According to our family records, my father, Theophilus Wonja Michael, was born in Victoria, in Bimbialand on the Atlantic coast of Cameroon, on October 14, 1879 – five years before the establishment of the German colony there. Today this region is known as Malimbe. His extensive family was originally called M'Bele, also spelled (and pronounced) “M'Bella”. William Bell, known in German colonial history as the man who negotiated the treaty handing over the territory of the Dualas to Germany, also came from this family; Bell is the same as M'Belle. The Europeans had trouble pronouncing it and left out the “M”. My father's grandfather was baptized on St Michael's day, and Michael has been our family name since then.

One of my father's ancestors was Bona N'golo Mbimbi a M'Bele. He gave his name to what would become Bimbia. It may be that this was the origin of “Bimbo” as a pejorative term for Blacks. He had been one of the notorious African princes who grew wealthy and powerful at the time of the slave trade. The word “chief” and other similar terms found in European sources are misleading. These were men who constituted the élite among their peoples in a social structure that was for the most part feudal on this strip of the coast. But by the time the Baptists arrived from the Caribbean in the middle of the nineteenth century and established themselves in Bimbia with the Victoria Mission Station, the power of these princes had largely dissipated. The first Europeans to arrive in the territory reported on endless fights and conflicts between the leading families, on the intrigues and conspiracies that they carried on against each other and among themselves. Some of these potentates weren't sorry when the European powers – England, France and Germany – suddenly showed an interest in these strips of coastland. They were hoping to use the foreigners to pursue their own personal interests.

As we know, that isn't how it turned out. The Germans won the competition for Cameroon, and they had ideas and aims of their own, quite different from those of the native potentates.