 Ntsama Atangana was born sometime between 1876 and 1885 in Mvolyé , a small village in what is today Yaoundé , Cameroon . His parents gave him the drum name " He who is known by the nations " . He was the eleventh of twelve children born to Essomba Atangana , a headman of the Mvog Atemenge sublineage of the Ewondo ethnic group . Essomba Atangana was one of thousands of minor Beti leaders living between the Sanaga and Nyong rivers , each charged with providing for his compound and the extended family and slaves who lived there . His father died when Ntsama Atangana was about six years old . 
