Cameroon's Tycoon : : Max Esser's Expedition and its Consequences / / ed. by E.M. Chilver, Ute Röschenthaler.

• HerausgeberIn: Chilver, E.M.,; Röschenthaler, Ute,
• MitwirkendeR: Röschenthaler, Ute,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2001]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Language: English
• Series: Cameroon Studies ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)

Max Esser was an adventurous young merchant banker, a Rhinelander, who became the first managing director of the largest German plantation company in Cameroon. This volume gives a vivid account of the antecedents and early stages as experienced and described by Esser. In 1896 he ventured, with the explorer Zintgraff, into the hinterland to seek the agreement of Zintgraff's old ally, the ruler of Bali, for the provision of laborers for his projected enterprise. The consequences, many optimistically unforeseen, are illustrated with the help of contemporary materials. Esser's account is preceded by a look at his and his family's connections, added to by an account of newspaper campaigns against him, and completed by an examination of his Cameroon collection, which he gave to the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS -- ABBREVATIONS -- PREFACE BY THE EDITORS -- EDITORIAL NOTE -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- PART I. The Setting, Public and Private -- 1. Max Esser: His Life and Labours -- PART II. Esser’s Travels -- 2 The Outward Voyage -- 3 Sao Thomé and Principe -- 4 Cameroon – the Historical Background -- 5 Land and People in Cameroon -- 6 In Cameroon -- 7 The Expedition to Bali -- 8 Departure from Cameroon -- 9 Angola, and the Cunene Expedition -- 10 A Retrospective View -- PART III. Colonial Needs and their Consequences: the Viewpoints of some Contemporary Observers -- 11 The ‘Bali Road’ and Baliburg in the Autumn of 1892: a Report on a Visit: Max von Stetten -- 12 A Complication: the Entry of the Gesellschaft Nordwest Kamerun, 1901–1903: Esser’s Correspondence -- 13 A Parliamentary Visitation: Johannes Semler’s Togo und Kamerun: Eindrücke und Momentaufnahmen von einem deutschen Abgeordneten, Leipzig, 1905 -- 14 A Soldier’s View of the Tasks of the Bamenda Military Station in 1908: Hptm. Menzel -- 15 Labour Supply: a Shift of Modalities, 1913: Hptm. Adametz -- APPENDIX I. The ‘Esser Affair’ -- APPENDIX II. The ‘Fetishes’ and the Esser Collection at the Linden Museum -- Map 1 -- Map 2 -- Bibliography -- Index