Type Chamber of commerce Completed 1928 Opened 1928 Construction started 1927 | Country Cameroon Client The French government Town or city Douala | |
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Architectural style Art nouveau tardif architectural style. Similar Former palace of Justice of, Villa Mandessi Bell, Former police station of, Cathedral of Saints Peter and, Doual'art | ||
The Chamber of Commerce situated in Douala, Cameroon is a building constructed between 1927 and 1928 under the French mandate, under the umbrella of the League of Nations. This building has art nouveau tardif architectural style.
History
The Chamber of Commerce was built between 1927 and 1928, and meant to host the Chamber of Commerce. It’s one among the first architectural testimonies of the beginning French era, within the framework of the Mandate, under the umbrella of the League of Nations, after Germany was defeated in September 1918.
Created in 1921, before the Conference and the treaty of Versailles, the Chamber of Commerce is merely an advisory body. Its mission was to give account of the resources dedicated to development, and also to fix the market prices lists for the farmers. The fifteen members of the Chamber were chosen by the Commissioner of the Republic, and appointed for two years through an arrêté. Among them were two natives: a farmer and a trader, a kind of social innovation within this very context of racial segregation.
At the entrance of the edifice, the commemorative plate recalls General de Gaulle journey in 1940: he stood there to appeal for demonstrations against the local Vichy forces, In the name of the France Libre. De Gaulle came back in Douala (1941) to pay tribute to the Cameroonian conscripts and their contribution to the allied war effort. He also took this opportunity to forecast the Brazzaville Conference, which paved the way towards the reform of the hated indigenous code. Nowhere is mentioned the compulsory enrolment of nativesd. Yet, it was the first of some pages still to come ahead: the contribution of African natives to the victorious saga of the legendary French 2nd armoured division headed by Leclerc, throughout Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and ultimately freeing France from the Nazi army.
In 2006 the building is highlighted by an urban sign produced by doual'art and designed by Sandrine Dole; the sign presents an historical image of the building and a description of its history.