Rudolf Manga Bell
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell (* 1873 ; † August 8, 1914 in Duala ) was king of the Duala people in Cameroon during the German colonial period . He was the leader of the resistance against the illegal eviction of the Duala from their traditional settlement areas.
Life
Rudolf Manga Bell was born in the Duala area in 1873 as the eldest son of King Manga Ndumb'a and grandson of King Bell , who had signed the "Protection Treaty" with Germany. He attended the German government school there before coming to Aalen as a foster child for five years with the Österle family of teachers . During this time he learned German and was shaped for his life. In 1897 he went back to Cameroon to marry Emily Engome Dayas. In 1902 he traveled to Germany and met the director of the colonial department of the Foreign Office , Oscar Wilhelm Stübel , in Berlin . This gave him insights into the structure of the German colonial administration, which was useful to him later.
In 1905 he wrote an open letter to the German Reichstag together with King Akwa von Bonambela and 26 other Cameroonian heads of the people . In this one complained u. a. About right-wing acts by the governor Jesko von Puttkamer , expropriations, tearing down houses without a permit, forced labor without wages, arbitrary arrests and excessive punishment as well as the degrading treatment of Cameroonian heads of the people through the punishment. The Duala wrote in their letter of complaint to the Reichstag on June 19:
“We no longer want Mr. Governor von Puttkamer, his judges, district officials, in short his entire government crew, here. We ask all current government officials of the protected area of Cameroon to want to leave, because they do not run their government well, they are not justified, their ways exploit the country. As a substitute governor, we humbly ask you to send us a consulate instead of assessorism, we never want to have assessorism again, it corrupts the government and turns the honest, good German power into a usurious and hawkish power! So off with assessorism, as a substitute: Consulate! (...) We are German and will remain German until the end of the world. With the most humble greeting to His Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and Cameroon "
Her reputation was received with astonishment and incredulous recognition in Germany, but it was more ridiculed than heard. A change of governor did not take place until 1907, when Theodor Seitz took up his service in Buea . His reformist stance on the so-called "native questions" corresponded roughly to that of State Secretary Bernhard Dernburg . When Friedrich von Lindequist took over the management of the German colonial administration in 1910 , Seitz went to German South West Africa and was replaced by the considerably more racist, Pan - German Otto Gleim .
Under Gleim, plans were developed to evict the Duala from their residential area on the Cameroon River without compensation, to burn down their houses in favor of factories and to separate black and white residential areas in Douala. Rudolf Manga Bell defended himself against this. He petitioned the government and the Reichstag, sent his secretary Ngoso Din to Berlin in 1912, made contact with the German opposition and Christian missions and even brought in a Berlin lawyer in the case. He was heard by the “Social Democrats in the Reichstag”. Marked Georg Ledebour the operations in Cameroon as a breach of law the most shameful way. In the Reichstag filed August Bebel , a hippopotamus whip to illustrate the brutality of the colonial administration around.
When King Manga Bell was accused and persecuted by the German occupation, he sought and found refuge with his cousin and best friend King Ekandjoum Joseph. The latter also claimed the rights of his people . According to Cameroon archives, the two kings met several times.
The German press, on the other hand, reported a “request for help” to France and Great Britain , which, however, has not yet been proven. In 1914, King Rudolf Manga Bell, who is said to have remained loyal to Germany and the Kaiser to the end and who took peaceful action against specific grievances, was sentenced to “ death by hanging ” for “ high treason ” . There was no orderly negotiation. Manga Bell and his secretary Ngoso Din were executed in Duala on August 8, 1914 . His last words were: “Innocent blood is hanging on her. You kill me in vain. But the consequence of this will be the greatest. "
His people were expelled from the Cameroon River. Rudolf Manga Bell became something of a martyr and folk hero. The Duala supported the Entente during the First World War .
Honors
On 11 April 2018, gave the district council of the district Berlin-Mitte known that the previously after the colonialist explorer Gustav Nachtigal named Nachtigalplatz by Emily and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell to be named.
literature
- Gisela Graichen, Horst Founder: German colonies. Dream and trauma. Ullstein, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-548-36940-5 , pp. 108-110.
- Wilfried Westphal: History of the German colonies. Bertelsmann, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-03450-X , p. 293.
- Christian Bommarius: The good German. The murder of Manga Bell in Cameroon 1914. Berenberg Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-937834-77-1 .
Web links
- Execution of Cameroonian resistance fighters , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , August 4, 2014
- Film about Rudolf Manga Bell
- Documentary piece about Manga Bell by Kum'a Ndumbe III.
- The first negroes in Aalen
- The tragedy surrounding Rudolf Manga Bell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Hielscher: The tragedy around Rudolf Manga Bell. When the Germans cheated, robbed and brutally subjugated his people, a king in Cameroon peacefully pushed for a treaty to be observed in 1914. For this, the Empire brought Rudolf Manga Bell to the gallows. , SPON , downloaded on August 10, 2019, saved as a memento
- ↑ Laura Hofmann: New street names for the African quarter found. In: Der Tagesspiegel . April 11, 2018. Retrieved April 11, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Manga Bell, Rudolf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Duala Manga-Bell, Rudolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cameroonian king during the German colonial period |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1873 |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 8, 1914 |
| Place of death | Duala |