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225:. Monneba himself was still thought to be the ruler there, as Bardot wrote in 1732 (probably using Dapper as the source): "The lands opposite to the latter places, on the north of Rio Camerones, are inhabited by the Calbonges, . . . governed by a chief of their own tribe, called by them Moneba . . . ." Not until
68:. Assuming this is true, he is the earliest Duala leader of whom we have corroboration in written sources. It is quite possible that Monneba/Mulobe was the ruler who set into motion the transformation of the Duala into a trading people and the most influential ethnic group in early Cameroonian history.
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There is no doubt that
Monneba's Village is in fact Douala. The location on Dutch maps is clearly on the Wouri River at about the location of Belltown, one of the various townships that made up Douala in the precolonial period. Leers and Blommaert give examples of the language spoken by Monneba and
260:. The connection also makes temporal sense. If one starts from the first incontestable Duala leaders known from modern sources and traces their purported genealogy back allowing 25 years for each generation, Mulobe seems to have lived at the same time Dutch sources first mention Monneba.
173:) called Monneba, who is taken to be the strongest of the princes round about. The village where the headman has his residence, lies upon a height, which has a very tidy cover of natural vegetation, and it is taken to be the pleasantest spot in the whole
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As late as 1739, letters and ships' logs show that Dutch merchants on the
Cameroon coast were trading almost solely with the Duala in their settlement on the Wouri, which they still referred to as "Monneba's Village". Trade was mostly in
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so the following should be noted, otherwise the Negros will make demands as unreasonable as they usually do. When you are in the river off the village, which is four miles up, in order to trade, the chief
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coast had been regularised, and ships carried detailed instructions for reaching the various trading posts, including
Monneba's Village. Nevertheless, trade remained minimal and infrequent.
453:
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252:, the eponymous father of the Duala people. Later academics Austen and Derrick accept the Monneba/Mulabe connection as "very reasonable".
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O. Dapper writing in 1668 (also drawing from
Blommaert) explains that by that date Samson had been driven out by "those of Ambo" (
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comes on board. You give him one iron bar and two copper bars. He is satisfied with this—if you want to give more you can.
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Dutch sources from the early 17th century provide some insight into nascent
European trade on the Cameroons River (
18:
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coast in the 1630s. Dutch sources from the 1660s say that
Monneba ran a trading post on the Cameroons River (the
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Pertinente
Beschryvinge van Africa . . . Getrocken en vergadert uyt de Reysboeken van Johannes Leo Africanus.
118:
429:
Ardener, Edwin, and
Ardener, Shirley (1996). "Preliminary chronological notes for the Cameroon coast".
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duties indicate that
Monneba's trading post was of lesser import than that of a leader called
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as Mulobe a Ewale or Mulabe a Ewale. This individual is placed one generation after
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34:
431:
Kingdom on Mount
Cameroon: Studies in the History of the Cameroon Coast, 1500–1970
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Kingdom on Mount Cameroon: Studies in the History of the Cameroon Coast, 1500–1970
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Detail from an English map of 1729 showing "Monabaes vil." on the River Cameronis.
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Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: The Duala and their Hinterland, c. 1600–c.1960
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in the late 1780s do European sources name another ruler from the Douala area.
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On the north bank of the river Kamarones live very many people, called
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Rotterdam. P. 313. Quoted in Ardener 20. Emphasis in original.
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Dutch maps from the 1650s clearly label Monneba's Village (
60:. Modern scholars equate Monneba with a Duala ruler named
165:) and Monneba had become the lead trader in the region:
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in the 1630s, is the first writer to mention Monneba:
349:
Dapper quoted in Ardener 14–15. Emphasis in original.
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in Douala. The maps also place Monneba's name on the
113:Euro-Cameroon trade was in its infancy, and these
436:Austen, Ralph A., and Derrick, Jonathan (1999):
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129:farther north. Rulers farther south in Gaboon (
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33:and other ways, (fl. c. 1630) was a local
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193:), there the trade takes place. These
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189:, who wage war against those above (
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244:leader referred to in traditional
14:
209:By this time, Dutch trade on the
256:his people, and it is obviously
52:. His people dealt primarily in
146:]), located on the site of
454:Cameroonian traditional rulers
340:Dapper quoted in Ardener 24–5.
233:Connection with Mulobe a Ewale
1:
440:. Cambridge University Press.
133:) received even more custom.
48:) at the present location of
459:17th-century African people
72:Monneba in European sources
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433:. New York: Bergahn Books.
426:. New York: Bergahn Books.
298:Austen and Derrick 17–18.
240:equates Monneba with the
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276:Ardener and Ardener 362.
169:. . . under a headman (
422:Ardener, Edwin (1996).
197:are subject to a head (
409:Austen and Derrick 15.
379:Austen and Derrick 23.
367:Austen and Derrick 19.
331:Austen and Derrick 17.
285:Leers, Arnout (1665).
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388:Quoted in Ardener 15.
191:tegen tie van bovenen
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62:Mulobe a Ewale
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397:Ardener 16.
358:Ardener 23.
319:Ardener 24.
246:genealogies
171:Opper-hooft
127:Rio del Rey
448:Categories
417:References
199:Opperhooft
140: [
227:King Joss
195:Kalbangen
187:Kalbanges
163:Ambas Bay
125:) on the
103:oppersten
201:) named
148:Belltown
42:Cameroon
203:Monneba
115:customs
107:Monneba
40:on the
27:Monneba
223:slaves
211:Guinea
123:Ibibio
119:Samson
82:Douala
58:slaves
50:Douala
38:leader
31:Moneba
264:Notes
242:Duala
219:ivory
175:bight
131:Gabon
78:Wouri
54:ivory
46:Wouri
35:Duala
158:).
143:sic
64:or
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101:(
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