Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: WILL NAMIBIAN BONES HAUNT GERMANS FOREVER?

Ken:

There is a critical mass of Cameroonians who were educated in Kamerun & Germany (1884-1914) and in Cameroun and France (1916-??) who actually became quite attracted to the cultures of these European countries. Whether you can call them assimilationists or not is subject to further analysis. However, many of them "preached," primarily but not exclusively, through their writings, the benefits of European civilization to their fellow Cameroonians/Kamerunians. All of these Cameroonians/Kamerunians were educated at missions schools and then sent to Europe for further education by the colonial authorities. Many of them, however, eventually became disillusioned with European civilization or the so-called "European cultural ideal" when they realized its opportunistic application in the colony. For example, Rudolph Douala Manga Bell, who took over from his father as King of the Duala in 1908 in what was then the Germany colony of Kamerun, read law in Germany and returned home to govern Duala using a similar approach as that existing then in Germany. Given his sound understanding of the German legal system, he believed that the law was on his side and that of his people when the colonial government attempted to expropriate their lands and make them available for various activities associated with occupation. In fact, the land expropriation was illegal under the terms of the annexation treaty of 1884 between Germany and the Duala peoples. Unfortunately, his legal protests to the Reichstag in Berlin were unsuccessful and he was subsequently executed by the colonial government in 1913 for treason.

On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 10:30 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

thanks john
i had to look Pouka up. can we say he is now mostly forgotten? how rare it is to come across assimilationists, though before the 1950s, before the dream of independence started to become a reality, there was, unquestionably, accommodationism, if not total assimilationism. in the 1930s and 1940s how many of the great figures to emerge, like birago diop, not to mention senghor etc, married french women after getting their educations in france and joining the colonial service. and yet, to think of birago diop, one of the great figures in my mind of 20th century letters, as an assimilé seems far too reductive.
anyway, thanks for the response
ken


On 12/31/13 11:46 AM, John Mbaku wrote:

Louis-Marie Pouka

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kenneth w. harrow
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harrow@msu.edu

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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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