Ruben Um Nyobè (1913 – 13 September 1958) was an anti-colonialist Cameroonian leader, slain by the French army on 13 September 1958, near his natal village of Boumnyebel, in the department of Nyong-et-Kellé in the maquis Bassa. On 10 April 1948, he created the Cameroon's People Union (UPC), which used armed struggle to obtain independence from French colonial rule. Early childhood Um Nyobé, known as the forgotten father of Cameroon, was born in 1913 in Song Mpeck, Cameroon. At the time, Cameroon was under German occupation and was divided after World War I between France and the United Kingdom. Um Nyobé came from a family in an agricultural region of Bassa. His father was a traditional priest in their village, where they practiced animism as a form of religion. Um Nyobé, was deemed Christian by many who knew him and acquired his Christian name Reuben after he was baptized. Um Nyobè was educated in Presbyterian schools in the part of the country occupied by France and learned to speak French, Bassa, Bulu, and Do. At the age of 26, he completed his baccalaureate degree at a university in Edea. Shortly after completing his degree, he married his wife, Martha. After his university studies in 1944, he stayed in the city of Edea to pursue his passion in law. He became a civil servant and became interested in politics at an early age. At the end of the 1930s, he became involved in the Jeunesse camerounaise Française (JeuCaFra), an organisation set up by the French administration to counter Nazi propaganda. After World War II he became involved with the Cercle d'études Marxistes - a Cameroonian Nationalist group launched in Yaoundé by the French teacher and trade unionist Gaston Donnat. The mission of the group was to fight with the same momentum against "Nazism, racism and colonialism". For Um Nyobé it was a turning point: "This is the first time I have sat at a white man's table: I consider it a great event in Cameroon. I will not forget it." Trade Union Activity Um Nyobé was initiated into the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), a union that fought against the partition on Cameroon into Anglophone and Francophone regions in 1947. Due to the efforts of CGT, Um Nyobé and the members of the CGT began spreading the message of independence and denouncing the Catholic religion that justified and advocated for colonization