In 1893, Dahomey men and women revolted against abuse by German colonial officers in Cameroon in a famous uprising that Germany was unprepared for.
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00:00Besides tremendous violence, German colonialism in Cameroon produced new forms of inequality
00:06between men and women, and strengthened African patriarchal structures.
00:11Colonialists rarely understood the significant role women played in local societies.
00:16For instance, older women often organized in secret, regulatory societies and intervened
00:21when conflicts arose.
00:23Their counsel was sought when important decisions had to be made.
00:27The colonial regime reduced women to carriers and servants for German administration and
00:32trading firms.
00:33Captured women were used as gifts to Allied chiefs and soldiers.
00:38But even then, there was resistance.
00:40An all-out revolt erupted in Douala in 1893.
00:44Acting German colonial governor Heinrich Leiste had made a name by sexually abusing
00:49women.
00:50Then he publicly whipped a homing woman when their men refused to work.
00:54These men from Benin were supposed to serve in a new German police force to control coastal
01:00Cameroonians.
01:01Together, 50 Dahomey women and 16 men set out to kill Leiste.
01:05They seized the armory and occupied the colonial buildings for several days.
01:09Only when three German warships shelled the mutineers did the armed resistance end.
01:15The remaining Dahomey men were hanged and the women sent to penal work.
01:19Leiste's doing and the resistance became a scandal in Germany.
01:23It ended Leiste's career in the colonial administration, but his cruelties went unpunished.