In the First World War, in 1915, he fought against the British and the French as a German officer at Gallipoli in Turkey, which was allied with Germany.
[1] One year before in Cameroon, his father, Rudolf Manga Bell, had been executed after a conflict with the German colonial administration on charges of high treason.
On the other hand, the French government distrusted him because of his German background and insisted on "frenchifying" him before returning to Cameroon.
After some temporary stays, Alexandre Douala-Bell returned to Cameroon in 1922, but without his wife Andrea Manga Bell and the children who remained in Europe.
[3] During the Second World War, Alexandre Douala-Bell fought on the side of France and enlisted in Dakar to the French army.
From 1946 to 1955 he was a member of the MRP (Mouvement républicain populaire), in his last legislative period from 1956 until his retirement in 1958 he was one of the "Indépendants d'outre-mer".