 Some emulation of European manners and dress was expected of all chiefs , but Atangana seems to have genuinely preferred European styles to African ones . He endeavoured to fit himself into the German mould of an ideal administrator . He wrote , " To dare to approach the Germans it is necessary to abandon the traits which displease them , to become their friend and then be valued by them . " Accordingly , Atangana ate German food ; formed a European @-@ style , 20 @-@ piece orchestra ; and ordered a large , Germanic mansion to be built . This latter project requiring construction of a brickyard and sawmill and earned Atangana another epithet , Mindili Ebulu , " the man whose house is so large that it had a roof divided into nine sections instead of the two sections of an ordinary dwelling . " The number nine has great significance in Beti folklore . 
