Kum'a Mbappe and the First Act of Resistance
In 1884, Kum'a Mbappe, King of Bonabéri, refused to sign a treaty with German colonial powers even as other Duala rulers capitulated. When the Germans hoisted their flag over Bonabéri, he famously rejected their authority in writing, setting off armed conflict that would last through December and establish a lineage of resistance in what would become Cameroon.
In July 1884 Kum'a Mbappe, King of Bonabéri , refused to sign the treaty with the Germans, despite the fact that other Duala kings had already signed . The Germans cannot consider taking possession of Cameroon without Bonabéri ( Hickorytown ).
After several hesitations they hoist the German flag over Bonabéri on August 28, 1884. Kum'a Mbappe also known as Lock Priso reacts the same day, in a letter to the German consul: "Pull that flag down. No man buy we. They want to give us plenty dash, we tell them no. Leave us free and not make us plenty trouble."
The Germans, of course did not cooperate. Kum’a Mbappe ordered the flag lowered and the mast ripped.
A German merchant of the firm Woermann , Pantänius was murdered in retaliation by the chief Elame Joss . War broke out.
On December 16th Kum'a Mbappe (Lock Priso ) and his allies from Bonapriso as well as some groups from Bonanjo and Akwa set fire to Bonanjo . The import-export trade threatened to stop completely.
The war is not only between the different parts Duala who are pro or against the treaty, the Germans are directly involved.
From 20th to 22nd December, the German warship "Olga " which had come to the rescue, bombarded Bonabéri.
German sailors descended on Bonabéri and burned the city. The Germans stole the princely bow from the canoe of Kum'a Mbappe.
This bow is still being held in the ethnographic museum of the city of Munich. The first treaty of submission was signed on January 13, 1885 .
So Kum'a Mbappe (Lock Priso ) inaugurated the history of resistance in the territory that years later would become Cameroon!
Source: Profiles of Martyrs - Cameroon People's Party.
The post documents a pivotal moment in Cameroon's colonial history, when European powers were formally partitioning African territories and local rulers faced the immediate choice between accommodation and defiance. Kum'a Mbappe's refusal was not isolated idealism but a political stand rooted in the sovereignty and trade interests of the Duala merchant kingdoms.
The piece reclaims Kum'a Mbappe as the inaugurator of organized resistance to colonialism in Cameroon—a distinction that reframes him not as a footnote to European conquest but as the founding figure of an anti-colonial tradition. In 2021, when Poise republished this account, it served as a counter-narrative to the erasure of such figures from dominant historiographies, and as a reminder that resistance to foreign domination has deep roots in Cameroonian political consciousness.