Cameroon
Cameroon's estimated 250 ethnic groups form five large
regional-cultural groups: western highlanders (or grassfielders),
including the Bamileke, Bamoun, and many smaller entities in the
northwest (est. 38% of population); coastal tropical forest peoples,
including the Bassa, Douala, and many smaller entities in the
Southwest (12%); southern tropical forest peoples, including the
Ewondo, Bulu, and Fang (all Beti subgroups), Maka and Pygmies
(officially called Bakas) (18%); predominantly Islamic peoples of
the northern semi-arid regions (the Sahel) and central highlands,
including the Fulani, also known as Peuhl in French (14%); and the "Kirdi",
non-Islamic or recently Islamic peoples of the northern desert and
central highlands (18%).
The people concentrated in the southwest and northwest
provinces--around Buea and Bamenda--use standard English and
"pidgin," as well as their local languages. In the three Northern
provinces--Adamaoua, North, and Far North--French and Fulfulde, the
language of the Fulani, are widely spoken. Elsewhere, French is the
principal language, although pidgin and some local languages such as
Ewondo, the dialect of a Beti clan from the Yaounde area, also are
widely spoken. Although Yaounde is Cameroon's capital, Douala is the
largest city, main seaport, and main industrial and commercial
center.
The Western highlands are among the most fertile regions in Cameroon
and have a relatively healthy environment in higher altitudes. This
region is densely populated and has intensive agriculture, commerce,
cohesive communities, and historical emigration pressures. From
here, Bantu migrations into eastern, southern, and central Africa
are believed to have originated about 2,000 years ago. Bamileke
people from this area have in recent years migrated to towns
elsewhere in Cameroon, such as the coastal provinces, where they
form much of the business community. About 20,000 non-Africans,
including more than 6,000 French and 2,400 U. S. citizens, reside in
Cameroon. |
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The earliest inhabitants of Cameroon were probably the Bakas
(Pygmies). They still inhabit the forests of the south and east
provinces. Bantu speakers originating in the Cameroonian highlands
were among the first groups to move out before other invaders.
During the late 1770s and early 1800s, the Fulani, a pastoral
Islamic people of the western Sahel, conquered most of what is now
northern Cameroon, subjugating or displacing its largely non-Muslim
inhabitants.
Although the Portuguese arrived on Cameroon's coast in the 1500s,
malaria prevented significant European settlement and conquest of
the interior until the late 1870s, when large supplies of the
malaria suppressant, quinine, became available. The early European
presence in Cameroon was primarily devoted to coastal trade and the
acquisition of slaves. The northern part of Cameroon was an
important part of the Muslim slave trade network. The slave trade
was largely suppressed by the mid-19th century. Christian missions
established a presence in the late 19th century and continue to play
a role in Cameroonian life.
Beginning in 1884, all of present-day Cameroon and parts of several
of its neighbors became the German colony of Kamerun, with a capital
first at Buea and later at Yaounde. After World War I, this colony
was partitioned between Britain and France under a June 28, 1919
League of Nations mandate. France gained the larger geographical
share, transferred outlying regions to neighboring French colonies,
and ruled the rest from Yaounde. Britain's territory--a strip
bordering Nigeria from the sea to Lake Chad, with an equal
population--was ruled from Lagos.
In 1955, the outlawed Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), based
largely among the Bamileke and Bassa ethnic groups, began an armed
struggle for independence in French Cameroon. This rebellion
continued, with diminishing intensity, even after independence.
Estimates of death from this conflict vary from tens of thousands to
hundreds of thousands.
French Cameroon achieved independence in 1960 as the Republic of
Cameroon. The following year the largely Muslim northern two-thirds
of British Cameroon voted to join Nigeria; the largely Christian
southern third voted to join with the Republic of Cameroon to form
the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The formerly French and British
regions each maintained substantial autonomy. Ahmadou Ahidjo, a
French-educated Fulani, was chosen President of the federation in
1961. Ahidjo, relying on a pervasive internal security apparatus,
outlawed all political parties but his own in 1966. He successfully
suppressed the UPC rebellion, capturing the last important rebel
leader in 1970. In 1972, a new constitution replaced the federation
with a unitary state.
Ahidjo resigned as President in 1982 and was constitutionally
succeeded by his Prime Minister, Paul Biya, a career official from
the Bulu-Beti ethnic group. Ahidjo later regretted his choice of
successors, but his supporters failed to overthrow Biya in a 1984
coup. Biya won single-candidate elections in 1984 and 1988 and
flawed multiparty elections in 1992, 1997, and 2004. His Cameroon
People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party holds a sizeable majority
in the legislature following 2007 elections--153 deputies out of a
total of 180. |
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