parture, Hutter stayed among the Bali Nyonga to
hold the German position there, which he did until
he received the order to close the Baliburg outpost
in early 1893. Two months after disbanding it, he
left as well. Near the end of his 1895 book, Nord-
Kamerun (Northern Cameroon), Zintgraff recalled
that “since he had been there, the painstakingly
built-up relationships with the tribes of the interior
had now been broken off again, all the paths had
been abandoned, and so had the outposts with the
exception of the one at Mundame, from which everyone
had departed besides one representative of
the Jantzen & Thormählen company.”15 This could
well be a mention of Conrau, though elsewhere
Zintgraff mentions him by name.16
97
the dates of these letters are not known, Hassert,
who was collecting material for academic lectures
and ultimately a book,13 must have asked Conrau
about Zintgraff, and Conrau praised him to Hassert
both for treating “the negroes” right and for
the explorer’s tremendous energy and noble character.
Only a few Europeans remained in the Cameroonian
interior after the failure of the expedition
to Bali Nyonga, but Conrau was among them. He
appears to have spent time in the Banyang area in
the vicinity of Miyimbi on numerous occasions.
German Lieutenant Franz Hutter, who was providing
the Bali with military training (fi g. 20), met
him there several times.14 Following Zintgraff’s de-
BANGWA
At the end of 1893, Chief Garega of Bali requested
the German administration to report on
the situation at the Baliburg outpost, and Conrau
was chosen to fulfi ll that request. This time accompanied
by his brother, Conrau retraced Zintgraff’s
route from Mundame to Bali in 1894. With little
more than a compass and a pocket watch, they recorded
the route that would later be used to create
the fi rst accurate map of the region.17 He advised
against resettling Baliburg, in part because the Bali
were not on good terms with their neighbors, and
in part because Garega, who was Zintgraff’s ally,
might not be succeeded by a similarly positively
disposed ruler.18 Conrau also evaluated the weaponry
of the Banyang in his account of this journey.
He mentioned the slavery the inland peoples practiced,
and wrote that “it was a mild form, more a
kind of bondage.”19
During the time Conrau ran a trading outpost in
Banyang country and worked as a colonial agent,
FIG. 6 (below):
Royal commemorative
fi gure, known as the
“Bangwa King.”
Lebang, Bangwa,
Cameroon. 19th century.
Wood. H: 89 cm.
Collected by Gustav Conrau,
1898–1899.
Ex Ethnological Museum, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin (formerly
the Königliches Museum für
Völkerkunde zu Berlin), III-C10518;
Arthur Speyer, Berlin; Harry Franklin,
Los Angeles.
Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière
Collection.
Photo © Christie’s.