The Nachtigal Square/Nachtigal Platz was named in 1910 after Gustav Hermann Nachtigal (1834-1885) honouring the 25th anniversary of his death. Nachtigal was sent to Africa in secret mission to conquer uncolonized land, and to claim these as German protectorates. Nachtigal’s mission included the negotiation of the so-called protection treaty in Togo and Cameroon with the local population. The treaty aimed to legalise fraudulently purchased territories by the colonial Franz Lüderitz. Nachtigal turned to violence and blackmail when the African local population offered resistance. Invasive military operations occurred frequently during the annexation of Cameroon and the signing of the so-called protection treaty in Togo was only achieved after keeping two African men hostage in Berlin (Deutsches Historisches Museum n.d.;LEO n.d.).
The brutality of German rule is illustrated in the memories of the Konkomba chief Yendjè Dalaré of Nawaré in Northern Togo: “Do you know, the ‘Djama’ [Germans] were very hard! They forced you to work without interruption. They forced people to the streets and roads of Bassar, of Sokodé and of Agbadou … to pay the ‘Bayari’ [taxed labour]. … Do you know, the ‘Bayari’: labour without a break. When you bent down to dig the soil or to work with a clay pick, you did not have any right to stand up again. It was prohibited to pause to breathe a little bit. … Some people died because of that! During the work, the Konkomba people sang the ‘Bayari’, for one thing to uphold the moral and for other thing to mock the whites and their solders who did not understand the meaning of those satirical songs” Yendjè Dalaré, Togo 19th century (Translation by author) (Heller et al. 2011, p. 38).
Following the district administration in April the Nachtigal Square/Nachtigal Platz will be renamed to Bell Square/Bell Platz to honour Rudolf Doula Manga Bell (1873-1914), the king of Duala, a people in Cameroon, who rebelled with the support of his wife Emily Bell (1881-1936) against the colonial power (Adam-Tkalec 2018; Hofmann 2018; rbb 24 2018).
