Charles Atangana - World War I

World War I

The Allied West African Campaign of World War I reached Kamerun in 1914. Douala fell on 17 September, and the Germans regrouped at Jaunde. Beti informants alerted Atangana as to the Allies' progress, and as the loss of Jaunde seemed inevitable, Atangana prepared to escape with his masters. He and the chiefs under him gave their posts to weaker relatives so they could more easily take them back should the Germans return. They held out in Jaunde until 1 January 1916, when troops of the British Army captured the town, and the German soldiers and missionaries fled into the forest. Atangana and 72 Ewondo and Bane chiefs, along with 14–20,000 villagers (mostly soldiers and their families), led them through. A Beti folk song, "Atangana Ntsama, the War Is Over", tells of the retreat and shows the conflict between those Beti who supported Atangana and those who opposed him:

Atangana Ntsama, the war is over . . .

Hè! Atangana Ntsama, the war is over!

The cannon are broken,

Go tell it to the son of Ndono Edoa,

To the great man who is the son of Ndono Edoa,

Run quickly, why do you languish there?

All you Ewondo, come and run quickly,

Come and run quickly, brothers;

Go tell it to Mindili Ebulu, son of Ndono Edoa.

How is it that you would like me to leave so many goods behind?

Hè! They will surprise you in your greed!

Such richness. I should take some!

You others, move off, what are you doing there?

Friend, there were as many goods as in a market;

Friend, we have marched through all of that without taking anything!

They reached Spanish Guinea in February and surrendered to the unaligned representatives of Spain under the Restoration. The Spanish government of Álvaro Figueroa Torres gave the Beti land to settle and agreed to transport the Germans to the nearby island of Fernando Po. Atangana and members of his family accompanied them. In 1918, the Germans sent Atangana and six other chiefs to Spain, where they would witness if necessary that the Germans had treated their African subjects humanely. In September 1919, Atangana had an audience with King Alfonso XIII of Spain and urged him to support the Germans in these proceedings. Atangana remained in Madrid for two years and stayed a month in Barcelona to retrieve money he had deposited through the Basel Mission.

Meanwhile, Ewondo lands came under the administration of the French Third Republic under a League of Nations mandate. Atangana, now known by the French version of his name, Charles, wrote the French government to swear his allegiance and demand readmittance to his homeland. He received his wish in June 1920 and arrived in Douala on 28 November 1920.