Mpundu Akwa

This book publishes for the first time in English the full and expanded text of a 1905 defense speech that resulted in the remarkable acquittal of a German colonial subject, "Crown Prince" Mpundu Akwa, in a metropolitan court. Dr. Moses Levi used his speech to defend brilliantly the young Cameroonian against charges of fraud and in the process to critique the entire German colonial system. At a time when Germany's colonial project was being called into question, the trial and the defense speech were politically explosive.

Moses Levi's defense speech is a courageous and fascinating document humain - one that offers broad insight into the world of colonialism, race and power at the turn of the century.