2024-03-22 14:47:32
February 1960, a wealthy businessman coldly murdered in Manjo
It is a name that no longer means much to the younger generations, but which still resonates painfully in the memory of the elders of Douala. Bema Moulende, a wealthy businessman and pioneer of Cameroonian industry, was brutally murdered in February 1960 in his property in Manjo, in Moungo. A drama which, more than 60 years later, remains surrounded by a thick mystery, as revealed today by 237online.com, your reference investigation site.
From shadow to light: A look back at the journey of a visionary
Before being a victim, Bema Moulende was above all a visionary. Owner of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in Moungo, where he had invested in agriculture and livestock breeding even before the Second World War, he had become the first Cameroonian industrialist and exporter in the midst of the colonial period. An exclusive status, symbolized by its famous sky blue Plymouth, an unheard of luxury at the time. But also numerous buildings in the Akwa shopping center, the beating heart of business in Douala.
The day Douala froze: “Ba bo Bema!” »
But on February 3, 1960, it was the cry “Ba bo Bema!” » (“We killed Bema!”) which froze Douala. Bema Moulende, her son Sam and her pregnant daughter-in-law had just been brutally murdered with a machete on their property in Manjo. A tragedy which plunged the city into silence and sorrow, before anger took over the streets. In Bali, the victim’s neighborhood, violence broke out against the shops of Western nationals, suspected of being behind the crime. An unprecedented explosion of violence in this peaceful city.
Villainous trail, political motive: The gray areas of the drama
But who killed Bema Moulende? This is the question that still haunts memories, more than 60 years later. Several avenues have been mentioned, without any of them ever being confirmed. Vile crime of its agricultural workers, most of them from the West, who would have wanted to seize its land? This is the most widespread version, but also the most contested. Others evoke the political track, pointing the finger at the jealousy of the French colonists, who would have taken a dim view of the emergence of this powerful African entrepreneur. Some go so far as to mention the involvement of the ALNK resistance fighters, the armed branch of the UPC…
Between two fires: Bema Moulende, collateral victim of power struggles?
This is what a mysterious press release from the ALNK, published on February 4, 1960, suggests, the day after the tragedy. According to this signed text « Pengoye Leconstant« , « a group of hitmen, accompanied by a white soldier in civilian clothes » would be behind the massacre, which the colonial authorities would then have attributed to “ terrorists“. A conspiracy theory which, if unverifiable, testifies to the climate of suspicion and political violence which reigned in Cameroon at the dawn of independence. Would Bema Moulende have been a collateral victim of these power struggles?
After the murder, the recount: The Moulende’s descent into hell
Still, after his death, a real disaster fell on the Moulende empire. His properties in Moungo were stripped, his goods shared between new ” owners“. In Douala, its buildings, sold for long leases, were purely and simply confiscated at the end of the term, the documents having mysteriously disappeared. A post-mortem relentlessness which plunged the survivors of the family into precariousness, if not poverty.
The duty to remember: So that Cameroon never forgets Bema Moulende
Today, few people remember Bema Moulende in Douala. His daughters, Gene and Alice, the last guardians of his memory, are old and tired of rehashing this tragedy. But 237online.com chose to revive this memory, because the story of Bema Moulende is that of Cameroon: that of a visionary pioneer, mowed down in full rise by dark forces, and whose heritage was squandered.
By retracing his journey, by questioning this unsolved crime, it is a hidden part of our history that we want to bring to light. Because a nation that forgets its heroes is doomed to be lost. Because the truth, even buried under decades of silence, always ends up resurfacing.
237online.com is committed, through its series of investigations “ Saga Sawa“, to honor the memory of these great figures of Douala who disappeared in disturbing circumstances. Because it is by confronting the dark areas of our past that we will build a brighter future.