9 The Impact of the First World War and its Aftermath on the Beti of Cameroun

FREDERICK QUINN

Wan rarely come at propitious times for their participants, and the First World War came at an especially difficult time for the Beti, a group of recent migrants into the rain forest of central Cameroun. The Beti society had only just established themselves in the corridor between the Nyong and Sanaga Rivers when the Germans arrived there as well. Within little more than two decades, this fragile, acephelous society underwent a complete change of leadership. Headmen , the rulers of traditional Beti society, were supplanted by an order of chiefs appointed by the Germans, who, in turn, were replaced by other chiefs when the French established a local administration in Yaounde in the 1920s. There were other striking changes as well . Thousands of Beti men were forced to leave fanning to work as labourers on the coastal-inland railroad , where the death rate was high. They became manpower for European concerns - military, commercial, and administrative. The result of these 20-odd years of contact with the Gennans, climaxing in the First World War and widespread demands for local troops, plus post war conflicts with the French, was to leave the local society fragmented.

To understand the war's impact more fully it is useful to consider the state of traditional Beti society on the eve of the German arrival in Cameroun in the 1890s. There were perhaps 500,000 Beti, a Bantu-speaking society, whose slow migration from the northern tip of the Camerounian rain forest toward the coast 'in search of salt' was

171

172 Tlrt 8('fi o[C11mermm

~neued by the German arri~al in c,uncroun. • Gco~rnphically. tilt Be1i occupy p4111 of the Cen!ml l'latc01u iu tlw modern ~late or Ca~roun. h is generally n~t terrain . .r"ucd with insclbcrs$ afi!J ettbed wilh sharply-eroded ravines. Hca''>' r:oinf" ll during two rainy seasons a ytarhascontributcd tn the gr:tdu:ll w:r~hin,awayofSOOd

soil.leavin& laterite in many places. The Octi uri!!in;olly rmctised small·scalc shifting agricuhurc in this s.:nin8 with small f:mn riots laboriouslyclc~red from the thick growth, culti•·atcd fl>r twoot thr~ years. nd abandoned for new fields a few miles dtstaut

The most conspicuous units of Bcti socicl )' w~·rc sc~·cr~lthousand au1onomous minimal lineage core segments. cotch the structural duplicate o f !he o tht("!;. They were COffi['JOSCtl of a hc;~dman. his wi~ !Rdchildren,theheadman'sunmarricdbrothei'$.Ciicnts au ached to the hou5c:hold, and slaves. These cellular units. called mla bod ('holM and family'). retained their political independence ;uld residential autonomy for most of their existence. A Germ<~n explorer who uavc\lcd through the Beti lands said a m<~p of them would be as kaleidoscopic as a map of German principalities of the Middle Agcs-1

The headman of each unit was called mit dzola ('molder of tile compound'), whose control was virtually complete over his com­pou.nd, but nowhere else. He owned the land and was given shares of any111inc J rown on it or killed by hunte rs on it. as well u a paymtt~t frorn the trade soods movina in either direction across his land. Thc Beti temporarily formed larger unhs throuah a system of infrequent councils convened for warfare, ritua l action. such as to ward off crop f~lurc, Of f!)l' a periodic initiation rite for young men named afte r the SJo antelope. However, such gatherinp soon diS501ved when their limited purposewuachieved. ln such a frag ile setting, much time was spent seeking consensus; otherwise, it would be impossible for t he Beti to act wilhcommon accord, for Beti councils had no power to make o r caforce decisions. and Beti headmen cherished the ir indepcnden~ of action.

Tradition~! warfare amons the Beti was largely armed dispute5 amon1 male kinsmen or with neighbouring sroups, and there never •re Mil' aeneral wars, as for instance, between the Beti and the Duala. The Beti practised 1 form of limited warfare in which only wooden dubs were allowed iMtead of lances, and an opponent could be struck with the side of a machette, but notlhe blade. The causes of di5putt$ could include adultery or theft of a woman, sorcery ICCIISI.tions, disputu over land, animal trespass. hunlina o r fishinJ riJha, or avenPnaattac:ks on a kinsman who was insulled o r robbed

rr~dukk Quinn 173

while travellingthrough ;nothertribcsman'sterritory. Warfare with larger sroups of Beti. or with other neighbouring $0cieties, was characteri sed by 3mbushes and raids . The main weapons were lances. ue~. mnchettes. crossbows, bows and arrows. and eventually, European Ointlocks the Beti said sounded "like the popping of dried corn in a fire" .·' This . then wast he fragile Beti culture in Cameroun at the time of the European advancement in the late nineteenth century. De~rit c: their movement closer to the coast. the Bc:1i ~re not

among the first Africans to confront Europeans in the Oennan drive to establish a colony along the Bight o f Biafra . Although Cameroun was declared a German oolony in 1884.lt was not until 1887 tht the Germans came to Yaoun~. the name they gave to a Beti compound where they built a station that eventually became the country's capital. Originally the: Germans ~re looking for ivory and for ways totapthcluerative ivorytradc:theBritishhadestablishcdtowardthe North in A.damawa. The Yaound4! station, for much of its uistence. was thus principally a jumping-off point for German pacification and tradecaravansmovin&furtherinland.

There were some examples of armed c:onnict bet~en the Beti and the Germans in the posc-1887 period, but they were always sporadic and isolated, usually the work of a few headmen over spc:c:ifte: iNues such as insistin& thll passingcuavans pay tribute to Beti headmen whose lands they traveBCd. Some Beti thou&Jttthey might lose their lands or women to the neweomers; still others ~re used to wufare as a way of dealing with interlopers. However, there was no pneral Beti resistance to the Germans; moreover, there was really no possibility that the Beti could orpnise along lines that would effectively contest the Germans, since traditional Beti warfare depended on individual bravery or ambushes by smaiiJrOUpi. While some Beti banled sporadieally with the Germans for several yean, ochers soon allied themselves with the Germans, abandonins warfare for work with the administration, traders, and missionaries. This alto limited the prospectS of warfare b«ause , u thi1 class of Beti fultCCionl ries cn!ated by lhe actministralion moved into posiliom of power, it WI$ in their inteRSIS to ddcourqe retilulnce and promole pacifica.cion. NonetJaelea, there ~n: moac who continued paaive R$iii i TICe to the Gennan praenoe, as described in a Beli proverb: 'I will model mywlf Ofllbe lizard; swallowed by me dtitkem, he left bil legs limp and ipread 0111' .4 By 1900 miliwy incidents were few in LM; yaov.ndt reJiOfl . A network of ro~cb: and tta.il1 allowod tbc

17< n.~IJ.:rioj( 'umcrmm

Germans to move quickly thwugh the in!~'""'. hm aht"·c all resisto1ncc bytheBetihadnotprcvcntcdthcGcrm;m~fnHnc.xpandingthcirhold on the country.

na~:~~~~::~~~~~~~~ ·i~~~:~~~~'t ~~:.~~~:~ :~. ~ ~~:;:,~:·~:~~·:~~:~~::~\ ~~ charge of compounds. but mhcrs were hrothcr ' ••r clients. who lacke ll power and land. for the actu~l hc;ulmcn wac<lfkn '"n h•n keen ahoout volunteering their presence to the Europc;on , . Thi' h1ta co1uscd conOicts of authority in u few compounds hc<·ausc ·rnayor;' were requircdtoprovidehospitalityforvisitingEuwp.,;tn,,lodgcworkcrs, poncrs, and caravans employed by the German~. ami to act as conduits for orders. Men who had norcalaU!horityin B..,tisocietyto carryoutsuchfunctionsfoundlhattheywcrcnf!cncaughthctwccnthc demands of their African and European maste rs. This siwalion was. however. fairly localised and was not considered a problem in most Beli areas. By 19081he Germans abandoned I his chiefly client sy~tcm~ lhe demands for direcl lax collection were more than I he ·mayon" could handle. All grown males were now required to pay 6 marks lax or work 30 days each year for !he administralion. for which the~ ordinarily received neilherpay nor food. As pan of a new financial and adminislrative syslcm, chiefs were appointed and given 71h per ccnl rebates on the collections. Each received an impressive certificate. printed on thick paper, and containing the imperial crest. The documents said lhatthc chief agreed to sell food to passing caravans andtokeeprolldsinhisdistrictopenanclmaintllined,dutieswhichhc Will expected to cany out expeditiously, at the peril of losing his appointment. Such chiefly positions, along wilh selcc1ion of some European-educated Africans to serve as clerks in the colonial civil service, gave sgme Beti access to limited authority in the new European order.

The most important African to cmerse in the Yaounde region clurins Gennan colonial times was Karl Atangana, a clerk-interpreter whom the Gennans scnl 10 Hamburg from 1911-13 for further education. On 25 March 1914, shortly before the First World War bepn, he was made Paramount Chief of two Beti groups, I he Ewonclo and the Bene. Ant1npna was in his early thirties, and his new post gaYe him power not only with the Beti, but with other groups as well. His drum n1me, an honorific tille given Beti leaders, was 'He who is known by the n1tions'. He built •large house 1lons European Jines l.,.er thin the District Officer's, 0011 hill near the small senlemen1 of Yaounde; any important A&ie~ns comins 10 rhe region illyed with

:~~r~t;~r~•3n~~i~·rr~:.~~ . '~.~~:::=~~~~~~t;~~~::~:::~~ ::: weddings. But it w.1s AtanJ!.:m;• whn !Old them when and where to

pl:{;:ngana thus navi~ate.d bct:"cen African ~nd Ge~man~~ty with

:u:l~~~i~~:~y :t,~~;~~d.at~: :~t:;::e~~;~~c~i~~~y!t~~n·~: :~: Germans: his nam~· was never associated Wlth any plots or acts of disloyalty tuw;1r<J them. and he was always an advocate for African­German coll;~homtion . As happcrn:d to~ many others ~n Eur~pc.alld Africa. the tinu~ in which person~! ~mbitions were reahsed c:omCJdcd with theoubre<~k of the Great War. In Atangana'scase.the land war in Cameroun be gao oo 27 September 1914, less than si~ months after he was named Paramount Chief.

Once hostilities began io Cameroun , the Germans quickly surrcn· dcrcd the coastal pun of Douala to the British aod moved the colony's provisiooal capital to Yaoundl! , where it remained for the next 15 months. uotil the Germans were again forced to reucat. this time SOUthward through the rain forest tO the Spanish·held territory of Rio Muni. The German swuegy was to mul:c the best of a diffiCUlt situation through delaying actioos and strategic withdrawals to defensive positioos. They had claim to vast territory. but few troop$ with which to defend it. The Germans could muster perhaps 4,000 trained troops and maybe that same number of Africao inegultln willing to fight , the majority of them from among loyal Bcti followers: the Allied forec:sarrayed <~g<~inst them were at least double that size. A steadily adv<~ncing British column moved to within sight of Yaoun~ by late December 1915: although the Germam had constructed an elaborate system of trenches to defend the town, they withdrew without a ronnict. There would have been no sense in a lasHiitch encounter. 1bc Germans would have sustained casualties; their worl: of 20 yurs would have been destroyed: and there was no prospect of thcirpositionbeinaimprovcd.•

AllnpRa and 72 of the Beti cltiel's, atwmpanicd by scYflal thousand Beti, made the exodus throu&h the rain forest with the retreating Gennans. The withdrawal WIIS suocessMiy aocomplisbed largely because tbc Beti willinpy provided noc ontySGidicB 1odcfeftd the rctrnting pany, but also the manpowec needed to transpon provisions and CS5Cfttial possesssions. The Beti did not believe the Gcmtans would lose lhe cdoay; it would only be a .. ancroftitne uotil C.meroun- rc1umed to lhe:M. At tbe arne rime. Au.npna and bis

176 11/<'U<'IIOJL<IIIIt'rmm

associates took with them any pot.:rllial ri,·;ll~ w hu might d;aim tht va.c.ant leadership positions in their ahscnec•, The>· left "~ r..:pl<occment: kiM~nen whom they bcJic,cd wo uld surrender their po~ilit~n<> rcal.li!) on the chiefs rciUrn. On 16 April 1')16, aft.;r ;, lmd ,~;~y m Sp;anl1t equatorial Guinea. the retreating lkti <~n<.l Ocrm:u~> rc:tchctlwhar they upectetlto be a temporary sanctu:try on t h~· ' ' '" '"' uf Fo:tnandc: Po. By German estimates almost 15.11110 pt::opk m:"k the· c~o>dus from Ca meroun. slightly less than 1.0110 o f them Euwp<.::IU'. 1\monc the Afritllns . however. only about 6 .(liKJ were soldier" : the rcmaindc1

~" Beti loyalists and their families whose intcrc't~ h:uJ hccumc inter· twined with those of their German overlords.

After the First World War was over. !he B<.'li wunlcn composed~ song concerning this episode and debating the vnlu<.' nf l:kti loy~lly 10 !he Germans. The words speak of K;ul Al<mgana <IS • Al~ng~na

Nts.ama'. and ' the wn ofNdono Edoa'. and also as 'Mindili Ehulu' , !he important person whose house had nine roof beams in~lcad of !he uadilional two with which Beti houses were lmilt:

Alangana Nlsama, !he war is over He. Atangana Nlsama.the war is aver! The cannon arc broken, Runquickly. whydoyaulanguishchcrc? All you Ewondo, come and run quickly. Go tell it to Mindili Ebulu. the son of Ndo no Edoa . How is thai you would like me 10 leave so many goods behind? HC! They will surprise you in your greed! Suchriches.lshouldtakesome! You others, move off, wha1 are you doing there? Friend, lherc are as many goods as in a market; Friend. we have marched lhrough all of thai without taking anything!7

The $00J'S final lines were sung becwccn two groups o f women. one Sllpposedly favouring raiding the departing German caravan which bas 'as m.a11y ~as in a markel', and !he o1her preferring 10 accompaay the departing Germans and Bell, who •marched all through a ll of 1ha1 willtoollakin&anything'.

The Germall5 were not unaware of !he e;uen• of Beti loyally, or of the internal challenaes to it. They thus took measures to eMure 1ha1 loyalmiefs WQ¥1d remain in the German camp despile exile from 1beir holnela.nd. al!houiJh !hat miaht mean separacing !hem fun~r from

their co• . .nlry•nen. Karl At;ongana and several other chiefs . for e~ample. were scm 1" Spam tn 1918. as the wareame to a close. There thcywercrecci•·cdt>y thcSpanishking:AifonsoXJII.andarrange­mcnls were mad<' h> rcp~y over a milhon German marks they had ~nked through the Ehsel m1sston. a Swiss missionary sroup that had installed banking f;1eilitics m _Cameroun to encourase savinss by ~ariouschids. After the Armtsuce. the Germans hopcd_Atansanaand hisfellowchicfsmightbcc>~llcdtoVcrsaillcstogivccvtdencc:thatthe Germans ran their colonies effiCiently and humanely. but the~ were left in Spain inMead . The Beti delegation used th1s addlllonal hme 10

e~aminc European commerce and industry, hopin& tllal they mislll find a way 10 bring such developments to their own country.K

JnCamcroun itself, !he war years wcredifficull ont5for tile Betiand other Africans. 'The Fim World War made a bad impression on the Beti', recalled R. P. Theodore Tsala, who knew from personal e~pcrience that the people 'spoke with horror of the Wh.ire Man's War. They had never seen anything like it. Their own wars involved only a few people over sbon periods of time and were consequenrly less destructive· .~ Moreover. !here was a breakdown of both eraditional and European authority as Beti chiefs and German colonial offiCials withdrew from Cameroun. Stealing was reponed to have increased markedly, and there were numerous incident$ of 5oldien, poners, and government mcuen&ers tryin& to extfliCI food or money from villacers by using !heir German bad&es or pieces of paper wrillen in German as symbols of aulhority.

As the Germans wi!lldrew from Beti terrirory British lroopt

occupied most of the area, only 10 be replaced by Funch autboritiesu postwar territorial arranccments were worked out. Neither of the s.uccessful allies seriously considered returninJ Cameroun to German control;indeed,theywereconvincedthatGennanadm.iniscrlltionhad beenahumanitariandisuterrequiringthehumanilinaeffeetJofeither British. or French, colonial policy. Both of the new colonial powcn. however, were unable to provide adequate administration. The British, uncertain about their !enure in the repon, relied upon a system of control manaJCd frocn adj~cent Nipria. Frencll problems in t5tablishin& an effective local adm.inistration were compounded by the lack of qualified Frendt cokmW officials. FOOl toldien who hMI previously never been outside of Franec were tuddenty .aiped to administrlltive posts in the new colony. A cootcmponl)' rtpon ltn4cd that even 'if they had been bnve toldicn,(lheyl could not but rut.c mediocre adminilll'aton'. to Dapitc IUdl dcs9er11te me.ua. tbt

178

French were 11 firs! able 10 assign only five or six European officials~~ Castem Cameroun, a region in which 1hc Germans hud used over Europeans. .

These were chaotic years nol only for the French. tml for ~he Bel_• ~

=~i~:~~:e~~~~~~::;; ~:011:,~:=~~~~-o;~·~~~f~~~~~~:~; son of direct «<Rlrol. Local feuds and raids resum.:d among some Afric:an groups, and a French of(tcial of 1hc period wrote that 'individual inwbordination and disorder are 1he general rule amon& lhe nibes' . 11 As mighl be expec1ed in such an unscntcd time, wi1chc:nh musalionssprcad andscerct socic1ies nourished. one su<:h JI'OUP was !he Ngi, or Leopard Society, whose members wore !ails_ of palm branches andulabas.heson !heir heads. painled lhcm#lves w•lh leopard sp<MS, and carried wooden leopard paws wi1h nails for daws. With 1he liner !hey would make a sign on the cround in front of a hut to tell the 0«11pant, 'You are til pala~rt with the leopards'. 1l Su~ lfOUps, thou&:h openninc outside the normal political and soct~l fnmework. provided members with forms of support and assurance tn an otherwise troobted time.

Tbe war had also lef1 the Yaoun~ reJion devoid of loca l lea~rs whom the French could use to build an indigenous administraiiYC servic:e. In June 1920. the Frenc:h allowed Atantana and the other Beti chiefs to return to the Cameroun. For these Beti leaders. however. the situation was not an easy one. Their loyall)' to the Germans made them s~C'Ito the Frenc:h: time had passed, and the loyal Beti men wfto had been left behind when Atancana and. th~ others retreated with the Germans had their eyes on the c:htefs positions. As leader of the Africans. the French chose not Charles (as he nowc:alled himself) AtanpMI. but Joseph Atemencue. whom they f:afledChiefohhe Ewondoaltd Bene, an appointment that lAsted until 1922. The Fre~tth sent Antanpna and the chiefs who were with him in Spain to the mountain city of Dsthanc, ncar the border of Wett CameroUft, where they spent just over a year supervisinJ road-buil· dinJcrews.

The c:hie& aroultd Atanpnatold tlte French that they would be as toyal to FntltCC as they had been to Germany; the Germans had been Cameroun's c:olonilen altd the Beti bad IIIOI'ked eo-operatively with them; now they would do tbe ume with the French. In order to have influence in tbe new JOYCmment, AtanpMI married his German-edu­cated dauJht«. K.aterina. to Joseph Atemenpe, thltS creatina an alliance with the new Frenc:h-appointedc:hkf. 'The ml.l'ria,e, howe'YCr,

w~~ nuo • w••• - --·-· .... w ....... 6 .. -•"""!1 l'l.at~nna. ICCU~tom~d to European w;o)·~. was<.lisntisfied omd fictll\crmucl\olders.pous.e after a fewyc~r.;an<.l returned to livcwitl\ 1\er fatl\er. Asitturnedout,tl\e allianccwhichhcrmarriagcha<.lcreatedwasnotreallynecessaryinany use.

As the C"~mcroun moved toward its postwar status as a french mandate under the League of Nations (made offieial in 1922). the full outlines of French administration began to take shape. A Governor General was m~de responsible for political. economic. and fin~nci~l control of the te rritory. A new system of cotirts was set up, and a customs service and treasury were established. Nonetheless.one ofthcmainFrenchconcernswasprovidingsufficicntlocally·generated tax revenues for the territory's development. a ncttssaryobli&ation under the mandate. These were needed to suppon, among other improvements , a land survey office and a public works section which was responsible for turning German trails into roads and for building a railroad inland.

These programmes requiretl not only French planning but also stronglocalleadership,mostespcciallyan Africanwithanabilityto organisethepeopleandbringtheplans tofruition. JosephAtemengue wasneitheraforecfulenoughpcrsonalitynoranexperiencedenough leader to satisfy the French. In December 1921, Atangana wu ealled back to Yaoundt to become Chirf Suplmwr of the Ewondo Uld Bene. Although the French had originally callell him 'acrutureoftbe Germans', they no Ianter had any reason to suspe<:t his loyally. Moreover,therewcrcroadstobebuilt,taxestubccollected,lpublie buildingprocrammetobeundertaken,andarailroadtobec..tenckcl; during his months in Dschang, Atanpna had prove11 himaelre-q111l to these tasks . While Atemengue was moved to a prcstiJious judicial appointment, Atanpna became the chief African aide 10 the French.u

With the problerR$ of colonial adminiscradon and African leader­ship both apparently solved, the French moved quickly to undenak.e the economic plans they had for Cameroun. Foremost amana tbese wu completion of the railroad from the (l!)a$1 10 Yao~. The railroad had been built by che Germans from Douala to a lhcut datanee beyond Edea when the ,.ar intervened. Freneb wu spoik included c:ompkte German plans for constl"liCIKm of the railroad fOI" the ne:a:t60kilometre~beyondital914terminWJpoint•wcllunMIIIof tbe equipment needed for 1be -wort. This M&ditionll 75 Illites of rai.lroad-IXIIIlflk1Cdbyf'mlehamyeqi.-sbetween19ll..t

'"' Th~ u~ri oJ Camamm

!927. Their 'reate~\ dirficultics came with" ~S- mile• '!retch hctwee~ Njock and ,.b.ka on the flr.<t segment of con~t ruc"lh >n '""' <>( E<ka. It took three yean to mo ve the railroad !hat l li,t.ut<'<" thW\Igh hill)· countrywith dcep ravinc~. lhockgrowlh :ond amal:oro;olclnn;llc.l\fle1 that scgmtnt, laying the re~t of the track to Ya,HuHI<' wa~ "'"sy '"the road bedtrO$SCdthcccntralpla tcau

The 111ilroad t>rought many advant;~gcs to the l!ct i f<'t:inn. The trip 10 tile roast. which a d ccatlc pr<.:viously might t:~k.· ~~~ d:o:vs h:v foot. wu rcd~>Ced to 16 hours by troin in 1927: goods ;ual pcnrlc move.~

quickly and che~!)ly in both direction~ - Nonetheless th<.: Hch. dc'lpilc their rcputalions as ha rd worke rs. resisted work on the milroad. llle pay fOI' railroad workers was low. the rate of dc;u~ an<.L ill~~-.~ h~h.

and reeruilmenl was a constant problem during the fwe yc:ors 111oo1> 10 move the railroad 10 Yaoundt. Work on lhc r;oilro;od was from 6 o'c:loc:kunlilllo'c\ockinlhemorningandlhenfrom2 o'clock unlil 6 o'clock in the evening. wi1h Sa1urday afternoons and Sund~ys free. Volunleers were paid 0.7S francs per day. Afric:m supervison rec:eWed from llo 3 francs a day. Conlracls were for six moruhs al a lime ill principle, bul many workers complained about being kept on aher !heir oonlrac:ls expired. Chiefs supplied bo!h me n and f(IOd. and 1loere were numerOilS c:omplainls of shortages of food ~m<Hlg rbt workers. Billiard. in his Sludy ohhe railroad"sconstrucrion. foultd !hat boch housinJ and food for !he workers were lackinJ. 1M diet w:•s inadequate for hard work, and duri11g the rainy season the ~rtalny rate: afi'IOCIJ railroad workers was hiJher 1han in the J9JU- 14 pc:rood: In 1921. the ratio of conscripls to volunteers was approximately e•Jhl toone. and four years la ter it dropped to approximately four toone. In 1923. there were 3,502 oonscripls and only 917 volunlecrs :.rmonc Arican workers on the railroad: at least 1000 of the labourers were Deli. By 1925, the number of railroad workers had risen 10 5.652. of whom4.S3Swereconscripts and l.IJ7were volunleers. ••

Tbe period of !he railroad extension inland also eoincided wilh !he spread of a trypanosomiasis epidemic in Cameroun. Dr Eugene Ja100t, inlernationally known for his sleeping sK:kness eradication provammes, was ordered out of the Yaounde distric1 by lhe French officials for protesling 1he health conditions of the railroad labouren. II is diffiCUlt to cslimate the mortality and illness rates among lbe railroad workers, bul both were subslanlial. The administration slalisties, contained in ill yearly reports to the League o( Nalions. say 34 persons died in December 1923; U7 others ~ived medical trealmenl, and 100 were released from work for poor bealth. In the

following May. 33 person• ~ied, 379were treated. and I)S relcucd fot medical r<:ason 5 . Such statistics do not coverthcmonthsofheavicst rainfall . whcnthcnucofdeaths andillnesseswcrehisJ!er."

Averllging th<' statist ics for these two m<)t"llhs ac:rossa 12·m<)llth ~riod. the udministration·s figures mdiettte that among the _4,0Xl-5,Cn:l persons whn worked each year on the railroad. approxomately 400 died. I.SOOwcre released for medical reasons.and3.600rcceived medical treatment of some son. Such information would notauppon tile somewhat idyllicconclusionconlainedintbc 1924Frenchrcport to the League of Nations which spoke of sc:-:upulous ~llentiOII accordedtomedicalfa.cilities.worker'sdtetsandhvmgcondiuons,and eoocludcd; 'on est alors agr~ablemcnt impression~ lo Ia vue de ees travaillcurs. qui rythment leurs efforts l Ia cadence de chants traditionnels. prCts, 11. sourire au moindre mot d'encouragement' . 1~

Some of those chants, however, reV1:aled more about African discontent with the French programme than they did about Africaro happiness with their work. Such was the case with one of the Beti songs. frequently sung when Europeans visited !he worksitc, about a bad· tempered dog which stole the workers' food and bit them.

H~. get away from that dog. That white dog is a mean one. Thai dog is very mean, Hehaslakenmymcat, Hehasbittenmeontheleg, HehliSbincnmeonlhethigh. Mybrothcr,letmehearyou!

In response Ia such veJVS, the workers joined in a chorus and refrain: 'lU. p:l away from tNt dog'. n Sud! complaints, obviously los! on the Frc~ch, had been heard before durinc German rule. The similarity of fcchns also came out in another of the workers' chants which complained of the 'albinos' who had been aiio.cd toeomeinland from Douala. That song also sinJied out for special derision one of the Beri chich who supervised !he work ganp;

Ahanda, will you p:t a white women for this? A banda, wbo hu told you the whites arc your friends? Ahanda, will you marry a white man'sdau&IUer? What have I done, Ahanda, Thai you detest me so?"

AI the umc time tbe Freneh aovemmcnt was CORJlrUCtia& tbc

182 Th~ Btli ofCIImtroml

railroad,tMy were improving the existing roads in the Yaound~ are~ and adding some new ones between the capital ;md distant points Each disuitl was required to furnish a quota of labourer~. butthot Beti found such work equally distasteful . In 1922 , the French observed that many Afrlcans were neeing to other reginns or to the bush and forest tO avoid work on road ganpand that the scarcity of workers had rtachcd crisis proponions. Despite such tactjcs of evasion. during a threc·month period in 1922 the Yaound~ region furnished 19,200 workeB, who spent sil days at a time working on nearby roads, Uld 44llabourersfortherailroad . 1 ~

Thoup some of them had willingly fought and laboured for the Oennans during the First World War. the Beti opposed working on these larae·seale French projec1s that took them far from their own landsandcausedsuchdisruptionintheirlives.lnyetanothersongthc Beti described the work-gang recruiter and asked the Bed men to tlce uheapproached:

Ahorse(man)crosse-sthecounuy. He will stop all the men. All. Whenyouwalkontheroad, Do so with measured and cautious step; No one should forget the bush. Heroes of the wa~. do you not know the Caves.hein? Move quickly . ;~~'

ThisSime sentiment of oppositton to the work gangs if retlccted in the following song: a drum message signals the presence of the work pnp. and the Beti plea that worke~ fke from them.

The tom·tombcatsll Yaou~. The tom·tom which will ruin this country. The tom·tomofthe workgaOJS. Whatdocsitsay? ltsaysdcarout. Leave your possessions for Chief--. Get out! The tom· tom bc&ltlt YaouncW. Tell my mother and lather, And tell my mother to save me tome food. H~. My brother, will I survive thcWOfk png~1

It was tbc Beri chiefs, appointed by lhc aovemmcnt, wtao provided the

II)

WOJke~. and who received bonuses for cadi worker supplied. Mu Abe Foudda, a Cllef Suplritur of an Ewondo JfOUP to111h of Yaound~.said!halinl923hehclpcdbuildllleroadftomY~

10 Oleic. several miles sou1h toward the coas1. He supplied SOO workers who spenl six monlhs on 11M: pro;eec. In !be followinayea.r he supervised worke rs on a sue!ch of the YaouncW-lollodorf road. which look four mon1hs and ~quiU'd ISO workcn. In 1925, be furnished 600 workers wllo took a year buildllll 1hc Mbatmlyo-Sana· mtlc ina road. Zl The adminisua!ion realised th.lt some drieh wen= ll5iRJihe conscription syslem 10 keep their own families off !be_._ rollsandcallingonnon·rel:nt'dlineaJe$uOdcr!heireontrolforhiJMr quo1as !han mi&hl be expcaed. To counter !his pntrioc, liM: adminimalion assi&ned quo1as by villa,t ilmnd of by .n. u.sumin&lhal il would I hili receive a more cquilablespre~dotwort:m lhanhadprcvioustybecnlhCC11SC.

Allhouch i1 is difficul1 to me.surc the effect of well clfons. 1bcre can be liutc doub1 1ha1 !he Beti ehids continued to benefit fmn r«naitment. In addition to salaries and till: n:btues provided by 1M administouion , dliefsreceivedfeesforrecNitinslaboun:r!plusbllf the umpent money that remained when a ro.d biUklina p!')jec:t -completed. The remain ins Mlrw15 returned to the tcrritmy'sbucftet . Aecordins to his own calailations, Mil Abc FOIIddlwupeid 180,000 hues in 1926 when the ro.d he provided woftl;eft (or wucotlpkted and 220.000 £raoes in 1928 when the Mb.tmayo-Ebolow1 ro.d w• comple.ed.

Withsuchincentives thepostwarrlilroedlnd!Oid-buildiqctloru wntinucd. And IS tlllnsportltion by !'Old and Tlile•ptnded. QAYM

poncrap ,whichhado~been a profitablesourccofcm~fof Beti men. ctiminislted to almost nothiq. In 1917111administTIIOfol the Yaou~ disuic1 had listed ponase as tbc diltrid'• lllllill ecottOmM:resouroe . AtthattimeoneofthefimKUoltbenowF~ administration was • decfee rcculatina the wottiq coodi~i~Ml of poncrs. It ruembtcd tbc carlfcr Germ1n rqulllrioal on poncn.. l.oa4s could not eu:ced 28 kilopams p1u5 5 k....,_ of pmonal belon&inp:forcveryiOporterttherclbouldbetmeft:ICMC*ricr: UldSI.Iarieswercfucd ata francaclaywitbloadllldO.UI,_adaJ wit~nloacl .

By tbe late 1920s the coaul.fnland nilniMI - opencina. 1M S)'SICm of ~ from Yaouttdt utenclcd, and otMn b1:inJ bctih. LIIJeiNCbwerc uscclforthcfimti-tolnlllpOfl,.,.,..._.·,.. II'CIIllt, the rnambcrofponcndlopped&o..IICWnJ*-1101'"

... Tht Btli of Camerou11

hundred by the end of the decade. Moreover. the carriers' route changed from the long uek to and from the coast to shorter portages, usually from the bush to ac:ceu roads or shon jaunts with individual peddkrs. By 1930, Whal had been a significant source of revenue for the Beti since the opening of the coastal route around 1900 thus ceased to have any imponance.

If the period 191~24 is considered as a whole. as indeed the Beti view it, iiS effws deeply and irremediably affected their society. In swift sue«s.sion a colonial power, Gennany, which had been implanted in Cameroun recently , was replaced by another. France, only ahcr a prolonged and costly war. Moreover. the new colonial power, which had justified its replacement of the Germans by insistin& on the ne«Uity of more humane policies, seemed to the Beti to have brou&Ju more troubles. In sheer numbeB the Beli who fought for the Germans and who worked on the railroad during the French period numbered in the tensor thousands. They often -especially during the 1920s- involuntarily left tlteir homes and were subject to work they did not like in a strange new environment . Equally debilitating for the Bc!i was the effect the new demands for manpowe r had on traditional soeiely. Headmen were replaced by chiefs who were immedia tely cast into impossible roles . Never trus1ed by the French, many were equally disapproved of by their own populations. In what eulture is the tax c:olleaor, milital')' reeruiter, and agent for work gangs popular? And if a ehief did well by his lineaae or himself. those who fared less well would not lei him forge! it by proteslins to the colonial aulhorilie5. 'lllere were dilcinCI benefils to being a chief, but the price was an exaetinsone.

For tbe individual Beti. the war and the subsequcnl prospect of work on the railroad was greeted with hostilily. The Beti were strongly iltdividual'-tk. preferring to stay at home, tend their lands. eJttend and receive hospitality. Wullh was uaditio nally measured by 11 large family and numerous animals. Beti headmen did not always get a Ions with one another; precedenll for massive joint ICiion by the society were non-exiJtent . 'llle pro5p«t of several thousand Bcti working in harmony to manqe a military retreat or buikl a road and a railroad - unheud of. POOJ diell, malnutrition. dysenta.)l , sleeping sickness, altd malaria took dev111aling tolls among workers who. in normal times, would be okl men if they reached the age of 40 years. The hillory of lheae 10 yc~~n, coming as they did 11 a time wben the amall Beti bands were juac eompletin&their slow mipatiom into the Iandi around Yaovnd~. provided a sbock that left the Beti deeply

FnduickQuinn "' tom. Civiliution, it may be arsuccl, was advanced by the Grett War and its colonial aftermath, but for the Bcti .. t least , 11 1 deeply disruptivcpriec.

NOTES

I. HarT)' R. Rudin, G~rmt1!14iniMCoJm1'1'00tu, A CasrSrwlyin M<>km. lmfHri11/iJm, /&IU-19/J (New Ha~n , 1.938); Fr«<crkk Ollinn. ·~, Society in tile Nine•eentt. Cent~~ty ,A[nco. 50(1980)29J...l06;andE Howard Gorges. TlltGmuWIII'IIIWuiA[ria(London,n.d.).

2. Gunter Teaman, D•~ P11n1we. V6/ktrkwndlicM M01101rwp/IU Ma Walll[rikt1t1iJclwtntltnl4fJIIftQ. ¥01. I (Berlin.l913)p.48.

3. Mlortin Heppe, ·Jaunde-Te~te von K1rl Atan~a und hul Mc:Mi'. Abht1nd/jon1tn des HtuHbluJUtrhnr K_oloniJJI./tuOlu/5, 24(1919) 70...2_

4. Interview. Theodore Tula. 24 Apnl, 1968. One of lbe finl Ben to become a Roman Catholic priat , T .. ta also wrote ntensivcly on Ekli ~mmar. Hnauistics, folkkm:, and M tory.

!i. Frederick Quinn, 'Charles Atanpn. or Y-nde·, lourrNI of Afric&tl Hislory,21(1980)4S!i-9!i.

6. Frcdcrid; Quinn, 'An Afrinon ReiK'Iion to World War 1: tM Beti ol CamerOQn', C11hiu:rd'E111Ms A/riMMs,l3(1973) 722-31.

7. Frederick Quinn, 'Chanan in lkri Society, 11187-1960'. t>npoablishcd manuscript, 1980, 300. Some Rt.tc4 traditional sonp arc contained itl Frederick Quinn, "EiJht Bc1i Sonp', Africa Anr, 5(1970) )0..4,

8. Interview, M .. Abc Foudcla, 23 Dcocmbcr 11167. Foudda was a dOM &POCiatc of Charles Ateapu, and was himselfanappointcdcbidunclrr tbcGcnnlnsarKithcfrench.

9. Penoni!Communicllionwith~TLI11,8April1968. 10. ·E~ ,mtral de II litlllouon dano In kniloi,. ocnpto 0.

1'1ncien C.mcroun' , 6-12: •7; CNA 10.010, C.mcrouni1n 1\11ti~ ATchiva (beru(kT CNA).

11. ·ExpoK de II politiquc l'lnfrak, •Uitlldc des mer •. npr\1 da popul11ion1', CNA I\ .828CNA.

11. lnlerview,TheodorcTula,2Febl'lllory\968. 13. 'EitpoKde l1 poliliquc~nle',CNA II.Sli.CI\IA. 14. Pierre Bill1rd, Lfl Circ~ d.u k Sad.C_,_ {L.yon, 1961) p.

62. 1!i. Billiard,U.Circultlritnt,62;79. 16. ltappon tllln'"l du GOfl--..t FrMflliJ 111r fAdfllinislfMitm .­

miiNlllf des wrrl/Oltn du c_,_ powr r.....« IVD (Parit, 1'1l4l 7s-6.'Jbcscann\lllrq~CKUIG I!Ie~o1 Natiolliwcn:prepuedb). tbe FrcnchJOVC~ftlto;.tifyita81bnillilu.UO.oiC--.

!~: g:::::=:~:::=:~:::: 19. Scria APA 6295, CNA.

~: ~:::g::::::=::: 22. lnt.Mcw. Wu At. fOIICiti&.:D O.C..bcr 1967.