Cameroonian Schutztruppe Soldiers in Spanish-Ruled Fernando Po during the First World War: A ‘Menace to the Peace’?¹

Abstract

When the German forces were ousted from Cameroon in early 1916, they fled south to neutral Spanish Guinea. Tens of thousands of Cameroonians joined them. Over 20,000 African soldiers and hangers-on were eventually accommodated by the Spanish authorities on the island Fernando Po, off the Cameroonian coast. Despite mounting Allied pressure on Spain to disband and repatriate the troops, they remained on the island until after armistice. They were largely under German control, and received military training during their internment. The delayed repatriation of Cameroonian soldiers, in 1919, had a pronounced effect on their communities at home.

Keywords:

• Cameroon
• First World War
• Fernando Po
• Schutztruppe
• African troops

Notes

1 National Archives, London (henceforth NAL) CO649/10-4.3.16/10634, Brigadier General Dobell to Chief of Imperial General Staff, 4.2.1916.

1 C. Geary, ‘Ludwig Brandl's historical notes on the kingdom of Kom,’ Paideuma, 26 (1980), 71; I. Stokman, ‘Kan een heiden 't geloof verbreiden?,’ Annalen der St. Joseph's Congregatie, 39:6 (1928), 86.

2 J. Nielen, A Short History of Wum Parish (s.l., 1971); H. Skolaster, Die Pallotiner in Kamerun: 25 Jahre Missionsarbeit (Limburg a.d. Lahn, 1924); J. Plissonneau, ‘Souvenirs de l'Adamaoua,’ La Regne (Revue des Prêtres du Sacre Coeur, 1937–1939).

3 Hundreds of Yaoundé chiefs and their followers joined the Germans to escape reprisals by the Allies. See: P. Laburthe-Tola, ‘Charles Atangana (c. 1882–1943), un chef Camerounais entre deux colonisations,’ Mondes et Cultures 58:2/4 (1998), 108–18; F. Quinn, ‘An African reaction to World War I: The Beti of Cameroon,’ Cahiers d' Études Africaines, 13:52 (1973), 722–31; F. Quinn, ‘The impact of the First World War and its aftermath on the Beti of Cameroun,’ in Africa and the First World War, ed. by M. Page (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1987), 171–85.

4 Some contemporary accounts show inflated figures. The numbers presented here reflect data from various published and archive sources, most of which are discussed below.

5 Large groups of non-combatants typically accompanied Schutztruppe companies. The German Colonel Rammstedt, for example, trekked to Bata with 17 Europeans, 145 native troops, 335 messengers, servants, craftsmen, carriers and horseboys, and 390 women, children and other relatives: F. Rammstedt, ‘Krieg und Schutztruppe,’ in Kamerun: dargestellt in kolonialpolitischer, historischer, verkehrstechnischer, rassenkundlicher und rohstoffwirtschafflicher Hinsicht, ed. by W. Kemner (Berlin: Hermann Hilliger, 1941), 85–7. F. Lange explained the system in Massa, wann kommst du wieder? Zwischen Tschadsee und Götterberg. Erlebnisse im Kampf um Kamerun (Düsseldorf: Völkischer Verlag, 1942), 19–20.

6 K.W.H. Koch, Im Tropenhelm. Kriegstagebuch eines Kamerunkämpfers (Du¨sseldorf: Flöder, 1931); Lange; Rammstedt; A. Ritter, Frieden und Krieg in Kamerun: Ein Erlebnisbericht (Suhl: Strom, 1939); J. Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum am Kameruner Götterberg: Allerlei Weltkriegspalaver (Offenburg: A. Reiff, 1934). But German troops at Garua (Northern Cameroon) mutinied: Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde (henceforth BBL) R1001/3991, Auszug aus einem Bericht unseres Geschäftsführers aus Spanien vom Juni 1916.

7 Thousands did not follow the Germans. Many deserted en route: fear was widespread that men would be forced to work on Fernando Po plantations, and women left behind (NAL/CO649/2-7.6.15, Dobell to Harcourt (SoS), 10.5.1915). Also: H. Pürschel, Die Kaiserliche Schutztruppe für Kamerun: Gefüge und Aufgabe (Berlin: Junker & Dünnhaupt, 1936). Over 20,000 people, mostly carriers, fled (or were sent back) from Muni, reaching a British refugee camp at Campo destitute and famished. Food depots at Campo, Kribi and Duala provided for the refugees: NAL/CO649/8-17.7.16/33686, Report on Naval and Combined Naval & Military Operations in the Cameroons, 12.6.1916. The wartime British administration worried about ex-Schutztruppe soldiers roaming the countryside fully armed: Buea National Archives (henceforth BNA) Ab1915/41, station diary Bamenda (Podevin). District Officer Podevin promised ‘very serious penalties’ for possession of arms or ammunition ‘especially in case of ex-German soldiers’ (BNA/Cf1915/1, Podevin to Lt. Governor at Lagos, n.d.).

8 Quoted in Ritter, 9.

9 Kamerun Post, 12.8.1914, Extrablatt 12, cited in Foreign Office, ‘Treatment of Natives in the German Colonies,’ in Handbooks no. 132b (London: HMSO, 1919).

10 E. Zimmerman, Meine Kriegsfahrt von Kamerun zur Heimat (Berlin: Verlag Ullstein, 1915), 150–1.

11 E. Student, Kameruns Kampf 1914–16 (Berlin: Bernard & Gräfe, 1937), 324.

12 Lange, 219; G. Kühnhold, In Friedens- und Kriegszeiten in Kamerun (Berlin: Scherl, 1917), 40–60; Pürschel, 57–81; Ritter, 255–63; H. Skolaster, Krieg im Busch: Selbsterlebtes aus dem Kamerunkrieg (Limburg a.d. Lahn: Pallotiner, 1918), 135–9; Student, 324–32.

13 Rammstedt, 84.

14 Lange, 219; Student, 325.

15 Kühnhold, 52.

16 Scholze, 226.

17 J. Osuntokun, ‘Anglo-Spanish relations in West Africa during the First World War’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 7:2 (1974), 292. NAL/CO649/3, CO649/4 and CO649/5 hold reports of arms smuggling. The British consul at Barcelona reported (Feb. 1915) sugar, rice, meat and pumps, destined for trans-shipment to Bata and thence to Cameroon for the German forces (NAL/CO649/3-4.2.15/5826, Telegram Consul General Smith, 4.2.1915). Later 200 cases of cartridges, hidden in cocoa cylinders, were unloaded on Fernando Po under cover of darkness (NAL/CO649/3-1.9.15/40350, Consul Wilson to CO, 20.6.1915).

18 Koch, 270.

19 ‘Ojeada,’ LGE, XIII:3 (10.2.1916), 35. The maritime blockade was lifted in March 1916.

20 ‘Correspondencia,’ LGE, XIII:6 (25.3.1916), 70.

21 NAL/CO640/8-.2.16/5944, SNO Douala to Admiralty, 5.2.1916.

22 Recruitment methods and working conditions resembling slavery had led to British restriction of labour recruitment from the mainland. I.K. Sundiata, ‘The rise and decline of Kru power: Fernando Po in the nineteenth century,’ Liberian Studies Journal, VI:I (1975), 38. Also Chapter 7, ‘The search for labor’, in I. Sundiata, From Slaving to Neoslavery (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996), 119–45.

23 NAL/CO649/8-17.7.16/33686, Operations in the Cameroons, 12.6.1916 (Fuller).

24 NAL/CO640/8-7.2.16/5944, SNO Douala to Admiralty, 5.2.1916.

25 NAL/CO649/16-8.2.18/7358, Memorandum from FO (1918).

26 NAL/CO649/10-4.3.16/10634, Dobell to CIGS, 4.3.1916.

27 Ibid.

28 ‘Ojeada,’ LGE, XIII:8 (25.4.1916), 95.

29 Koch, 282.

30 NAL/CO649/8-17.4.16/18081, Fuller to Admiralty, 9.3.1916.

31 The (non-combatant) Yaoundé left the mainland last: they had been temporarily resettled by the Spanish government south of Bata. See: Ein Werk Deutscher Kolonisation auf Fernando Poo, Mitteilungsblatt des Traditionsverbandes Ehemaliger Schutz- und Überseetruppen/Freunde der Früheren Deutschen Schutzgebiete E.V. (Berlin: Traditionsverband ehemaliger Schutz- und Überseetruppen, 1983), 5.

32 NAL/CO649/8-17.4.16/18081, Frank Wilson, 7.3.1916. The term Pangwe refers to the largest indigenous group in Spanish Muni, also known as Fang.

33 ‘Ojeada’, LGE, XIII:4 (25.2.1916), 46–47.

34 J. Vicent, ‘ABC en Fernando Poo: Situación de la colonía,’ ABC, (9.8.1916), 6.

35 ‘Ojeada,’ LGE, XIII:8 (25.4.1916), 95.

36 J. Vicent, ‘ABC en Fernando Poo: La paz en Camerón,’ ABC, (29.5.1916), 5–7.

37 Rammstedt, 86; ‘Ante los problemas,’ LGE, XIII:11 (10.6.1916), 135–7.

38 Kühnhold, 59.

39 Ritter, 266; Introduction to G. Tessmann, ‘Die Bubi auf Fernando Poo: Völkerkundliche Einzelbeschreibung eines Westafrikanischen Negerstammes. Herausgegeben von Prof. Fr. O. Rache’ (PhD thesis, 1923).

40 ‘Ojeada sobre la quincena: Vida Isabelina,’ LGE, XIII:11 (10.6.1916), 129.

41 J. Mercader, ‘Las subsistencias,’ LGE, XV:19 (10.10.1918), 173; Ein Werk Deutscher Kolonisation, 19.

42 Mercader, ‘Noticias de la quincena’; BBL/R1001/3930, ‘Klein Bococo bei San Carlos’, report by Head Veterinarian Nordt, 1.4.1917.

43 J. Vicent, ‘Los campementos Alemanes de internación,’ ABC (29.11.1916), 31–5; J. Mercader, ‘Esperando,’ LGE, XV:18 (25.9.1918), 165-6; J. Mercader, ‘Se aleja el espectro del hambre,’ LGE, XV:20 (25.10.1918), 181-2; J. Mercader, ‘Para tranquilidad pública,’ LGE, XV:21 (10.11.1918), 189–90.

44 ‘Las salpicaduras,’ LGE, XIII:10 (25.5.1916), 109–14.

45 ‘Ante los problémas,’ 135.

46 NAL/CO649/8-17.4.16/18081, translation of Ebermaier’s orders, 25.2.1916. The Yaoundé built a camp (Klein Bokoko, or Bococo) at San Carlos, on the east of the island: BBL/R1001/3930, report by Nordt, 1.4.1917. See also Ein Werk Deutscher Kolonisation.

47 Unless otherwise noted, details of the camps are derived from Ein Werk Deutscher Kolonisation, which closely follows the Spanish original: J. Vicent, Una obra de colonización Alemana en Fernando Poo (Madrid: Blass & Cia, 1920).

48 Skolaster, Krieg, 139.

49 Vicent, ‘Los campementos’; ‘Ojeada,’ LGE, XIII:8 (25.4.1916), 95.

50 NAL/CO649/8-23.8.16/40040, SNO Ruxton to Admiralty, 21.6.1916. Illness plagued European internees too: NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, Extract of report by SNO Phillimore, 6.9.1916.

51 ‘Ojeada sobre la quincena,’ LGE, XIII:12 (25.6.1916), 143.

52 R.M. Medina-Doménech, ‘Paludismo, explotacion y racismo cientifico en Guinea Ecuatorial (1900–1939),’ in La Acción Médico-Social contra el Paludismo en la España Metropolitana y Colonial del Siglo XX, ed. by E. Rodríguez Ocaña and R. Ballester (Madrid: CSIC, 2003), 387–8.

53 Scholze, 226. The Yaoundé people at Bokoko likewise suffered. Some 450 of the 2382 inhabitants in March 1917 were sick: BBL/R1001/3930, report by Nordt, 1.4.1917.

54 The medical work of these priests was admired by Spanish medical personnel working in the camps in 1917. Baumeister and Schuster were credited with achieving a significant reduction in endemic disease in the camps through their ‘magnificent labour’: M. Martinez Cerro, ‘El servicio sanitario en los campamentos de internamiento de Alemanes en Fernando Poo durante la Primera Guerra Mundial. Meritoria intervención de la Sanidad Naval (1916–1918),’ Revista General de Marina (Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval), 228:2 (1995), 201.

55 Vicent, ‘Los campementos’.

56 NAL/CO649/8-17.4.16/18081, Fuller to Admiralty, 9.3.1916.

57 ‘Notas de Basilé,’ LGE XV:11 (10.6.1918), 109.

58 Ein Werk, 22.

59 F. Hennemann, Werden und Wirken eines Afrika-Missionars (Limburg a.d. Lahn: Pallotiner, 1922), 169; Baumeister, ‘Vom Kriegs- und Missionsdienst unserer aus Kamerun vertriebenen Missionare,’ Das Reich des Herzen Jesu, (1917), 245; C. Schuster, ‘Im Gefangenenlager auf Fernando Po,’ Das Reich, (1920).

60 Vicent, ‘Los campementos’.

61 NAL/CO649/8-20.11.16/55531, Stobart (DO Victoria Division) to Lugard, 16.10.1916.

62 NAL/CO649/8-17.4.16/18081, Frank Wilson, 7.3.1916.

63 NAL/CO649/10-4.3.16/10634, Dobell to CIGS, 4.3.1916.

64 NAL/CO649/8-17.7.16/33686, Operations in the Cameroons, 12.6.1916 (Fuller). Twenty of these escaped from Spain a few months later: S. del Molino, Soldades en el Jardin de la Paz (Zaragoza: Prames, 2009).

65 NAL/CO649/8-17.7.16/33686, Operations in the Cameroons, 12.6.1916 (Fuller). Intelligence reports and later correspondence suggest higher numbers: NAL/CO 649/8-20.11.16/55531, Stobart (DO Victoria Division) to CO, 18.10.1916; NAL/CO649/12-2.4.17/17336, Phillimore, 2.4.1917.

66 NAL/CO649/08-20.11.16/55531, Stobart (DO Victoria Division) to Lugard, 16.10.1916.

67 NAL/CO649/05-30.10.16/51937, War Office to FO, 28.10.1916.

68 NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, Hardinge to Viscount Grey, 12.8.1916.

69 NAL/CO649/9-31.8.16/41183, Hardinge to Grey, 17.8.1916.

70 NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, Hardinge to Grey, 12.8.1916; NAL/CO649/9-31.8.16/41183, Hardinge to Grey, 17.8.1916.

71 NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, Hardinge to Grey, 12.8.1916; F. Romero Salvadó, ‘Spain and the First World War: Neutrality and crisis’ (PhD thesis, University of London, 1994), 146.

72 NAL/CO649/9-31.8.16/41183, British ambassador to Grey, 17.8.1916; NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, Comments from CO re. Hardinge to Grey, 12.8.1916, and re. FO to Army Council, 23.8.1916.

73 NAL/CO649/16-2.1.18/FO841, Barrera to Phillimore, 28.10.1916, and Phillimore to Barrera, 28.10.1916. Also NAL/CO649/9-8.11.16/53599, Hardinge to FO, 6.11.1916; NAL/CO649/9-11.11.16/54152, Hardinge to CO, 7.11.1916; NAL/CO649/16 8.2.18/7358, Memorandum from FO, n.d. (1918), re. reports from Phillimore 1916–1917.

74 Romero Salvadó, 145. See: NAL/CO649/8-20.11.16 /55531, Stobart (DO Victoria Division) to Lugard, 16.10.1916; NAL/CO649/8-27.10.17/51522, SNO, 27.10.1916; NAL/CO649/5-30.10.16/51937, Deputy Governor General Nigeria to SoS (CO), 27.10.1916; NAL/CO649/8-20.11.16/55531, Stobart to Lugard, 18.10.1916.

75 A shipment of magazine rifles arrived from Spain soon after the exodus from Bata, in boxes marked as food for the troops. When a box broke, exposing the rifles, Spanish customs officials stored the weapons at the PWD: NAL/CO649/8-20.11.16/55531, Stobart to Lugard, 18.10.1916.

76 NAL/CO649/16-2.1.18/FO841, Report by Phillimore, 19.10.1916. Phillimore’s suspicions later proved justified.

77 NAL CO649/16-2.1.18/FO841, Report by Phillimore, 19.10.1916.

78 NAL/CO649/5-30.10.16/51937, Deputy Governor General Nigeria to SoS (CO), 27.10.1916.

79 NAL/CO649/8-23.8.16/40040, SNO Ruxton to Admiralty, 21.7.1916.

80 NAL/CO649/5-30.10.16/51937, WO to FO, 28.10.1916.

81 NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, Stobart to Lugard, 4.9.1916. This idea was not new. Kamerun Governor Puttkamer earlier proposed to ‘acquire’ Fernando Po: J. von Puttkamer, Gouverneursjahre in Kamerun (Berlin: Stilke, 1912), 250.

82 NAL/CO649/5-30.10.16/51937, WO to FO, 28.10.1916.

83 NAL/CO649/10-30.11.16/57482, Comments CO on escape of German POWs, 13.11.1916.

84 NAL/CO649/5-30.10.16/51937, WO to FO, 28.10.1916.

85 Lange, 222.

86 The remobilisation attempt is described in BBL/R1001/9524, Rammstedt to camp commanders Eymael, von Heigelin and von Sommerfeld, 30.10.1916, and idem, 1.11.1916. Figures reported to Rammstedt: BBL/R1001/9524, Statistik (Nov. 1916).

87 BBL/R1001/9524, Rammstedt to Eymael, von Heigelin and von Sommerfeld, 9.11.1916; ‘Ojeada,’LGE, XIII:22 (25.11.1916), 263.

88 NAL/CO649/8-28.11.16/57241, SNO to Admiralty, 23.11.1916.

89 NAL/CO649/8-14.12.16/60044, Lugard to CO, 14.12.1916.

90 NAL/CO649/10-14.12.16/59931, WO to Admiralty, 13.12.1916; NAL/CO649/9-11.11.16/54048, Hardinge to FO, n.d. (Nov. 1916).

91 NAL/CO649/16-24.1.18/FO4454, Correspondence with ambassadors in Madrid and Paris, 24.1.1918.

92 NAL/CO649/9-18.11.16/55252, Reply from Spanish Min. of State, n.d.; NAL/CO649/12-2.4.17/17336, Phillimore, 2.4.1917. Numerous influential Germans from Fernando Po were transferred to Spain but not interned. In Madrid, Ebermaier led a German firm which maintained a radio-telegraphic connection with the German War Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hardinge noted that the provision of such facilities cast doubt on Spain’s neutrality: NAL/CO649/16-18.4.18/19068, Hardinge to Min. of State, 2.3.1918.

93 J. Cervera Pery, ‘Presencia y esfuerzo: La infantería de marine en Guinea Ecuatorial,’ Revista General de Marina (Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, (2012), 24; C. Font Gavira, ‘Tensión et cautiverio,’ La Gaceta de Guinea Ecuatorial, 189 (2013).

94 J. Vicent, ‘ABC en Fernando Poo: Consumatum est!,’ ABC (19.3.1917), 7–8.

95 NAL/CO649/16-24.1.18/FO4454, Correspondence with ambassadors, 24.1.1918; Font Gavira, ‘Tensión’.

96 NAL/CO649/16-24.1.18/FO4454, Correspondence with ambassadors, 24.1.1918. The file holds no further information on the riot or on Lt. Abramoski’s plight.

97 NAL/CO649/7-21.10.16/50462, CO to FO, 28.10.1916. Lt. Gen. Smuts, anticipating troops from Nigeria, had ‘already arranged to release the Indian troops urgently required by the War Office for Egypt, and any delay in the arrival of the Nigerian troops would seriously embarrass him’. Also NAL/CO649/5-30.10.16/51937, Deputy Governor General Nigeria to SoS, 27.10.1916.

98 BNA/Cb1917/1, Report nr. 3, Bamenda Division (Podevin).

99 NAL/CO649/16-2.1.18/FO841, FO to Lord Bertie, Paris (draft), Jan. 1918.

100 NAL/CO649/16-2.1.18/FO841, Report of proceedings, 2.1.1918.

101 NAL/CO649/16-2.1.18/FO 841, FO to Hardinge, Madrid, Jan. 1918; NAL/CO649/16-24.1.18/FO4454, FO to Merry del Val, 22.1.1918; NAL/CO649/16-24.1.18/FO4454, Graham (FO) to Lord Bertie, Paris, 22.1.1918.

102 NAL/CO649/16-11.2.18/7709, Hardinge to Min. of State, 17.1.1918; NAL/CO649/16-8.2.18/7358, Hardinge to Min. of State, 30.1.1919 (wrongly dated: should be 1918).

103 Referred to in e.g. NAL/CO649/15-4.11.18/57413/conf/WAFF, Lt. Dorrington to Lt. Comm. Douglas, HQ Nigeria Regiment, 10.9.1918.

104 NAL/CO583/66/18327, Lugard to CO 14.4.1918; NAL/CO583/66/26664, Lugard to CO 29.4.1918, cited in Osuntokun, ‘Anglo-Spanish relations’, 300.

105 NAL/CO649/16-18.4.18/19187, WO to FO, 18.4.1918.

106 NAL/CO649/16-26.3.18/15217, Downing Str. to under-SoS, Apr. 1918; NAL/CO649/16-22.4.18/20011, FO to Hardinge, Bertie, Rodd (Rome), 20.4.1918; NAL/CO649/16-26.3.18/15217, Hardinge to Balfour, 14.4.1918. The decision to recall Barrera was taken in March 1918, but was not effectuated until after the submarine incident: NAL/CO 649/16-19.3.18/14057, copy of telegram from Hardinge to FO, 15.3.1918.

107 NAL/CO649/16-18.4.18/19068, Hardinge to Dato, n.d. Plantation owners and traders on Fernando Po protested Barrera’s recall in a petition to the Minister of State: J. Vicent, ‘El gobernador va a España,’ ABC (24.5.1918), 5-6.

108 NAL/CO649/18-17.4.19/23689, Comment from CO re. Hardinge to Romanones, 5.4.1919.

109 J. Mercader, ‘Noticias,’ LGE, XV:14 (25.6.1918), 134. Vicent, ‘El gobernador’. Barrera’s new title was Capitán de Fragata.

110 Not all went home. Several Cameroonian villages (presumably Yaoundé) were established near Bata by former refugees wishing to avoid French rule: BBL/R1001/3991, Rena (?) to Reichmann, Bata, 17.9.1919. Some interned soldiers from Liberia and Sierra Leone joined their Cameroonian wives in Cameroon (NAL/CO649/21-24.1.19/4256, translation of Barrera to Commissioner of French Republic in Douala, 15.10.1919; NAL/CO 649/21-24.1.19/4256, idem, 20.10.1919).

111 NAL/CO649/21-24.1.19/4256, translation of Barrera to Commissioner of French Republic in Douala, 15.10.1919. The steamer carried 415 soldiers, 277 women, 72 children, 121 servants of the 12th company, and 487 soldiers, 334 women, 65 children, and 123 boys of the 10th company, also ‘a few sick people’ from the hospital, accompanied by nurses and servants.

112 NAL/CO 649/21-24.1.19/4256, translation of Barrera to Commissioner of French Republic in Douala, 20.10.1919. On board were the 9th and 11th companies, and 28 sick people with followers.

113 The last 150 internees left Fernando Po on 28 Nov. 1920: ‘Noticias de la colonia,’ LGE, XVII:23 (10.12.1920), 219.

114 NAL/CO649/16-2.1.18/FO841, Report by Phillimore, 19.10.1916; NAL/CO649/8-20.11.16/55531, Report by Sgt. Major A. Jacob in Stobart to CO, 18.10.1916.

115 NAL/CO649/16-24.1.18/FO4454, unknown Spanish correspondent, n.d. Some went to great lengths to escape from the island. Over 100 Kru men, stranded after working on Spanish ships, tried to return home as the war drew to a close, including seven who arrived in Victoria in a canoe in September 1918. They had boarded the Ciudad de Cadiz as deckhands at Monrovia in January, but were left in Santa Isabel because the ship would not call at Monrovia on the return voyage. Together with 78 other deck hands from Liberia, they had been put to work on plantations for subsistence pay (NAL/CO649/14-4.11.18/57413/conf/WAFF, Lt. Dorrington to Lt. Comm. Douglas, HQ Nigeria Regiment, 10.10.1918). Later, a group of four Kru men tried to escape, also in a canoe. Two drowned. The others were rescued by fishermen. These men had also been deckhands on the Ciudad de Cadiz. They were stranded on Fernando Po for nearly three years. The Spanish government employed them as painters (NAL/CO649/15-4.11.18/57413/conf/WAFF, Report by Lt. Dorrington, 27.9.1918).

116 Quoted in Hennemann, Werden und Wirken, 40–41. The catechist was also a judge in the native court in his camp.

117 ‘De Santa Isabel’, LGE, XVI:20 (25.10.1919), 174–5; BNA/Tb(1920)3, Barrera to Commissioner of the French Republic in Cameroun, 6.11.1919.

118 Ruiaz, ‘Epilogando una obra colonial,’ LGE, XVI:21 (10.11.1919), 178.

119 NAL/CO750/3-11.9.19/52954/destroyed, Despatch from Madrid, 11.10.1919.

120 As repatriation came to an end, 400 internees built a cemetery where they were allowed to bury their dead free of charge. J. Mercader, ‘Noticias de Santa Isabel,’ LGE, XVI (10.6.1919), 121–2.

121 NAL/CO649/16-8.6.18/27871, Hardinge to FO, 1.6.1918; NAL/CO649/16-10.6.18/28253, Hardinge to Balfour, 1.6.1918. Some suggest that internees were retained by force by Spanish authorities to work on plantations: Osuntokun, ‘Relations’, 5.

122 NAL/CO649/16-10.6.18/28253, Hardinge to Balfour, 1.6.1918.

123 Hardinge referred to difficulties encountered by Spain in obtaining cotton due to wartime conditions.

124 BNA/Tb(1920)3, Correspondence between Governor Spanish Guinea and French Commissary in Cameroun. Whether willingly or not, many internees remained on Fernando Po. Yaoundé and Hausa were the most numerous immigrants on the island a decade after repatriation. In 1930 a large Yaoundé community occupied a settlement north-east of Santa Isabel, where one of the internment camps had been situated. Local trade was in the hands of Hausa, most of whom had been servants of German officers: J. Arija, La Guinea Espanñola y sus Riquezas (Estudios Coloniales) (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1930), 138–40.

125 K. Hausen, Deutsche Kolonialherrschaft in Afrika: Wirtschaftsinteressen und Kolonialverwaltung in Kamerun vor 1914 (Freibourg, 1970), 136–7.

126 Many were baptized on the eve of repatriation, and were admonished to establish Christian communities in their villages. In addition to the two Herz Jesu priests Baumeister and Schuster, two Pallotine priests (Zeus and Ruf), and some brothers worked in the camp mission: ‘Missionsrundschau: Kamerun,’ Die Katholischen Missionen 1919/1920:7, 115. Ruf remained in Santa Isabel after the war as procurator of the Catholic mission (NAL/CO649/20-10.9.20/45183, P.E. Ruf, 18.9.1919).

127 H.R. Rudin, Germans in the Cameroons: 1884–1914. A Case Study in Modern Imperialism (London, 1938), 197.

128 BNA/Ab1917/40, Station diary Bamenda, various entries 1919.

129 BNA/Sd1916/3, DO Crawford to Resident, 17.11.1919.

130 BBL/R1001/3930, Ebermaier to Kolonialamt, 18.3.1919.

131 NAL/CO649/16-31.1.18/5910, Comment CO re. Hardinge to Balfour, 16.1.1918.

132 During the First World War, the government changed four times in Spain, and the fourth administration collapsed a month after Germany’s capitulation in November 1918: Francisco J. Romero Salvadó, Spain 1914-1918: Between War and Revolution, London and New York, Routledge, 1999, Chronology of Main Events; Charles H. Cunningham, ‘Spain and the War’, The American Political Science Review, 1917; 11(3), 421-47.

133 In May 1918, Ebermaier commended Olshausen (German consul on Fernando Po) for enabling the supply of war needs despite the blockade: BBL/R1001/3930/Tel. 888, Kaiserliches Gouvernement Kamerun (Madrid) to Kolonialamt Berlin, part 2, 23.5.1918.

134 BNA/Cb1918/2, Annual Report Bamenda Division, 1919, 9.

135 Interview Aloysius Ngomneng (Timneng’s younger brother), Njinikom, 16.8.1994; Interview Patrick Tim (Timneng’s son), Njinikom, 16.8.1994.

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Jacqueline de Vries

Jacqueline de Vries is a historian specialising in West Africa under British and German rule. She works as a translator at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and has recently returned to research she previously conducted for her PhD project on Cameroon. She is also the author of Catholic mission, colonial government and indigenous response in Kom (Cameroon) (Leiden, The Netherlands: African Studies Centre, 1998).