Charles Atangana of Yaounde

Abstract

Charles Atangana (c. 1880–1943) is an African chief whose career defies easy categorization. He was one of several thousand Beti headman's sons in central Cameroon, and not in the line of succession to replace his father as lineage chief within this acephalous society. However, he became a houseboy to the Germans who moved to the Yaounde district in the 1880s, was sent to a mission school by them, and rose from being medical assistant, clerk and interpreter to Oberhäuptling, or Paramount Chief, of this group of perhaps 500,000 persons in 1914. No sooner had he achieved a position of power than he lost it with the coming of World War I. Atangana led the German exodus to Spanish Guinea, and then was sent to Spain by the Germans, who expected him to testify on their behalf at the Versailles peace talks, but he was never called on. After returning to Cameroon he was eventually returned to a position of power by the French, who never had the complete confidence in him the Germans had shown. The 1920s and 1930s brought increasing difficulties to Atangana and other appointed Beti chiefs. To begin with, chiefs were an alien institution imposed on the Beti; the French were not satisfied with them because few of them could deliver the tax revenues and workers for public-works projects in the desired quantities; the Beti became increasingly estranged from them because they did not care for the heavy demands they made. As a generation of school-educated Beti emerged in the 1930s, the chiefs' role was increasingly questioned. Atangana could never be considered a resistance figure; he believed it was useless for the Beti to fight the Europeans, and he accepted the religion and culture of the Europeans. At the same time he did much to advance African interests. He often interceded with the Europeans on behalf of individual Africans, and actively supported campaigns like the sleeping-sickness eradication effort of the French. Within the limited possibilities open to him, he steered a middle course, as he saw it.

European colonization and the transmission of the Ewondo language in Cameroon and Abroad: Historical and transnational perspectives

“…After his schooling, he was recruited to serve as a mediator between German colonizers and the Cameroonian population. He played a major role in German colonization (Quinn, 1980). 10.…”

Johny Baleng (c. 1890–1964): A colonial broker from the Cameroon Grassfields

“…What these studies have in common is that they analyse the impact of European colonisation on the colonised societies and their traditional power structures. For some regions of Cameroon, the institution of chieftaincy has even been categorised as an ʻinvention ʼ of the German, French and British colonial administrations (Geschiere, 1993 for the Maka and Bakweri people and Quinn, 1980 for the Beti people) or as a ʻpolitical resource ʼ in German colonial times (Schaper 2017 for the Duala people). Few researchers (Fowler, 1993;Warnier, 1993Warnier, , 2007 for the Cameroon Grassfields) have addressed the issue of chieftaincy from a local perspective as opposed to the colonial state perspective.…”

“…This in-between status and the crossing of ʻvarious boundaries at work in the colonial context ʼ (Schaper, 2016: 768) are the main factors that Schaper emphasises when contouring the term ʻbroker ʼ. Quinn (1980), starts his study about Charles Atangana from the Beti group of central Cameroon by highlighting that this case is ʻan example of an important African leader whose career defies easy categorisation ʼ (p. 485). The task seems to be so difficult, that Quinn finally foregoes any kind of classification.…”

“…There are numerous cases of Cameroonian leaders who first worked with the Germans and later were mistrusted by the British or French. Some of the best documented cases are those of Charles Atangana from Yaoundé (Quinn, 1980) and King Njoya of the Bamum Kingdom (Njoya, 1952). 3.…”