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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Royal Pretender: Prince Douala Manga Bell in Paris, 1919-1922 |
Author: | Joseph, Richard A. |
Year: | 1974 |
Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
Volume: | 14 |
Issue: | 54 |
Pages: | 339-358 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Cameroon France |
Subjects: | colonial conquest traditional rulers Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration colonialism |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1974.2648 |
Abstract: | At the end of 1918, while the French government was seeking to retain its share of the Cameroons and Togoland, and resisting American and British initiatives which appeared to set limits to its future sovereignty over these territories, it was also faced with the increasing challenge by the Douala to its colonial rule in Cameroun. A new problem emerged to confront the French in 1919: the presence in Germany of Alexander Douala Manga Bell, the eldest son of the Douala paramount chief Rudolph Manga Bell, executed by the Germans in 1914. This problem was solved by 'recalling' the young prince to Paris, where he was to be 'frenchified'. In this way the French wanted to satisfy Douala public opinion, and at the same time use Alexander Bell to the interests of French colonial police in Cameroun. The years that Alexander Bell spent in Paris influenced greatly his political attitudes towards the French, during the interwar years as well as after the Second World War. During the Second World War he served in the army in Senegal which was aligned with Vichy. In the 1950s he represented Cameroun in the French National Assembly. Notes. French summary. |