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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Missionaries and the Bulu rebellion: combatants, neutrals and peacemakers |
Author: | Mveng Ayi, Maurice |
Year: | 1987 |
Periodical: | Afrika Zamani: revue d'histoire africaine |
Issue: | 18-19 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 98-105 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Kamerun Germany Cameroon |
Subjects: | missions Bulu rebellions colonization 1890-1899 1900-1909 History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft colonialism |
Abstract: | Whereas explorers and traders paved the way for German rule in southcentral Cameroon, missionary enterprise played an important role in the Bulu-German 'war' that lasted from 1898 to 1901. The missions in the Kribi-Ebolowa area were separated along national lines - American and German - as well as along denominational lines - Presbyterian and Catholic. Restrained by religious tradition, unequal before the law, and inhibited by both personal commitment to their respective fatherlands and ambiguity about German rule in the new territory, the foreign missionary community was split during the events that led to the invasion of Kribi by Bulu Wariro in 1899. Thus German missionaries saw themselves above all as German nationals who had to fight, if necessary, for the imposition and continuation of German rule. The Americans, for their part, were fully aware that only strict neutrality could prevent their expulsion from the territory by the Germans or an attack on the mission station by the Bulu. Note, ref. |