1914: Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, in German Kamerun

ExecutedToday.com ^ | August 8, 2010 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1914, the Germans hanged D(o)uala king Rudolf Duala Manga Bell for treason in German Kamerun.

European-educated and on retainer by the colonial German government, Bell was hardly the subversive type: rather, as the head of the largest clan of the important Duala tribe, he was the guy that Berlin looked to to uphold its authority.

This mutually satisfactory relationship began unraveling in 1910, with the Reich’s plan to abnegate the 1884 treaty under whose auspices it intruded into Kamerun (Cameroon) in the first place.

Seeking to confine the Duala to a few coastal villages — and subsequently, to push those Duala to less desirable inland territory — Berlin managed the rare feat of uniting the tribe’s various families, and pushing Rudolf Manga Bell himself into (surprising, to Germany) resistance.

When petitions to the Reichstag were ignored, the Duala began (Bell’s own degree of involvement in this seems to be a disputed point) making noises about holding Berlin in breach of the colonial treaty and finding itself a new European patron, like France or England....

[Chewbarkah]

The ability of the human mind to justify greed and cruelty knows no limits. So “treason” is defined as:
“The leader of the people whose land we are stealing isn’t complicit enough.”
Wish I could say that only the Germans played this sort of game and not the USA.