Charles Atangana
Karl Friedrich Otto Atangana Ntchama (Charles Atangana) (* around 1883; † September 1, 1943 ) was a Cameroonian politician under German and French colonial rule.
Life
Atangana was a later son of the Ewondo headman Essomba from the Mvog-Atemenge. At the instigation of the German officer Hans Dominik , he was educated in the Pallottine mission in Kribi from 1897 , joined the German colonial administration as a hospital assistant and interpreter in 1900 and worked closely as a chancellery and interpreter from 1902 to 1915, later as chairman of the native arbitration tribunal the German administration in the Yaounde district. From June 1912 to June 1913 he was employed as a language assistant at the Colonial Institute in Hamburg .
After his return to Cameroon he was appointed "Chief of the Yaounde (Ewondo) and Bane" by the colonial administration. Although he only served briefly until the outbreak of World War I, he achieved a great influence that outlived the German colonial era. Atangana is regarded as the prototype of the cooperative middleman, which the colonial administration used in the effective domination of the population, but who at the same time gained power and influence on the societies of the South Cameroon woodland under German protection as a representative of a new indigenous elite. In addition to his key position as a local confidante at the Yaoundé district office, he used his connections to the Catholic mission of the Pallottines in particular to secure his influence. With the help of the German administration, he was able to win an internal power struggle with representatives of the Mvog-Fuda and Mvog-Ada in 1907.
Even during the war Atangana was loyal to the German military power. In 1916 he joined the German protection force on neutral Spanish territory and was interned at Fernando Póo with most of his followers until the end of the war . During the Versailles negotiations he was taken to Madrid to testify in favor of the German colonial power. However, it was not used at the conference. In June 1920 he received permission to return to Cameroon. From 1920 to 1921 he was interned by the French mandate administration in Dschang and in December 1921 he was reinstated as "chief chief" over 278 headmen. When some of the Bane leaders who were previously dependent on him claimed their own head, the French authorities reduced the number of headmen subordinate to the Atangana to 40 in 1925. After further restrictions, he ultimately only had a representative function.
Works
- Yaoundé texts by Karl Atangana and Paul Messi , Hamburg 1919 (The work, actually published by Martin Heepe as an exercise book for the Yaoundé language , is used in particular by Atangana to present his view of the history of the Yaoundé region)
literature
- Frederick Quinn: Charles Atangana of Yaounde . In: Journal of African History . 21, 1980, ISSN 0021-8537 , pp. 485-495.
- Frederick Quinn: In Search of Salt. Changes in Beti (Cameroon) Society, 1880-1960 . Berghahn Books, New York NY et al. 2006, ISBN 1-84545-006-X ( Cameroon Studies 6).
- ↑ Deutsches Kolonialblatt 1907, p. 625.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Atangana, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Atangana, Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cameroonian politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1883 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 1, 1943 |