Monneba, also spelled Moneba and other ways, (fl. c. 1630) was a local
Duala leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
on the
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
coast in the 1630s. Dutch sources from the 1660s say that Monneba ran a trading post on the Cameroons River (the
Wouri) at the present location of
Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the com ...
. His people dealt primarily in
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...
, with some
slaves. Modern scholars equate Monneba with a Duala ruler named Mulobe a Ewale or Mulabe a Ewale. Assuming this is true, he is the earliest Duala leader of whom we have corroboration in written sources. It is quite possible that Monneba/Mulobe was the ruler who set into motion the transformation of the Duala into a trading people and the most influential ethnic group in early Cameroonian history.
Monneba in European sources
Dutch sources from the early 17th century provide some insight into nascent European trade on the Cameroons River (
Wouri) at the present site of
Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the com ...
.
Arnout Leers, probably drawing from writings by
Samuel Blommaert
Samuel Blommaert (''Bloemaert'', ''Blommaerts'', ''Blommaart'', ''Blomert'', etc.) (11 or 21 August 1583, in Antwerp – 23 December 1651, in Amsterdam) was a Flemish/Dutch merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company from 1622 to 1629 ...
in the 1630s, is the first writer to mention Monneba: Euro-Cameroon trade was in its infancy, and these
customs duties indicate that Monneba's trading post was of lesser import than that of a leader called
Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
(probably an
Ibibio Ibibio may refer to:
* Ibibio language
* Ibibio people
* Ibibio Sound Machine, an English electronic afro-funk band who sing in Ibibio
See also
* Ibiblio
ibiblio (formerly SunSITE.unc.edu and MetaLab.unc.edu) is a "collection of collections" ...
) on the
Rio del Rey
The Rio del Rey (also called Rio del Ray) is an estuary of a drainage basin in West Africa in Cameroon. It is located in the eastern area of the Niger River system. farther north. Rulers farther south in Gaboon (
Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...
) received even more custom.
Dutch maps from the 1650s clearly label Monneba's Village (''Monna Baes dorp'' ),
[Ardener 24.] located on the site of
Belltown in Douala. The maps also place Monneba's name on the
Dibamba River
The Dibamba River is in the Littoral Region of southern Cameroon, emptying into the Cameroon estuary near the city of Doula.
Location
The Dibamba river has a length of and a catchment area of . Average discharge at the river mouth is 480 cubic ...
, which is called Monneba's Creek or Channel (''Monnebasa Gat'').
[Austen and Derrick 17.]
O. Dapper writing in 1668 (also drawing from Blommaert) explains that by that date Samson had been driven out by "those of Ambo" (
Ambas Bay
Ambas Bay is a bay of southwest Cameroon.
Geography
The bay opens towards the Gulf of Guinea. The port of Limbe lies on the shore of Ambas Bay. History
Alfred Saker founded a settlement of freed slaves on the bay in 1858, which was later rena ...
) and Monneba had become the lead trader in the region: Dapper also describes Monneba's people: By this time, Dutch trade on the
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
coast had been regularised, and ships carried detailed instructions for reaching the various trading posts, including Monneba's Village. Nevertheless, trade remained minimal and infrequent.
As late as 1739, letters and ships' logs show that Dutch merchants on the Cameroon coast were trading almost solely with the Duala in their settlement on the Wouri, which they still referred to as "Monneba's Village". Trade was mostly in
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
, with some
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
.
[Austen and Derrick 23.] Monneba himself was still thought to be the ruler there, as Bardot wrote in 1732 (probably using Dapper as the source): "The lands opposite to the latter places, on the north of Rio Camerones, are inhabited by the Calbonges, . . . governed by a chief of their own tribe, called by them Moneba . . . ." Not until
King Joss in the late 1780s do European sources name another ruler from the Douala area.
Connection with Mulobe a Ewale
Edwin Ardener
Edwin Ardener (1927–1987) was a British social anthropologist and academic. He was also noted for his contributions to the study of history. Within anthropology, some of his most important contributions were to the study of gender, as in his 197 ...
equates Monneba with the
Duala leader referred to in traditional
genealogies
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
as Mulobe a Ewale or Mulabe a Ewale.
[Ardener 16.] This individual is placed one generation after
Ewale a Mbedi
Ewale a Mbedi was the eponymous ancestor of the Duala people of Cameroon (named for a variant spelling of his name, Dwala). According to the oral histories of the Duala and related Sawa peoples of the Cameroon coast, Ewale hailed from a place c ...
, the eponymous father of the Duala people. Later academics Austen and Derrick accept the Monneba/Mulabe connection as "very reasonable".
[Austen and Derrick 15.]
There is no doubt that Monneba's Village is in fact Douala. The location on Dutch maps is clearly on the Wouri River at about the location of Belltown, one of the various townships that made up Douala in the precolonial period.
Leers and Blommaert give examples of the language spoken by Monneba and his people, and it is obviously
that of the Duala.
The connection also makes temporal sense. If one starts from the first incontestable Duala leaders known from modern sources and traces their purported genealogy back allowing 25 years for each generation, Mulobe seems to have lived at the same time Dutch sources first mention Monneba.
Notes
{{Reflist
References
*Ardener, Edwin (1996). ''Kingdom on Mount Cameroon: Studies in the History of the Cameroon Coast, 1500–1970''. New York: Bergahn Books.
*Ardener, Edwin, and Ardener, Shirley (1996). "Preliminary chronological notes for the Cameroon coast". ''Kingdom on Mount Cameroon: Studies in the History of the Cameroon Coast, 1500–1970''. New York: Bergahn Books.
*Austen, Ralph A., and Derrick, Jonathan (1999): ''Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: The Duala and their Hinterland, c. 1600–c.1960''. Cambridge University Press.
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Cameroonian traditional rulers
17th-century African people