Alexander Douala-Bell

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Alexander Douala-Bell (born December 3, 1897 , † September 19, 1966 in Douala ; German spelling Duala-Bell , French also Alexandre Douala Manga Bell ) was king of the Duala people in Cameroon and a Royal Württemberg officer.

Life

Youth in Germany

Alexander Douala-Bell was born on December 3, 1897 in the Douala area as the eldest son of King Rudolf Manga Bell . At that time, Cameroon was a German colony . Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted the German overseas territories to have a stronger presence in Berlin . The then four-year-old Prince Alexander was brought to the German imperial court in order to obtain a higher education and to get an impression of the colonial power of Cameroon. Prince Alexander learned quickly: first German, then French, English and Spanish, as well as Russian, but also Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew. The believing Christian read a chapter of the New Testament in the original Greek version every day . He also received extensive military training: he was promoted to officer of the Ulm Uhlan Regiment "King Karl" (1st Württembergisches) No. 19 . In the First World War he fought as a German officer in the allied Turkey and in 1915 helped to repel the British-French attack on the Dardanelles together with the Turks. A year earlier, in his distant homeland of Cameroon, his father, Rudolf Manga Bell, had been executed on charges of high treason following a conflict with the German colonial administration.

In 1919, Alexander Douala-Bell married Andrea Jimenez Berroa (1902–1985) in Hamburg , daughter of Emma Mina Filter from Hamburg and the Cuban pianist Jose Manuel Jimenez Berroa, professor at the Hamburg Conservatory of Music. The marriage resulted in two children, son Jose Emmanuel (1920–1947) and daughter Andrea Tüke Ekedi (1921–2003).

Living in France and Cameroon

Cameroon became French with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The French government now forced Alexander Douala-Bell to move to France, as it hoped that he would be useful in legitimizing the new French rule in Cameroon. On the other hand, she mistrusted him because of his German background and insisted on "Frenchizing" him before returning to Cameroon. The Bell couple moved to Paris in mid-1919. After a few temporary stays in the country that had become strange to him, Alexander Douala-Bell returned to Cameroon in 1922, but without his wife Andrea Manga Bell and the children who remained in Europe. In the following years he had to fight for his position in Cameroon as well as for his family property, for which he led a court case that lasted 18 years. In 1937 he became a French citizen.

When the French recruited entire tribes for forced labor to complete the Douala- Yaoundé railway line , Douala-Bell, who had meanwhile become king, intervened and raised his voice. His reputation was heard and forced labor was abolished in Cameroon.

During the Second World War , Alexander Douala-Bell fought on the side of France and enlisted in the French army in Dakar . In the post-war period, all French colonial areas could send delegates to Paris . Alexander Douala-Bell was elected to the Constituent Assembly of the Fourth Republic in 1945 as one of the representatives of Cameroon. In the parliamentary elections in 1946, he achieved almost a two-thirds majority . In 1951 and 1956 he was re-elected. From 1946 to 1955 he was a member of the parliamentary group of the MRP (Mouvement républicain populaire), in his last legislative period from 1956 until his departure in 1958 he was one of the "Indépendants d'outre-mer". In 1952 he was a French delegate to the UN General Assembly. From 1952 he was also a member of the Territorial Assembly of Cameroon.

Death of the son

In Dakar in 1942 he had again contacted his son Emmanuel, whom he had not seen since moving to Cameroon. During Emmanuel's visit to Douala in 1947, a dispute broke out, which led to Alexander shooting his son on September 15, 1947 and imprisoning him. He was released on November 19, 1947. The death of his son was classified as an accident. Parliament refused to lift immunity. Efforts by Andrea Manga Bell to reach a court case were unsuccessful.

It was not until 1951 that Alexander Douala-Bell was enthroned as head of the Douala ( chief supérieure ). On September 19, 1966, Alexander Douala-Bell died in his homeland. His successor as head of the Douala was his nephew René Douala Manga Bell. Alexander Douala-Bell was given a state funeral, in which, according to official figures, more than 150,000 Cameroonians attended. While he was referred to as the " father of the fatherland " in Cameroon , his death was almost unnoticed in the German press.

Web links

literature

  • Malaria prophylaxis and colonial town planning: progress as a step backwards by A. Wirz; Gesnerus 37; 1980, pp. 215-234
  • Christian Mission and German Imperialism by H.Gründer; Pp. 159-169
  • Histoire du Cameroun by Engelbert Mveng; Paris 1963; P. 344

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nerius Namaso Mbile: Cameroon Political Story: Memories of an Authentic Eye Witness. Bamenda 2011, p. 243ff, ISBN 9956-717-77-0
  2. ↑ Alexandra Lübcke, Stefanie Michels: Theoretical considerations on memory concepts. In: Elisabeth Boesen, Fabienne Lentz (ed.): Migration and memory. Concepts and methods of research. Berlin 2010, pp. 205 and 208, ISBN 978-3-643-10341-3
  3. ↑ Daniel Romuald Bitouh: aesthetics of marginality in the work of Joseph Roth: A postcolonial view of the interconnection of domestic and colonialism Besides, Tübingen 2016, p 49, ISBN 978-3-7720-8520-8
  4. ↑ Richard Joseph: The Royal Pretender: Prince Douala Manga Bell in Paris, 1919-1922. in: Cahiers d'Études Africaines , Volume 14, No. 54, pp. 339-358, Paris 1974
  5. ^ Andreas Eckert: Property, Land Conflicts and Colonial Change: Douala 1880 to 1960 , Stuttgart 1999, p. 151 f., ISBN 3-515-06777-9
  6. ^ Franz Ansprenger: Politics in Black Africa. The modern political movements in Africa with French influences. Wiesbaden 1961. p. 65, ISBN 978-3-322-97922-3
  7. ^ Assembleé Nationale. Biography Alexandre Douala Manga Bell
  8. ^ Assembleé Nationale. Biography Alexandre Douala Manga Bell
  9. ↑ John Eichler: The dehumanization of Juliette Martens in Klaus Mann's novel "Mephisto" , a defense writing for Andrea Manga Bell, Huffington Post December 2, 2017; Text here too
  10. ↑ Jean-Pierre Félix Eyoum, Stefanie Michels, Joachim Zeller: Bonamanga. A cosmopolitan family story . In: Mont Cameroun. African journal for intercultural studies in German-speaking countries , No. 2, 2005, pp. 11–48
  11. ↑ Emmanuel Batamag: Cameroun: qui était Son Altesse Royale le Prince René Douala Manga Bell? , Le nouvel Afrik.com, January 4th 2013
personal data
SURNAME Douala-Bell, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duala-Bell, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cameroonian tribal prince and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1897
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1966
Place of death Douala