Germany initiated the colony of what they called Kamerun. A skeptical Bismarck, to avoid a financial boondoggle, specified merchants being in charge. So when war came it was easily conquered. To prevent a German revival, France was quite militaristic and Bismarck would not have been surprised it became a boondoggle for them. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp shows that the French had at least the ambition to retain German productivity showing a large cattle drive in an area of agricultural richness. A cattle operation like this would have just been stolen from the civilian German farmer. The operation would have quickly deteriorated without German efficiency and the will to use the old German methods that achieved it.
Todays stamp is issue A5, a 2 Centimes stamp issued by the French League of Nations mandate in Cameroun in 1925. It was a 42 stamp issue in various denominations issued over 15 years displaying the economic vitality of the colony. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.
German Chancellor Bismarck was very reticent about a German colonial empire. He had seen the weakness of France in the Franco-Prussian War while so much of it’s army was bogged down in far off colonies. Bismarck was nevertheless approached by German merchants, explorers, and adventurers telling him what could be accomplished in Cameroun. He agreed to a colony but informed the colonial authorities their job was to support the merchants. The occupying army was almost entirely part time militiamen farmers. It was not an easy go. The time of slavery was past and it was difficult to get the locals to work for the colonial operations, many of which were labor intensive. A British colony would have brought in Indian contract labor but the Germans had other more efficient ideas. The colonial authority simply mandated that the locals work. They kidded themselves that this was not slavery as the workers were paid and could theoretically change jobs. The productivity was great. Roads, bridges, and railroads were completed and the farming indeed proved lucrative with rubber and beef exports almost paying for all that required importation.
World War I saw Cameroun invaded by the British, conquered and then divided with the French. The British colonial office did a study of their new territory and decided the best course of action was to leave the German civilians in place to continue development. The French, understandably, were much more suspicious of the Germans. The economic properties were seized and taken over by a large French trading house. The practice of forced, paid labor was done away with. The occupation became much more militaristic. During World War II, the mandate was Free French but the military began public floggings of people believed pro German. This also may be understandable with German puppet Vichy France still claiming the place. The floggings however were of local blacks with Germans long gone.
Around 1960, French Cameroun and the southern part of British Cameroun reunited. The northern part was mainly Muslim and elected to join Nigeria. A bit of the old German prosperity survived in the old British part. See below, amazing it still stands. West Germany was generous with aid to former colonies and I expect that has something to do with the survival.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Bismarck for his sensibility about colonies. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.