Cameroons

“ Except the Swedish settlers on the mountains, there are no European colonists in the Cameroons, and very few whites even on the coast, beyond some thirty or forty missionaries and traders. Several of the factories are even managed by blacks or men of colour, who show such aptitude for trade that it may be asked whether they may not ultimately acquire a complete monoply of the local trafiic. ”

“ With Map, 3 Coloured and other Illustrations, Coloured Medallion on Cover, crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 1s. 6d.
The Cameroons are a little known land, but they have been the scene of some of the most interesting work done by British missionaries on the West Coast of Africa. The land, like Sierra Leone, long justified the title of “The white man’s grave.” The people were savages, amongst whom it was not easy to work. ”

“ In German colonies cocoa growing is extending rapidly and from a financial point of view satisfactorily. The German Administration in the Cameroons, however, seems to favour such enterprises mainly as European undertakings in which the natives are mere labourers. Within recent years, probably in view of the success of the Gold Coast production, some effort has been made to encourage the natives by gifts of seed and young plants to lay down their own plantations. ”

“ Thus the German African colony of Kamerun is here called Cameroon, an English form which follows the common practice of English transliteration in regard to its initial letter, but departs, in deference to the German official nomenclature, from the older English Cameroons, a plural no longer justifiable, although most English newspapers and maps still perpetuate it.
In the case of personal names, wherever an English spelling has become sufficiently established both in literature and in popular usage it has been retained, irrespectively of any strict linguistic value. ”

“ Thus, by pressing on various points formerly regarded as under British influence, Bismarck secured at least one considerable district--one moreover that is the healthiest [pg 535] on the West African coast. Subsequent expansion made of the Cameroons a colony containing some 140,000 square miles with more than 1,100,000 inhabitants.
It is an open secret that Germany was working hard in 1884-85 to get a foothold on the Lower Niger and its great affluent, the Benuë. ”

“ To appreciate what Boma lacks one has only to visit the neighboring seaports on the same coast; the English towns of Sierra Leone and Calabar, the French town of Libreville in the French Congo, the German seaport Duala in the Cameroons, but especially Calabar in Southern Nigeria. ”

“ The administration of German colonies is decidedly autocratic, although not more so than in British Crown colonies. In German Cameroons, however, all interests are consulted in a manner which demonstrates the eagerness of the German Government to keep on good terms with the merchant. ”

“ All African sovereign States, Colonies, Protectorates and Trust territories, with the exception of Togolands, Spanish Guinea, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, Gambia and the French Cameroons, have been opened. ”

“ Kumba, much farther inland, appears to be a great market for slaves and palm-oil, with a population, according to Schwarz, of nearly four thousand. The name Cameroons is applied collectively to about a dozen villages with a joint population of ten thousand on the east side of the Cameroons estuary, some of which are separately known as King Bill's Town, King Akica's Toiim, from the names of the local kings." They are reached by vessels of average tonnage, those of larger size stopping at the entrance of the roadstead. A few hulks are ”

“ In the innermost part of the Bight of Guinea, British commercial interests had been paramount up to about 1880; but about that time German factories were founded in increasing numbers, and, owing to the dilatory action of British firms, gained increasing hold on the trade of several districts. The respect felt by native chiefs for British law was evinced by a request of five of the "Kings" of the Cameroons that they might have it introduced into their lands (1879) . Authorities at Downing Street and Whitehall were deaf to the request. ”

“ In the Cameroons the forest has been pierced with a network of roads, which are kept in splendid condition and are the admiration of all visitors from other colonies. But has not this great achievement been brought about at the cost of the native population and their vital interests? One is forced to ask questions when things have gone so far that women are impressed for the maintenance of the roads. It is impossible to acquiesce when, as is often the case, the colony itself prospers, while the native population diminishes year by year. ”

“ Meanwhile Italy had put in its caims for a share in the spoil, and the eastern horn of Africa, together with Abyssinia, fell to its share, though it soon had to drop it, owing to the unexpected vitality shown by the Abyssinians. In the same year (1890) agreements between Germany and England settled the line of demarcation between the Cameroons and Togoland, with the adjoining British territories; while in August of the same year an attempt was made to limit the abnormal pretensions of the French along the Niger, and as far as Lake Chad. ”

“ When escaping slaves have reached the Cameroons, the Germans resolutely refuse to give them back, and by that refusal they have done much to cover the errors and harshness of their own colonial system. What would happen now to slaves who reached Nigeria or the Gold Coast, one hardly dares to think. ”

“ The exchange of his products keeps the Cameroons man very busy. He usually spends the day at the factory in bargaining. For the goods which he has actually brought for the satisfaction of his immediate wants, he usually receives a ticket or "book" ”

“ I first ran through the Table of Contents of the Mittheilungen in order to look up the references and authorship of the six articles on the Cameroons and the Congo. The second I came across was the work of Professor Heidschütz, of Berlin University, describing the means of access (natural and artificial) to this territory.
I carried the appropriate volume to the library table and began to make some notes. As I was opening the book at the page of the article I wanted, a piece of paper fell out. ”

“ Smaller groups of not less than ten families reside together in a vast hall, while the Abos, on the contrary, live quite apart, each family in its own cabin, often completely isolated or perched on some artificial mound, and surrounded by a ditch as a protection against the periodical fioods. Of all the Cameroons peoples the best known are the D wallas, whose settle- ments on the chief estuary have long been in direct commercial relation with the English and Germans. ”

“ All the natives are in arms, some purchased by rum by the Germans, others loyal to us. In the old days the Cameroon kings implored the British Government to take the country under its protection. In their own words, they wanted English laws. But the Government took no notice of them until it was too late, until the Germans had forestalled us and taken possession of the country, by buying over the chiefs. If you go into the bush, you run into a thousand dangers: yellow fever, malaria, even starvation, and the natives you encounter may sell you as prisoners to the Germans. ”

“ This convention gave offense to France, and that country immediately exacted from the Congo Free State a treaty stipulating that the latter shall not occupy or exercise political influence in a region which covers most of the territory assigned to it by the treaty with Great Britain. AFRICA: 1894. Franco-German Treaty, determining the boundary line of the Cameroons, or Kamerun. AFRICA: 1894. Treaty concluded by Captain Lugard, November 10, at Nikki, in Borgu, confirming the rights claimed by the Royal Niger Company over Borgu, and placing that country under British protection. AFRICA: 1894. ”

“ The Union of South Africa, as you have seen, has taken over German South-West Africa; Great Britain has assumed the control of all German East Africa with the exception of Ruanda and Urundu, which have become part of the Belgian Congo. Togoland is divided between France and Britain, while the greater part of The Cameroons is merged into the Lower French West African possessions of which the French Congo is the principal one. Britain gets the Cameroon Mountains.
The one-time Dark Continent remains dark only for Germany. [Pg 102]
VICTORIA FALLS — Photograph Copyright British South Africa Co. ”

“ Lagos and Southern Nigeria, which again are English; Fernando Po, which is Spanish, and the German Cameroons.
The coast line of these protectorates and colonies gives no idea of the extent of their hinterland, which spreads back into the Sahara, the Niger basin, and the Soudan. Sierra Leone, one of the smallest of them, is as large as Maine; Liberia, where the emigrants still keep up the tradition of the United States by talking like end men, is as large as the State of New York ”

“ Tribes of the Cameroons. however, also serve as shambles. The warrior who has slain his foe, the woman who has given birth to a son, paint themselves in red to manifest their renown to the eyes of all. The chief occupation of the people is the weaving of nets and 378 WEST AFRICA. cordage, with which they enclose extensive spaces in the forests to entrap the game driven in by the heaters. The plantations of the Ba-Kundus are cultivated as carefully as the finest European gardens by their slaves, nearly all imported from beyond the Ba-Farami mountains. ”

“ Cameroon negroes, expiation for homicide among the, v. 299 n. 2
Cameroons, chiefs as fetish-men in the, i. 349;
the Ngumbu of the, ii. 210;
the Duala tribe of the, iv. 130 n. 1;
the Bakundu of the, viii. 99;
expulsion of the spirits of disease in the, ix. 120 sq.;
life of person bound up with tree in the, xi. 161;
theory of the external soul in the, xi. 200, 202 sq.
Camillus, his triumph, ii. 174 n. 2
Camomile (Anthemis nobilis) burnt in Midsummer fire, x. 213;
sacred to Balder, xi. 63;
gathered at Midsummer, xi. 63
Camp shifted after a death, iii. ”

“ And he did not wish to so terrify the blacks that to escape from him they would penetrate farther into the jungle. His motive was purely selfish, but his methods, compared with those of Leopold, were almost considerate. The work the State to-day requires of the blacks is so oppressive that they have no time, no heart, to labor for themselves.
In every other colony—French, English, German—in the native villages I saw vegetable gardens, goats, and chickens, large, comfortable, three-room huts, fences, and, especially in the German settlement of the Cameroons [97] at Duala, many flower gardens. ”

“ They had brought with them all they needed in the way of provisions, clothing, arms and ammunition; and at Old Calabar they purchased a canoe and engaged the services of six stalwart Kru boys. Harry's idea was to travel up-river, crossing the Cameroon frontier west of Bamenda, and thence striking inland towards the mountains in northern German territory, beyond which the Caves of Zoroaster were said to be. ”

“ Farther north and within 30 m. of Lake Chad is Dikwa (Dikoa) , in Bornu, the town chosen by Rabah (q.v.) as his capital after his conquest of Bornu. Gulfei on the lower Shari and Kusseri on the Logone are also towns of some note. Ngoko is a trading station on the Dscha, in the south-east of the protectorate, near the confluence of that river with the Sanga.
Products and Industry.—Cameroon is rich in natural products, one of the most important being the oil-palm. Cocoa cultivation was introduced by the Germans and proved remarkably successful. ”

“ The former French Cameroon and part of British Cameroon merged in 1961 to form the present country. Cameroon has generally enjoyed stability, which has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, and railways, as well as a petroleum industry. Despite movement toward democratic reform, political power remains firmly in the hands of an ethnic oligarchy. ”

“ Round the Kamerun mountains exist large tracts under cultivation of cocoa, of which 4,550 tons, valued at £212,500, were exported in 1912. The natives have been urged to extend this industry, and travelling instructors were appointed by the Government to train them in the best methods of cultivation. More and more fresh as well as dried bananas, too, have been exported from Kamerun, and this trade offers a promising field of enterprise.
Ten per cent of the exports of the Colony go to England, while nearly 15 per cent of the imports are of British origin. ”

“ Joining the English possessions on the Gold Coast, two degrees north of the equator, are the German possessions of Kamerun, with high mountains and invigorating breezes; but the land at the foot is no more favorable to the European than the Guinea coast. One or two hundred miles in the interior of this part of the continent, the land rapidly rises to the tableland of equatorial Africa, rich and fertile, resembling the valley of the Kongo, possibly habitable by Europeans. ”

“ The middle zone of the Cameroon mountain has, however, a temperate climate and affords excellent sites for sanatoria.
Flora and Fauna.—The southern part of the low coast is chiefly grass land, while the river mouths and arms of the bays are lined with mangroves. The mountainous region is covered with primeval forest, in which timber and valuable woods for cabinet-making are plentiful. Most important are the Elaeis guineensis, Sterculia acuminata and the wild coffee tree. On Cameroon peak the forest ascends to 8000 ft.; above it is grass land. ”