Martin-Paul Samba

Martin-Paul Samba, born Mebenga m'Ebono (circa 1875 – 8 August 1914), was a Bulu military officer during the Imperial German colonial period of Cameroon. M'Ebono became a favourite of the German colonials during his upbringing in Kribi, a coastal settlement in southern Cameroon. He was sent to Germany in 1891 to enter the German Military Academy; he was baptised Martin-Paul Samba while abroad. Upon graduation, Samba returned to Cameroon and accompanied German military expeditions across the colony.

Samba resigned his commission in 1902 and entered private business in Ebolowa. he began to plot an uprising against the Germans. He secretly contacted British and French forces to secure arms, but one such letter was intercepted. German forces arrested him and charged him with high treason. Samba was executed on 8 August 1914. Today, many Cameroonian historians view Samba as one of Cameroon's earliest heroes and nationalists. His memory is commemorated by a statue in Ebolowa.

Mebenga m'Ebobo was born circa 1875 in a village known as Metoutou-Engong, near Ebolowa in what is today the South Province of Cameroon. He was a member of the Yemeyema clan of the Bulu ethnic group. When m'Ebobo's was orphaned as an infant, his uncle, Oban Ebono, took the child into his care. In 1885, Ebono sent m'Ebobo to be raised by Banoho Issamba, a Batanga man who had come to prominence as a trader in the coastal settlement of Kribi. M'Ebobo spent the rest of his childhood there.

The young m'Ebobo became a favourite of the German colonials who lived in Kribi. He entered the service of German explorer Kurt von Morgan, whom he accompanied on expeditions beginning in 1889. Two years later, von Morgan paid to have m'Ebobo educated in Germany.

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