Middlemen of the Cameroon Rivers
Subtitle: The Duala and their Hinterland c.1600-c. 1960
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: March 1, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 266
ISBN-13: 9780521566643
Subjects: African history: c 1500 to c 1900; c 1600 to c 1700; c 1700 to c 1800; c 1800 to c 1900; History; Cameroon; History - General History; To 1960; History: World; Africa; Africa - Central; Duala (African people)--History; History / Renaissance; Middle East - General; Duala (African people); Economic conditions
First sentence: Nowhere do the multiple possibilities for constructing any history come into such obvious confrontation as in accounts of beginnings.
Description: "The Duala people entered the international scene as merchant-brokers for precolonial trade in ivory, slaves and palm products. Under colonial rule they used the advantages gained from earlier riverain trade to develop cocoa plantations and provide their children with exceptional levels of European education. At the same time they came into early conflict with both German and French regimes and played a leading - if ultimately unsuccessful - role in anti-colonial politics. In tracing these changing economic and political roles, this book also examines the growing consciousness of the Duala as an ethnic group and uses their history to shed new light on the history of "middleman" communities in surrounding regions of West and Central Africa."--BOOK JACKET.