The Dahomey Mutiny

In 1893, Dahomey men and women revolted against abuse by German colonial officers in Cameroon in a famous uprising that Germany was unprepared for.

Transcript

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.