ABSTRACT
In November 1906, the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten published a commentary on Mpundo Akwa, whose presence in Germany had caught national attention the preceding year. The son of a Cameroonian chief had lived in Hamburg since 1902, organizing and campaigning against the violation of the rights of the Akwa people by the German colonial administration in their homeland. After he helped the Akwa fi le a petition, his efforts gained substantial publicity in newspaper articles and even in parliamentary debates. The commentator of the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten was indignant at the attention the German public paid to Akwa. He asked polemically whether people had lost all their (colonial) senses: They acknowledged Akwa as a political actor, addressed him as a prince, and referred to him as a trustworthy source of information in parliamentary debates on corruption and violence in the colonies. “Has all sense for the ridiculous died away in Germany?” To this commentator, Akwa was laughable because he did not know his place in the colonial order of things. Germans treating him as an equal were running the risk of making fools of themselves. Communicating with Akwa on equal terms would make people lose their “race pride“ when measuring this “black riff-raff“ with the same criteria appropriate for a “highly civilized people.” The article closes with an interesting scenario: If people in Cameroon were to learn about Akwa’s success in Germany, then the earth would be rumbling from the stamping feet of cheering “Nigger[s]” dancing the cakewalk.1 And the only one left laughing would be Mpundo’s father, “the old dipso Akwa.”2
