Two of Eugen Zintgraff’s messengers had been sent to Bafut to demand ivory, and they died there. The reprisal did not fall on Bafut. It fell on Mankon — Bafut’s ally — attacked in 1891 by German-led forces out of Bali Nyonga.
The column did its work and turned for home. Warriors from Bafut and Mankon were waiting on the return journey, and the losses they inflicted were heavy.
It is worth sitting with what that meant. This was the first decade of German ambition in the Grassfields, and Bafut and Mankon had just demonstrated that a punitive expedition could be made to pay for itself. Ten more years passed before the Schutztruppe came for Bafut directly — and when they did, they came repeatedly, for six years.