of it, at least, will
ultimately form a link in the chain of British overseas dominions.
ALBERT F. CALVERT.
ROYSTON,
ETON AVENUE, N.W.
CONTENTS
PAGE
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 1
PLANTATION CULTIVATION 24
NATIVE EDUCATION 56
THE CAMEROON-NIGERIAN BOUNDARY 62
COLOURED PLATE
Victoria, Cameroon _Frontispiece_
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE
Duala 1
The Quay at Duala 2
Landing-place at Duala 3
Post Office, Duala 4
Court House at Duala 5
Hospital at Duala 6
Natives’ Metal Work 7
The Bâle Mission at Duala 8
Workshop of the Bâle Mission, Duala 9
Manga Beli’s Palace, Duala 10
The Native Quarter, Duala 11
Business Offices in Duala 12
Natives Wood Carving 13
The Woermann Floating Dock at Duala 14
Landing Jetty 15
Constructing the Central Railway from Duala to the
Nyong River 16
View of the Wuri River at Bonaberi 17
The Wuri River above Duala 18
Elephant Grass 19
Buea, former Seat of the German Government of
Cameroon. Great Cameroon Mountains in the
Background 20
View of Buea 21
The late German Governor’s Palace, Buea 22
Buea 23
Algau Cattle grazing near Buea 24
Grazing Land near Buea 25
Tobacco Plantation near Buea 26
The new Okoti Crater on the Cameroon Mountain
taken from the East 27
Forest on the Cameroon Peak at an elevation of 1,800
metres 28
View of Victoria 29
Victoria, with the Great Cameroon Mountain and
Little Cameroon Mountain 30
View of Ambas Bay 31
Steep Coast near Victoria 32
Botanical Gardens, Victoria 33
Office in the Botanical Gardens, Victoria 34
Buildings of the Victoria Co., Victoria 35
Vegetation in the Forest 36
Kribi, at the Mouth of the Kribi River, the Chief
Trading-place on the Coast of South Cameroon 37
Kribi 38
Low-lying Coast near Kribi 39
Mission House at Kribi 40
Boa-constrictor 41
Natives of Bule 42
Marshy Land in the Oil-palm Region near the Coast 43
Oil-palm in a Maize Field 44
Preparation of Palm-oil by Native Methods 45
Oil-palms 46
Cocoa Tree with Fruit 47
Seven-year-old Oil-palm Trees 48
The Oil-palm. Crown with Clusters of Fruit 49
Station Yard at Edea 50
The Sanaga River near Edea 51
The Sanaga River near Edea 52
Bridge over the Southern Arm of the Sanaga River
(Duala-Nyong Railway) 53
Entrance to the Forest near Edea 54
Woermann Line Boats on the Sanaga River 55
Rapids in the Sanaga River 56
Maize Stores at Jaunde 57
Park-like District in a Clearing of the Forest on the
Edea-Jaunde Road 58
Native Soldiers at Jaunde 59
Native Troops in Camp 60
Native Troops on Active Service 61
Native Village. Gabled Huts 62
On the Upper Nyong River 63
Colonial Troops at a Factory on the Upper Nyong
River 64
Ferry Boat on the Nyong River 65
Steamer at the Landing-place of a Factory on the
Nyong River 66
Collecting Rubber in the Forest 67
Dehane Rubber Plantation (Nyong River) 68
Dehane Rubber Plantation (Nyong River) 69
Manager’s House on the Dehane Rubber Plantation 70
Clearing the Ground for Planting Rubber Trees 71
Ground Cleared for Planting 72
Mixed Trees in a Plantation 73
Pay Day on a Rubber Plantation 74
A Path through the Dehane Plantation on the Nyong
River 75
Natives Waiting for the Dinner Bell 76
Banana Trees on a Rubber Plantation 77
A Four-year-old Rubber Tree ready for Tapping 78
Natives at Dehane 79
Roll Call of Labourers on a Plantation 80
Elephant Grass 81
Tapping the Rubber Tree 82
Small huts for Patients suffering from Sleeping
Sickness 83
Forest on the Banks of the Mungo River 84
Native Suspension Bridge over the Mungo River 85
Native Suspension Bridge over the Mungo River 86
The “Mungo” German Government Steamer on the
River 87
A Tree Trunk used as a Bridge 88
Village of Ninong at the Western Base of the Manenguba
Mountains 89
The Elong Mountain in the Bamenda Range seen from
the foot of the Manenguba Mountains 90
Forest on the Banks of the Cross River 91
Fishing on the Cross River 92
The Cross River at Nssanakang 93
Factory on the Cross River for Trading with the
Natives 94
Banana Trees near Ossidinge 95
A Village in Keakaland, Ossidinge 96
Head-dress and Tribal Marks of Keaka Women 97
Native Musical Instruments in Keakaland 98
Caravan Crossing the Ndi River near Fontschanda 99
Typical Vegetation 100
A Palm Grove 101
A Suspension Bridge 102
A Suspension Bridge 103
Suspension Bridge over the Fi, near Tinto 104
Fumban in Bamum 105
Native Market at Bamum. Provisions and Kolo
Nuts being Sold 106
Ndjoia, Sultan of Bamum, between two War Drums,
at Fumban 107
Sultan of Bamum with the Captains of his Troops 108
Made by the Natives of Bamum 109
Trial Field for Cotton and Tobacco at the Government
Station, Fumban, Bamum 110
Bamum. Note the Frieze of Animals under the Grass
Roof 111
Street Scene in Bamum 112
Street Scene in Bamum 113
Street Scene in Bamum 114
A House in Bamum 115
A Street in the Women’s Quarter 116
Cotton Field near Bamum 117
Dracæna the Fetish Trees of West Africa 118
Market-place at Banjo with the Banjo Mountains in
the Distance 119
The “Malam” of Banjo in Hausa State Costume 120
Banjo, a Settlement in the Interior 121
Vegetation in the Forest 122
The “Island” Mountain District in North Adamaua
between Ntem and the Ribäu Slope on the Banjo
Road 123
Granite Mountain in Central Cameroon 124
Sudan Natives of Central Cameroon. Wute Natives
in War Costume 125
War Games of the Wute Natives 126
Woman of the Wute Tribe 127
Woman of the Wute Tribe 128
Sudan Natives in Central Cameroon. Wute Archers 129
Sudan Natives in Central Cameroon. Wutes with
their War Drums 130
Hump-backed Cattle of Adamaua 131
Hump-backed Cattle of Adamaua 132
The Faro above Tschamba 133
Caravan Travelling. Resting 134
Kumbo Highlands on the way to Lake Mauwe,
between Bakumbi and Banka 135
Kumbo Highlands between Banka and Lake Mauwe 136
The Remains of a Volcano in the Kumbo Highlands 137
Forest in the Highlands 138
Change from Forest to Grass Country on the broken
edge of the Inner Highlands near Fontem 139
Cultivated Portions of Grass Country 140
Typical Grass Country in Bafu-Fondong, on the Great
Dschang-Bamenda Road 141
Women Working in the Fields in the Grass Country,
North-west Cameroon 142
Death Dance of the Natives near Dschang 143
The Chief Bafu-Fondong on his Throne 144
Tatooed Fondong Negro 145
A Chief’s Wife in the Grass Country 146
Parasites on a Tree, near the Grass Country 147
Bali Negress in the Grass Country 148
Mbo, a Fortified Station near the Grass Country 149
Kusseri, a Fortified Station in North Cameroon 150
The Resident’s House at Kusseri 151
Mecca Pilgrims at Kusseri 152
Log Path through a Swamp 153
Horsemen in North Cameroon 154
View of Elephant Lake 155
Village of Kilgrim in the Mandara Mountains 156
The Lagone River at Musgum 157
Caravan Crossing a River 158
Njoja, with his Wives and Children, sitting in front of
his Palace 159
Bakwiri Women and Children Dancing 160
The Head Chief Balwen in his War Costume 161
Chieftain in Gala Attire 162
Hausa Girl at a Spring 163
Natives of North Cameroon 164
Deng-Deng, a Settlement in the Interior 165
Dikoa, a Settlement in the Interior 166
Ebolowa, a Settlement in the Interior 167
Floods near Ssigal 168
Sultan of Ngaumdere with his Bodyguard 169
Market at Ngaumdere 170
Main Buildings of the Bibundi Plantation 171
Bungalow on the Bibundi Plantation 172
Plantation in Full Bearing 173
Baia Youths 174
Baia Women 175
Dead Elephant 176
Walrus 177
A Hausa Village 178
A Native Village. Musgum Huts 179
A Native Village. Huts with Cone-shaped Roofs 180
Caravan Travelling. Hiring Carriers 181
Rubber Caravan 182
Ivory Caravan 183
Scene at an Ivory Factory 184
Weighing the Ivory 185
Factory in the Interior of South Cameroon 186
Roll-call of Labourers 187
Bridging over a Ravine 188
Sawing Wood 189
Njem Woman, South Cameroon 190
Prow of a War Canoe 191
MAPS
vPLATE
Density of the Population 192
Flora 193
Fauna 194
River Basins 195
Ivory Districts 196
Chart showing Entrance to Duala from the Sea 197
Hausa Territory 198
Profile of Cameroon 199
A. F. Calvert’s Map of Cameroon 200
THE CAMEROONS
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.
The large bay or estuary in the Gulf of Guinea, lying south of Nigeria
and facing the island of Fernando-Po, was discovered by Portuguese
navigators in the fifteenth or sixteenth century and christened the Rio
dos Camaroes (the River of Prawns), from the abundance of Crustacea that
infested its waters. The name was also used to designate the
neighbouring mountains, which rise to the north-west of the bay. The
English usage, until the end of the nineteenth century, was to confine
the term, the Cameroons, to the mountain range, and to speak of the
estuary as the Cameroon River. It was left to the acquisitive Germans to
extend the use of the name in its Teutonic form--Kamerun--to the whole
Protectorate.
The establishment of German trading firms and factories at various
places on the West African coast suggested to the Imperial Chancellor
the practicability of laying the foundations of his projected German
Colonial Empire in the Cameroon region of the Dark Continent. On March
19th, 1884, Dr. Nachtigal, a former Consul at Tunis, was instructed to
proceed on this civilising mission, and on July 5th and 6th he hoisted
the German flag at Bayida and Lome, in Togoland. On the 10th of that
month the English gunboat _Goshawk_ entered the Cameroon River, and the
mission’s hope of further extending the sphere of German influence on
the coast of West Africa appeared doomed to extinction. But the
_Goshawk_ departed on the following day, leaving the field clear for
Nachtigal, who rushed through some agreements with the chiefs Deido,
Bell and Akva, declared the country to be under the protection of
Germany on July 14th, and appointed Doctor Buchner Provisional Governor
of the newly acquired territory. The new Governor acknowledged the
protest against German occupation, which was formally made by the
British Consul on July 19th, and proceeded to hoist the German flag at
Bumbia, Maliba, and Batanga.
In this nefarious and undignified manner the German Government obtained
a foothold in the Gulf of Guinea, but it still remained for them to
regulate their intrusion among the nations already established in the
region. In order to solidify the position they had taken up, and, in
the phrase employed by Siegfreid Passarge, “to withstand the intrigues
and provocations of the English,” who laid claims to Victoria and the
Rio del Rey coast, it was necessary to have the treaty of occupation
confirmed. On May 7th, 1885, a treaty was concluded by which the British
waived their claims in favour of Germany, who reciprocated by renouncing
their nominal claims to Forcados, at the mouth of the Niger, and to St.
Lucia. In the same year the French ceded Great Batanga and the island
west of Kwakwa-Kriek in exchange for the German possession of Konakry.
These treaties legalised the position, and Germany was left a free hand
to develop her possessions in the Cameroons, under the Governorship of
Baron von Goden.
In July, 1911, the German cruiser _Panther_ appeared off the coast of
Morocco, at Agadir, for the alleged purpose of protecting German
interests, of which no trace existed in that quarter of the globe. The
incident was ultimately closed by the cession to Germany of the French
territory to the south of their Cameroon colony, which was subsequently
incorporated with it under the name of New Cameroon. The transfer was
made in June, 1913. Under French domination, three military stations,
garrisoned with a total force of four officers, twelve non-commissioned
officers, and 200 native troops, had been sufficient to preserve order,
but the new rulers had their own ideas as to the military requirements
of their growing Empire. We read in _Jahrbuch über die Deutscher
Kolonien_ (1913) that the German defence force numbers 185 Europeans and
1,550 natives, while it was the intention of the Government to form an
additional corps of mounted infantry, to establish a stud farm for the
breeding of troop horses, and to arm all the troops with 98·3 carbines.
Since the declaration of war in August last, Togoland has capitulated to
the French and British, and the German Cameroons are now being
systematically and successfully invaded by the allied forces. The
political future of these territories is, as yet, undetermined, but
however they may be ultimately allocated, German domination in West
Africa, with its blundering mismanagement and bumptious militarism, is a
chapter of colonial history that is closed for ever.
THE EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR.
Although the commercial activities of the tribes inhabiting the African
Mohammedan empires, and the construction of trade routes connecting
Senegal with the Red Sea, had opened up the Soudan to Europeans, the
territory which since 1884 has been known as German Cameroon was
practically unexplored at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In
1822 an English expedition succeeded in reaching Lake Tchad and
exploring its western and southern boundaries. This discovery was
supplemented in 1851-52 by Barth and Overweg. Barth went from Kuka to
Yola, and discovered the upper course of the Benue. He penetrated
further, through the country south of Lake Chad to Bagirmi. In 1854
Baikie went up the Benue, as far as Djen, about fifty kilometres from
Yola. Rohlf’s journey in 1865-67 and Nachtigal’s in 1869-74 are of
little importance. In 1879 began the activity of Edward Flegel, who, on
the steamer _Henry Benn_, navigated the Benue as far as Garna. Of much
greater importance were the explorations of the Benue district in 1882
and 1883, the southern limit of which was marked by the towns of
Ngaumdere, Banjo, Gaschaka, and Takum.
The knowledge of the coastal district was extremely limited. Burton and
Mann had ascended the Cameroon mountains in 1861-62. In 1872-75 three
German scientists, Buchholz, Reichenow and Lüders, made important
zoological discoveries, while Rogozinsky, a Pole, in 1883, reached as
far as Lake Barombi. But all efforts to penetrate into the interior were
frustrated by the impracticable condition of the roads, the
unhealthiness of the coast district--which was for the greater part
uninhabited virgin forest--and by the hostile attitude of the natives.
After many fruitless endeavours to explore this coastal region, an
expedition in 1888 succeeded in crossing from Batanga by way of Njong
and Sanaga, and in settling the boundary between Bantio and Sudannegern.
The effort to reach the Cameroon estuary was frustrated by the
opposition of the Bakoko; and after a journey of much difficulty the
expedition returned to the coast. In 1899 a station was established and
a foothold secured. In the same year the region north of Duala was
explored, and the forest district traversed, the plateau of Baliland was
ascended, and the grassy lands reached. With indescribable difficulty
the districts from Ibi on the Benue to Yola were traversed. In 1902-4 an
Anglo-German expedition, after a very minute survey, fixed the boundary
line between Yola and Lake Chad, and in 1908 an agreement was made
between Germany and France regarding the south and east boundaries. In
1907-8 the frontier between Cameroon and the Nigerias was surveyed by
the British and German representatives, and the approximate line of
demarcation subsequently settled between the two Governments was fixed
and marked by an Anglo-German commission in 1912-13.
BOUNDARIES AND TOWNS.
The Cameroons are bounded on the north-west by Nigeria, on the
north-east and east by the French possessions of the Military Territory
of Chad and the Middle Congo and the French possession of Gaboon. The
frontier runs in a north-easterly direction from near Calabar in the
Southern Provinces of Nigeria to Lake Chad, and then in a general
south-south-east direction to about lat. 2° N., from whence it strikes
south-west by west, reaching the Atlantic just south of Spanish Guinea,
which is thus surrounded on the north, east and south by German
territory. The general outline of the country thus described is broken
in the middle east by a triangular piece of land which gives access to
the Ubangi river, an affluent of the Congo, at Singa, in lat. 3° 40´ N.;
whilst in the south-east corner a strip of land seventy miles broad
runs southwards, giving access to the Congo itself in about lat. 1° S.
The Protectorate, with an area of 290 square miles, had in 1913 an
estimated native population of 2,650,000, and a European population of
1,871, of whom 1,643 were Germans.
The chief towns on the coast, from north to south, are Victoria, Duala
(the capital), Kribi, and Ukoko. Buea is a large town on the eastern
slopes of the Cameroon mountain, and Edea is on the Sanaga, about forty
miles from its mouth. In the mountainous region in the north-west are
Bare, Dschang, Bali, Bamenda, Wum, Esu, and Kentu; to the east of these
is Fumban, and to the west, in the low-lying country near the Nigerian
border, Ossidinge. In the western portion of the plateau are Tibati,
Banyo and Tingere, and in the centre, at the junction of the main routes
of the interior, is Ngaumdere. In the country north of the plateau the
chief towns are Garua, an important trading centre on the Benue, Lere,
Binder, Marua, Mora, Dikoa, and Kusseri. In the southern part of the
country are Yaunde, Dume, Bertua, Gaza, Carnot, Bania, Lomie, and
Akoafim. Molondu is in the extreme south-east.
THE PROGRESS OF THE PROTECTORATE.
In the first twenty-eight years of their occupation the Germans had
established courts of justice at Buea, Duala, Kribi, and Lomie, custom
houses at Duala and Buea, thirty-eight post offices throughout the
territory, and had maintained order among the natives by means of twelve
companies of Imperial troops. They had constructed and opened 108
kilometres of the 1-m. gauge line of 160 kilometres from Duala to the
Manenguæ Mountains, and had opened the central line from Duala to
Widimange, on the Nyong River--a distance of 293 kilometres of 1-m.
gauge line--as far as Edea, ninety kilometres from Duala. The imports
had increased from 9,296,796 marks in 1898 to 29,317,514 marks in 1911,
and their exports in the same period had risen from 4,601,620 to
21,250,883 marks, a total increase in the trade of the colony of nearly
thirty-seven million marks. The want of means of communication was found
a hindrance in the economic development of the territory, which was
admittedly possessed of “unlimited liabilities.” Vast tracts in the
interior were proved to be suited for cotton cultivation; oil palms,
cocoa, and rubber were ascertained to be of “incalculable wealth,” and
the Cameroons were described by Dr. Grotewold as among the most
productive countries in the world.
But the administration, or the critics of the administration of the
Protectorate, had discovered that the lack of proper means of
communication was not the only factor that retarded the progress of this
richly endowed country. The unrest amongst the natives had revealed on
the part of the authorities the lack of that sympathetic understanding
of their native subjects which makes for successful colonisation. Their
treatment of the natives was culpably injudicious, and their mistakes in
dealing with them were so frequent and serious that the relations
between the Government and the native population were constantly
strained, and the services of the Imperial troops were in great demand.
GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.
The country on the whole is mountainous and forms the north-west limit
of the central African plateau. The coastland is flat alluvial country
spreading out on either side of the Cameroon Mountains, and broken up
with mangrove swamps, lagoons and deep estuaries. The Rio del Rey region
on the west of the Cameroon Mountains is a stretch of alluvial land
with a breadth of thirty to forty kilometres, which forms the extreme
eastern portion of the great alluvial plain extending from the Gold
Coast to the Cameroon, and attaining its greatest development in the
Niger Delta. Within the alluvial the volcanic massive of the Cameroon
Mountain rises to a height of 4,070 m., and divides the land into two
parts, which are connected only by a small and high strip of territory.
To the east of the dividing mountain lies Dualaland. The other three
orographical regions which comprise the Cameroon country includes the
Cameroon plateau, which forms the largest and most important part of the
colony; the enormous region of Adamana, which is generally level and
nowhere reaches an elevation of more than 600 metres; and the extensive
swampy lands of the Lake Chad basin which are under water during several
months of the year.
The greater part of the colony is covered with red, loamy, sandy
weatherings, which are characteristic of the tropics. If this red earth
contains hard concretions of brown iron ore, they are named “Laterit.”
These cellular-like volcanic scoria are characteristic of the surface of
the soil generally, and especially in those districts where the loamy
deposits have been washed away by heavy rains. Vegetable soil is more
abundant in the rainy regions of the south, and also in the lowlands.
Indeed the result of this humid weathering is a kind of whitish yellowy
kaolin, or china clay, which is found in the south plateau. A blackish
mould to a thickness of one or two feet covers the lowland south of Lake
Chad, and is there called “Firki.” Whilst in the south of the colony red
and yellow clayey soil preponderates, the further north one goes to the
dryer regions, reddish sand, a product of the physical weathering, is to
be found.
CLIMATE.
In the coast region of the Cameroons the climate is warm and moist, with
a high rainfall. The temperature is not excessively high, the heat being
tempered by the cold Benguela current coming northward from the Polar
regions. According to Knox (_The Climate of Africa_) February is the
warmest month and July the coolest, the maximum and minimum temperatures
being 89·7° F. and 66° F. respectively. The mean temperature at Victoria
and Duala is about 77° F. The coast is one of the most unhealthy places
in Africa, but the conditions are considerably better and more suited
to Europeans in the high-lying districts in the north. The climate of
the latter is largely of the continental type, characterised by extremes
of temperature. At Bali the mean temperature is about 64° F., the
maximum 87° to 90° F., and the minimum 43° to 45° F. At Fort Crampel, on
the eastern side of the plateau, the maximum temperature reaches 113°
F., and the minimum 49° F. On the Ngaumdere plateau it is sometimes very
cold, and sleet storms are not uncommon, the temperature sometimes
falling to 37° F.
As regards rainfall, there are as a rule four more or less distinct
seasons in the southern and central regions--the chief dry season at the
beginning of the year, the so-called long wet season from June to
September, a short dry season in October and November, and a short
period of great rainfall in part of November and in December--but the
divisions indicated are by no means well marked. The Adamana district,
situated on the north of the plateau, lies beyond the equatorial beet,
and there are consequently only two seasons, one wet and one dry.
The massive of the Cameroon Mountains presents a district which is
singular with regard to its climate, vegetation and animal life. At its
base is a primeval forest, and the climate is tropical and humid.
Debundja and Bibundo have practically no dry season, the rain being
continuous nearly the whole year round. On the east side, the rainy
season lasts for only two to three months in the year. Buea, which lies
on the lower slopes of the misty region, has a fresh, cool climate, and
is quite free from malaria. The temperature varies frequently, in some
cases from 1·5° to 2° Cent. in the course of two or three minutes.
Instead of the usual heavy tropical rains, it has only a drizzling rain,
and the humidity penetrates everywhere, even the dwellings. On the upper
slopes, when the north-east wind blows, it is icy cold, except at
midday. Hoar frost is frequent and snow fairly so. The mountain is
nearly always cloud-capped, and it is seldom possible to obtain a really
clear view of the summit.
VEGETATION AND FORESTRY.
The combination of tropical heat and rain in the alternate regions of
forests and brushwood swamps produces a tropical growth of cocoa palms,
cotton plants, flax and fibrous trees, and rubber vines in prodigal
luxuriance and variety. The virgin forests are tropical to a height of
about 1,000 m., when they become less dense, and the oak ferns make
their appearance. Between 1,500 and 1,800 m. the wild coffee shrub grows
abundantly, the oak ferns disappear, and are succeeded by glades and
brushwood. At an altitude of 2,200 m. the forest suddenly comes to an
end and the grass land begins. Only in the ravines, in which the soil is
moist and sheltered from the winds, the forest continues to the 2,700 m.
level. The high forest--the most magnificent of all tropical forest
formations--is characterised by its amazing variety of entirely
different trees, including, among others, the great wool tree, the
mahogany tree, the yellow and red wood trees, the oil-palm, and rubber.
Among the trees of the brushwood districts the principal are acacias and
the oil-palm, which to a height of from 700 to 900 m. covers the slopes
of the Cameroon plateau to the coast.
The chief planting activity appears to have been at
Johann-Albrechts-Höhe, and in the Dibombari district on the Northern
Railway. A forestry plantation at Manoka, near Duala, was abandoned on
account of its remoteness, the difficulty of water supply, and the
constant lack of labour. The principal work for the making of forest
and state reserves has been conducted in Yabassi, Yaunde, Edea, and
Dschang. The efforts of the forest department and of private persons
have been concerned mainly with: (_a_) Investigations of woods suitable
for beams, wharves, and for boat and waggon building; (_b_) trials of
woods resistant to _teredo navalis_ for small boats; and (_c_)
experimental shipments to German South-West Africa of woods serviceable
for building, mining and street paving.
A large increase, amounting to 270 per cent. in the production of
building and other timber, took place in 1911. The first place in the
exports is held by Cameroons mahogany, which is stated to be increasing
gradually in value in the market; its exports having risen in value from
£7,022 in 1910 to £22,000 in 1912. The next wood in importance is
Cameroons ebony, the exports of which have been as follows: 1909, 672
tons, worth £3,038; 1910, 1,221 tons, worth £6,090; 1911, 1,652 tons,
worth £6,777; whilst in 1912 the value of the shipment was £9,055. The
increase of exports has been largely due to an increase of cutting by
the natives, and this has entailed a considerable amount of robbery by
them. As a consequence, timber exploitation on Government lands was
entirely prohibited to natives in the period 1912-13, and concessions
were given to Europeans with much caution; a decrease in the production
was therefore expected. A difficulty regarding the exploitation of
timber in the Cameroons is the lack of good waterways in the forest
regions.
CATTLE RAISING.
In spite of the very great difficulties caused by the tsetse fly, much
attention has been paid to stock-breeding in the Cameroons, although
with the exception of certain efforts made in Kusseri, in the extreme
north, and in Garua, in Adamana, nothing in the nature of methodical
horse-breeding by natives exists. The indigenous cattle are of two
kinds, the dwarf cattle and the humped cattle. Cattle-breeding in the
proper sense is only found among the Fulla tribe in Adamana, in Banyo
and the Lake Chad regions. From these places there was once an active
export of cattle to the neighbouring British and French Protectorates,
but this has been diminished in recent years owing to a large export
duty. The interest in cattle-production on the part of the natives has
been increased in recent years, under official encouragement, in the
districts of Dschang and Bamenda.