Ernst Klaus Iwan Christian Friedrich Alfred von Raben was a German Major who had served as a commander of the Schutztruppe before surrendering at the Siege of Mora.

During this time, Raben developed a personal interest in the local peoples as he learnt their languages and recorded some of their lives through a series of photographs.

[1] At the start of World War I, the 3rd Company at Mora was surrounded by French colonial troops, which later were reinforced by British contingents.

The troops were cut off from all contact with the command of the Schutztruppe under Lieutenant Colonel Carl Heinrich Zimmermann and therefore had neither information about the course of the war nor any logistical or tactical support from headquarters.

He recovered only slowly due to the extremely poor food situation and severe lack of medication; Lieutenant Siegfried Kallmeyer (1885-1956) temporarily taking command of the unit.

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud credited the idea for his film Black and White in Color on a passage in the manuscript L'Histoire Gènérale du Cameroun which it reads: "a Major von Rabben [sic!]