Martin Quane a Dibobe [1876-?] – Cameroon | Germany
Life stories
Robbie Aitken, 2022
The Cameroonian Quane a Dibobe, better known as Martin Dibobe, was one of the foremost African political activists in Germany in the pre-1945 period. He arrived in Germany in 1896 as a participant at the First German Colonial Exhibition – effectively a human zoo, settled in Berlin, and enjoyed a long-career working for the city’s transport system.
Although much about his life remains unclear, Dibobe’s activism is best evidenced by the remarkable 1919 32-point petition he initiated and handed to the German authorities. While Dibobe and his fellow petitioners pledged loyalty to the new Republic they called for a complete overhaul of the colonial relationship between Germany and Cameroon and they demanded equality for Africans in both Africa and Germany.
Contact:
Robbie Aitken, Sheffield Hallam University, r.aitken(at)shu.ac.uk; (at)rjma_uk
Main Sources:
Bundesarchiv Berlin: R1001 3930
Bundesarchiv Berlin: R1001 5576
Bundesarchiv Berlin: R1001 7220
Archives nationales d'outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence: Fonds Ministeriels - Série géographique – Togo – Cameroun 31/287
‚Dunkle Existenzen: Aus dem Berufsleben der Berliner N***r’, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, 13 June 1902, p. 40.
‚Vertretung staatlicher Autorität in der Reichshauptstadt durch N***r?‘, Wochenschrift für deutsche Bahnmeister (1913) s.154
Arbeitsausschuss der Ersten Deutschen Kolonial-Ausstellung (Hg.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896, Amtlicher Bericht über die Erste Deutsche Kolonial-Ausstellung, 1897
Literature:
Aitken, Robbie and Eve Rosenhaft, Black Germany: The Making and Unmaking of a Diaspora Community, 1884-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Reed-Anderson, Paulette, ‘Hearing Colonial Voices: Martin Dibobe and the 1919 Cameroonian Petition’, Mont Cameroun vol.2 (2005), 49-64
Rosenhaft, Eve, and Robbie Aitken, ‘Martin Dibobe’, in Ulrich van der Heyden (ed.) Unbekannte Biographien. Afrikaner im deutschsprachigen Raum vom 18. JH bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges (Berlin: Kai Homilius, 2008), pp. 162-72
Rüger, Adolf, 'Imperialismus, Sozialreformismus und antikoloniale demokratische Alternative. Zielvorstellung von Afrikanern in Deutschland im Jahre 1919', Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 23 (1975), 1293-308
Stationen
Growing up
The Apprentice Metalworker
Getting Married
The Train Official
A Political Awakening
The Anti-Colonial Activist
An Uncertain Future