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The National Archives of Cameroon in Yaoundé and Buea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Alois Maderspacher
Alois Maderspacher*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Extract

Even in learned journals on African and imperial history, few references have been made to the records contained in the archives in Cameroon, West Africa. Kamerun was a German colony (Schutzgebiet) from 1884-1916/19. In 1911, the Germans took over New Cameroon (Neu Kamerun), 295,000 km2 of land of French Equatorial Africa, ceded during the second Morocco Crisis. After World War I this transaction was reversed and the German colony was separated into French and British League of Nations Mandates in 1919. These mandates were transformed into United Nations Trusteeships in 1946. Finally, French Cameroun became independent in 1960, and after a plebiscite in 1961, one part of the British Cameroons joined Nigeria and the other part reunited with the formerly French part, now the independent Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Due to the involvement of three colonial powers in Cameroon, the national archives in Yaoundé and Buea are an excellent source for the colonial history of West Africa, allowing for a simultaneous analysis of German, French, and British files. Whereas the colonial files in the European archives mainly give us the point of view of high politics, the archives in Cameroon offer a different dimension. The files reveal the intricacies of the colonial system on the ground, and the problems with which the colonial administrator had to cope in the bush: How did one introduce European legal tender in a territory never touched by Europeans before? How did one cope with the colonial rivals, who were couching at the frontiers to take over the territory? How did one attempt to win peoples' hearts and minds day in and day out? What happened when the new colonial power took over a territory with an already developed administration from another colonial power, as it took place in Cameroon in 1911 and 1916/19? The national archives of Cameroon contain potential answers to these questions. Hence this paper will focus on the sources that are available for the colonial period in these archives.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 36 , 2009 , pp. 453 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2009

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References

1 Only three articles can be found: Austen, Ralph A., “The National Archives of Cameroon,” HA 1(1974), 153–55Google Scholar; Orosz, Kenneth J., “Colonial Archives in Cameroon,” African Research and Documentation 71(1996), 33–40Google Scholar; Thomas, Guy, “Retrieving Hidden Traces of the Intercultural past: an Introduction to Archival Resources in Cameroon, with Special Reference to the Central Archives of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon,” HA 25(1998), 427–40.Google Scholar

2 The German army surrendered in 1916 and thenceforth the victorious French and British, later sanctioned in the Peace Treaty of Versailles and by the League of Nations, administered Cameroon.

3 After Germany joined the League of Nations in 1926, her citizens had full access to all Mandate Territories.

4 On the administrative organization of British Cameron see Gardinier, David E., “The British in the Cameroons, 1919-1939” in Gifford, Presser/Louis, Wm. Roger, eds., Britain and Germany in Africa Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule (New Haven 1967), 526–27.Google Scholar

5 Austen, , “National Archives of Cameroon,” 153.Google Scholar

6 See also Walz, Gotthilf, “Die Entwicklung der Strafrechtspflege in Kamerun unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft 1884-1914,” Jahrbuch für Afrikanisches Recht 2(1981), 159–78, fn 12.Google Scholar

7 Library of the Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France: Ngassa, Bernadette Mbami, Les Archives au Cameroun. Mémoire École Nationale Supérieure des Bibliothécaires (n.p., 1978).Google Scholar

8 See also, Thomas, , “Retrieving Hidden Traces,” 430.Google Scholar

9 The project started in 1974/75 and terminated in March 1987. For this information I am indebted to Franz Göttlicher, Bundesarchiv, Berlin.

10 Austen, , “National Archives of Cameroon,” 154Google Scholar, also addresses this problem.

11 Roughly, CFA 1,000=£1.38 or approximately US$2.08 (as of May 2009).

12 Patrons were still charged the CFA 25 for the fiche with which they ordered the documents.