The missionaries' focus on using Duala in areas that did not natively speak it was viewed as dangerous by colonial officials, as they feared the practice would lead to ethnic conflict by elevating Duala to a prestige language. Since Duala was also being used by the missionaries in their schools, it was difficult for Cameroonians to become educated and obtain business, teaching, or government positions without knowledge of the language. This reinforced German officials' fears of the Duala ethnic group gaining too much power. Therefore, upon becoming Governor of Cameroon, Jesko von Puttkamer decided to suppress Duala and other local languages, such as Ewe in Togoland, and promote German in the colony instead. Puttkamer blamed the Protestant missionaries for the lack of German-language use in Cameroon, and pressured them to stop using Duala in their schools and official communications. In 1897, he began pressuring them to switch to German, and later praised the Catholic missionaries in the territory for using German.
The missionaries' focus on using Duala in areas that did not natively speak it was viewed as dangerous by colonial officials, as they feared the practice would lead to ethnic conflict by elevating Duala to a prestige language. Since Duala was also being used by the missionaries in their schools, it was difficult for Cameroonians to become educated and obtain business teaching, or government positions without knowledge of the language. This reinforced German officials' fears of the Duala ethnic group gaining too much power Therefore, upon becoming Governor of Cameroon, Jesko von Puttkamer decided to suppress Duala and other local languages, such as Ewe in Togoland, and promote German in the colony instead. Puttkamer blamed the Protestant missionaries for the lack of German-language use in Cameroon, and pressured them to stop using Duala in their schools and official communications. In 1897, he began pressuring them to switch to German, and later praised the Catholic missionaries in the territory for using German.