Cameroon
 

Yaounde, Capital city of Cameroon

The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and Western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the West; Chad to the NorthEast; the Central African Republic to the East; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the South.

Cameroon’s coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country is called ‘Africa in miniature’ for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests and savannas.

The highest point is Mount Cameroon in the SouthWest, and the largest cities are Douala, Yaounde and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups.

The country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. English and French are the official languages.

Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the SouthEastern rainforest.

Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th Century and named the area Rio dos Camaroes (‘River of Prawns’), the name from which Cameroon derives. Cameroon became a German colony in 1884. After World War I, the territory was divided between France and Britain as League of Nations mandates. The Union des Populations du Cameroun political party advocated independence but was outlawed in the 1950s.

It waged war on French and Cameroonian Forces until 1971. In 1960, French Cameroun became independent as the Republic of Cameroun under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. The Southern part of British Cameroons merged with it in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The country was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972 and the Republic of Cameroon in 1984.