Um Nyobè was educated in Presbyterian schools in the part of the country occupied by France and learned to speak French, Bassa, Bulu, and Do.

After World War II he became involved with the Cercle d'études Marxistes - a Cameroonian Nationalist group launched in Yaoundé by the French teacher and trade unionist Gaston Donnat.

"[1] Um Nyobè was initiated into the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), a union that fought against the partition of Cameroon into Anglophone and Francophone regions in 1947.

[3] The ensuing repression against the USCC and its leaders led a new generation of activists to take over the leadership with Um Nyobè becoming general secretary of the union in 1947.

Back in Cameroon, he worked to create a Cameroonian party following this dynamic, which led to the founding of the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC) by USCC trade unionists on the night of 10 April 1948 in a café-bar in Douala.

[1] With overt political activism and leadership largely dormant, Um Nyobé emerged from the freedom fighter stance to fill the void of national liberation organizations that were tracked by the French imperialism in Africa.

Nyobé's idea was that Cameroon needed a ‘revolution of the mind’, allowing oppressed indigenous Cameroonians to overcome their fear of Europeans.

[1] The UPC published three newspapers (La Voix du Cameroun, l'Étoile, and Lumière) largely focused on three main themes: national independence, the reunification of the former German Kamerun and social justice.

Most UPC meetings ended with the Cameroonian national anthem and La Marseillaise, while Um Nyobé repeated that he did not confuse "the people of France with the French colonialists".

[4] Um Nyobè made multiple forays in the United Nations both in 1952 and in 1954 speaking on behalf of the people of Cameroon and other colonized African countries.