Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- TItle -- Copyright -- Contents -- Tables -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 From fishermen to middlemen: the Duala inland and on the coast in the formative period, c. 1500-c. 1830 -- The ethnographic present: c. 1850 -- The chronology of settlement: non-written sources -- The chronology of migration: European sources -- The rationale of coastal settlement: from fishing to trade -- European ivory and slave trade -- European trade and Duala politics -- Internal development in the formative period: state vs segmentation -- Early Duala political development in comparative perspective -- 3 Hegemony without control: the Duala, Europeans and the Littoral hinterland in the era of legitimate/free trade,… -- From slave trade to ''legitimate'' export goods -- The geography and politics of inland trade -- The European presence -- a. Merchants -- b. Naval and consular authority -- c. The Baptist mission -- The institutions of hegemonic free trade -- a. The market -- b. Trust -- c. Partnership and intermarriage -- d. Currencies and market language -- The politics of disorder -- Political competition and political economy -- Institutional change and stasis -- Internal crises and colonial annexation -- 4 Mythic transformation and historical continuity: Duala middlemen and German colonial rule, 1884-1914 -- The Duala and the German state -- German administration: defining a colonial entity -- Neo-consular rule, 1884-1885 -- Restricted formal administration, 1885-c. 1900 -- The Puttkamer era, c. 1897-1907 -- The era of ''reform,'' 1907-1914 -- Segmentary politics and colonial chiefdom -- From segmentation to formal jurisdiction -- Segmentary politics with a German accent: Akwa vs. Bell, 1885-1911 -- The Duala colonial economy: from merchants to planters -- The struggle over trade -- The coastal marketplace.

The inland rivers -- Founding an African plantation system -- Cultural brokerage and colonial middleman identity -- The German perspective: Kulturkampf in Kamerun -- New Duala elites of the German era -- The expropriation crisis: apotheosis of mythic politics -- German initiative and debate -- The Duala response -- Conclusion: the power of myth -- 5 Middlemen as ethnic elite: the Duala under French mandate rule, 1914-1941 -- The politics of a new colonial order -- Establishing a French regime -- Duala protest: the politics of petitions -- Expropriation: reformed, protested and extended -- Lotin Samé and the Native Baptist Church -- Apogee and decline of middleman economics -- Apogee: the 1920s -- Decline: the 1930s and before -- Middleman status as ethnicity -- Politics in a new key: the approach of World War II -- 6 Between colonialism and radical nationalism: middlemen in the era of decolonization, c. 1941-c. 1960 -- The uneven march towards independence -- History as electoral capital: the political career of Prince Alexander Ndoumbe Douala Manga Bell -- Middleman nationalism: the politics of Paul Soppo Priso -- From tradition as politics to politics as tradition: the Ngondo -- Conclusion: middlemen as historical paradigm -- Notes -- 1 INTRODUCTION -- 2 FROM FISHERMEN TO MIDDLEMEN -- 3 HEGEMONY WITHOUT CONTROL -- 4 MYTHIC TRANSFORMATION AND HISTORICAL CONTINUITIES -- 5 MIDDLEMEN AS ETHNIC ELITE -- 6 BETWEEN COLONIALISM AND RADICAL NATIONALISM -- Bibliography -- 1 ORAL INTERVIEWS -- A INDIVIDUALS -- B VILLAGE ELDERS -- 2 ARCHIVES -- CAMEROON -- ENGLAND -- FRANCE -- GERMANY -- NIGERIA -- SWITZERLAND -- 3 OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS -- 4 PUBLISHED PRIMARY SOURCES -- 5 SECONDARY SOURCES -- Index.