Charles Atangana - Paramount Chief

Paramount Chief

The Germans had seen some success in uniting disparate groups under single individuals called paramount chiefs (Oberhäuptlinge). Atangana was chosen for this position among the Ewondo and Bane either before his trip to Germany or soon after. This was technically only a temporary appointment; his subjects would have to approve it a year later to make it permanent. They had little alternative; Atangana was already the primary conduit of information to and from the Germans.

Some emulation of European manners and dress was expected of all chiefs, but Atangana seems to have genuinely preferred European styles to African ones. He endeavoured to fit himself into the German mould of an ideal administrator. He wrote, "To dare to approach the Germans it is necessary to abandon the traits which displease them, to become their friend and then be valued by them." Accordingly, Atangana ate German food; formed a European-style, 20-piece orchestra; and ordered a large, Germanic mansion to be built. This latter project requiring construction of a brickyard and sawmill and earned Atangana another epithet, Mindili Ebulu, "the man whose house is so large that it had a roof divided into nine sections instead of the two sections of an ordinary dwelling." The number nine has great significance in Beti folklore.

Atangana was suspicious of anyone who might supplant him as the Germans' favourite. He wrote,

A number of persons who associated themselves with Europeans and proved themselves useful to white people achieved positions in the native society through fraud and extortion. But the Europeans, having noticed it, stopped it. They could discern natives of the noble class by their loyalty and honesty.

Atangana won over other chiefs and headmen through gifts, tax cuts, flattery, and intervention on their behalf. He lavished attention on visitors from out of town, letting them stay at his palace and use his horses, and treating them to feasts. In addition to flattering them, this allowed him to monitor their activities and dealings with the colonial authorities. His clerk appointees in Jaunde informed him of the doings of both the Germans and his subjects. Atangana gained a substantial amount of wealth. He owned workshops and sold produce from five plantations to provision impressed railway construction workers.

The paramount chief maintained some loyalty for his subjects. He persuaded the Germans to carry out infrastructure improvements such as the building of roads, schools, health clinics, and churches; and he defended his subjects from colonial reprisals. In one instance, an Ewondo interpreter fired a gun during a dispute with a German, an offence punishable with a stiff prison sentence. Atangana interceded, and the man's punishment was reduced to porter duty. However, the paramount chief remained completely loyal to the governors. In 1914, for example, representatives of Duala leader Rudolf Duala Manga Bell tried to secure Atangana's backing for a pan-Kamerun revolt. Atangana kept the plot under wraps, but he instructed the envoy to urge Manga Bell to reconsider.

Atangana's appointment irritated members of the Bulu ethnic group. They feared they might one day lose German favour, or worse yet, fall under the dominion of the Ewondo. This culminated in the 1912 Bulu uprising led by Martin-Paul Samba, a German-trained man much like Atangana. The rebellion was crushed and Samba executed.