When the German Empire became the colonial power of Kamerun in 1884, French Catholic groups were denied permission to set up a mission in the territory.
[3] Presbyterian missionaries already operating there proved unfriendly to the newcomers, so the Pallottines based themselves at Marienberg, near Edéa.
[4] When the Allied West African Campaign of World War I reached Jaunde in 1916, the Pallottines fled south to Spanish Guinea with German forces and Ewondo villagers under the command of Charles Atangana.
Germany lost the war and Kamerun was split into British and French League of Nations mandate territories.
The French opted to allow their own Holy Ghost Fathers to replace the Pallottines as the Catholic mission to Cameroun.