 Little is known about Atangana 's childhood . Like other Beti boys , he would have learned to fish , hunt , and trap , and would have memorised his family 's genealogy and folk wisdom . Explorers from the German Empire appeared near his village in 1887 in search of a direct route to the ivory trade in the savannas to the north . They had claimed Beti lands as part of their Kamerun colony in 1884 , and by February 1889 they had established a permanent base in the area , which they named Jaunde after the local people . The Ewondo opposed the foreigners at first , although Atangana was probably not yet old enough to participate in the fighting . After the defeat of Omgba Bissogo in 1895 and others like it , Ewondo resistance waned . The Germans randomly appointed chiefs and mayors to serve under them , and took local youths to perform menial tasks ; Atangana was among them , sent by his uncle to be a houseboy . 
