Toli Sous le Manguier

S’agissant de l’avilissement proprement dit et de l’abandon de souveraineté, ce document est assez paradoxal et est soumis à interprétation individuelle. Les historiens qui s’y sont penchés, comme Achille Mbembe, y ont posé un regard parcellaire et volontairement ignoré l’ensemble du texte dont les « réserves » des chefs Douala signataires démontrent clairement que ce ne fut pas un abandon d’un exercice politique souverain mais bel et bien d’usage des droits d’exploitation entre des propriétaires fonciers et des commerçants étrangers. Le pré-traité du 12 juillet en révèle la profondeur :
Cameroons River, July 12th, 1884

• Our wish is that white men should not go up and trade with the Bushmen, nothing to do with our markets; they must stay here in this River, and then give us trust so that we will trade with our Bushmen.
• We need no protection; we should like our country to annex with the government of any European Power.
• We need no alteration about our marriages, we shall marry as we are doing now.
• Our cultivated ground must not be taken from us, for we are not able to buy and sell as other countries.
• We need no Duty or Custom House in our country.
• We shall keep bullocks, pigs, goats, fowls as it is now and also no duty on them.
• No man should take another man’s wife by force or else a heavy fine.
• We need no fighting and beating without fault and no imprisonment on paying the trust without notice and no man should be put to Iron for the trust.
We are the Chiefs of Cameroons.