Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Introduction to Cameroon~~ West Coast of Africa



 

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun), is a country 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, Yaoundé, and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 260 different linguistic groups (tribes). 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 Camarões ("River of Shrimp"), the name from which Cameroon derives. Fulani[6] soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms. 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 by France in the 1950s. It waged war on French and UPC militants forces until 1971. In 1960, the French administered part of Cameroon 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.

Cameroon Flag

Compared to other African countries, Cameroon enjoys relatively high political and social stability. This has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, railways, and large petroleum and timber industries. Nevertheless, large numbers of Cameroonians live in poverty as subsistence farmers. Power lies firmly in the hands of the authoritarian president since 1982, Paul Biya, and his Cameroon People's Democratic Movement party. The English speaking territories of Cameroon have grown increasingly alienated from the government, and politicians from those regions have called for greater decentralization and even the secession (e.g.: the Southern Cameroons National Council) of the former British-governed territories.

The constitution divides Cameroon into 10 semi-autonomous regions, each under the administration of an elected Regional Council. A presidential decree of 12 November 2008 officially instigated the change from provinces to regions.[45] Each region is headed by a presidentially appointed governor. These leaders are charged with implementing the will of the president, reporting on the general mood and conditions of the regions, administering the civil service, keeping the peace, and overseeing the heads of the smaller administrative units. Governors have broad powers: they may order propaganda in their area and call in the army, gendarmes, and police.[46] All local government officials are employees of the central government’s Ministry of Territorial Administration, from which local governments also get most of their budgets.[47] The regions are subdivided into 58 divisions (French départements). These are headed by presidentially appointed divisional officers (préfets), who perform the governors' duties on a smaller scale. The divisions are further sub-divided into sub-divisions (arrondissements), headed by assistant divisional officers (sous-prefets). The districts, administered by district heads (chefs de district), are the smallest administrative units. These are found in large sub-divisions and in regions that are difficult to reach.

The three northernmost regions are the Far North (Extrême Nord), North (Nord), and Adamawa (Adamaoua). Directly south of them are the Centre (Centre) and East (Est). The South Province (Sud) lies on the Gulf of Guinea and the southern border. Cameroon's western region is split into four smaller regions: The Littoral (Littoral) and Southwest (Sud-Ouest) regions are on the coast, and the Northwest (Nord-Ouest) and West (Ouest) regions are in the western grassfields. The Northwest and Southwest were once part of British Cameroons; the other regions were in French Cameroun.

Each of Cameroon's ethnic groups has its own unique cultural forms. Typical celebrations include births, deaths, plantings, harvests, and religious rituals. Seven national holidays are observed throughout the year, and movable holidays include the Christian holy days of Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, and Ascension; and the Muslim holy days of Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, and Eid Miladun Nabi.

One Cameroon language has become the object of international attention though the efforts of an interactive language learning website at http://www.busuu.com/enc/home. The language is called Busuu language and is an unclassified Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon with just 8 speakers left.
Music and dance are an integral part of Cameroonian ceremonies, festivals, social gatherings, and storytelling.[89] Traditional dances are highly choreographed and separate men and women or forbid participation by one sex altogether.[90] The goals of dances range from pure entertainment to religious devotion.[91] Traditionally, music is transmitted orally. In a typical performance, a chorus of singers echoes a soloist.[92]

Musical accompaniment may be as simple as clapping hands and stomping feet,[93] but traditional instruments include bells worn by dancers, clappers, drums and talking drums, flutes, horns, rattles, scrapers, stringed instruments, whistles, and xylophones; the exact combination varies with ethnic group and region. Some performers sing complete songs by themselves, accompanied by a harplike instrument.[92][94]
Popular music styles include ambasse bey of the coast, assiko of the Bassa, mangambeu of the Bangangte, and tsamassi of the Bamileke.[95] Nigerian music has influenced Anglophone Cameroonian performers, and Prince Nico Mbarga's highlife hit "Sweet Mother" is the top-selling African record in history.[96] The two most popular styles are makossa and bikutsi. Makossa developed in Douala and mixes folk music, highlife, soul, and Congo music. Performers such as Manu Dibango, Francis Bebey, Moni Bilé, and Petit-Pays popularised the style worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s. Bikutsi originated as war music among the Ewondo. Artists such as Anne-Marie Nzié developed it into a popular dance music beginning in the 1940s, and performers such as Mama Ohandja and Les Têtes Brulées popularised it internationally during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.[97]
Cuisine varies by region, but a large, one-course, evening meal is common throughout the country. A typical dish is based on cocoyams, maize, cassava (manioc), millet, plantains, potatoes, rice, or yams, often pounded into dough-like fufu (cous-cous). This is served with a sauce, soup, or stew made from greens, groundnuts, palm oil, or other ingredients.[98] Meat and fish are popular but expensive additions.[99] Dishes are often quite hot, spiced with salt, red pepper, and Maggi.[100] Water, palm wine, and millet beer are the traditional mealtime drinks, although beer, soda, and wine have gained popularity. Silverware is common, but food is traditionally manipulated with the right hand. Breakfast consists of leftovers of bread and fruit with coffee or tea, generally breakfast is made from wheat flour various different foods such as puff-puff (doughnuts), accra banana made from bananas and flour,bean cakes and many more. Snacks are popular, especially in larger towns where they may be bought from street vendors.[101]


The Cameroonian cuisine is one of the most varied in Africa due to its location on the crossroads between the north, west, and centre of the continent; added to this is the profound influence of French food, a legacy of the colonial era.

The national dish of Cameroon is ndolé, a stew consisting of bitter leaves, nuts and fish or goat meat.[1] Staple foods in Cameroon include cassava, yam, rice, plantain, potato, maize, beans, and millet. The French introduced French bread and Italian pasta, which are not as widely consumed, however, due to their price.
The soil of most of the country is very fertile and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, both domestic and imported species, are grown. Common vegetables include tomatoes, bitterleaf, cassava leaves, okra, and garden egg (eggplant).

Among Cameroonian specialties are brochettes (a kind of barbecued kebab made from either chicken, beef, or goat), sangah (a mixture of maize, cassava leaf and palmnut juice) and ndolé (a spicy stew containing bitterleaf greens, meat, shrimp, pork rind, and peanut paste). In the larger cities, however, such as Douala and Yaoundé, there are many restaurants offering a wide variety of Western dishes, as well as Chinese and Indian food. There are also numerous burger bars serving American-style fast food.

The main source of protein for most inhabitants is fish, with poultry and meat being too expensive for anything other than special occasions.



Holidays
Date English Name
1 January New Year's Day
11 February National Youth Day
1 May Labour Day
20 May National Day
15 August Assumption
1 October Unification Day
25 December Christmas






Cameroon Coat of Arms



Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l CIA World Factbook: Cameroon
  2. ^ a b c "Cameroon". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  3. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cm.html
  4. ^ "Distribution of family income – Gini index". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
  5. ^ Country profile of human development indicators - Cameroon
  6. ^ In Fula: Fulɓe; in French: Peul or Peuhl.
  7. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 2.
  8. ^ Fanso 84.
  9. ^ a b DeLancey and DeLancey 125.
  10. ^ a b DeLancey and DeLancey 5.
  11. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 4.
  12. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 6.
  13. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 19.
  14. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 7.
  15. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 8.
  16. ^ a b DeLancey and DeLancey 9.
  17. ^ Nkemngu.
  18. ^ Matthews.
  19. ^ "Background Notes: Cameroon; Neba 250.
  20. ^ a b IRIN, "New anti-corruption drive".
  21. ^ "Corruption Perceptions Index".
  22. ^ a b c d "Background Note: Cameroon".
  23. ^ "Cameroon", Amnesty International; "Cameroon (2006)", Freedom House; "Cameroon", Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, U.S. Department of State; "Elections to the Human Rights Council", Amnesty International.
  24. ^ "Elections to the Human Rights Council".
  25. ^ a b c d e f g "Cameroon", Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
  26. ^ a b c d "Cameroon (2006)", Freedom House.
  27. ^ "Background Note: Cameroon"; Neba 252.
  28. ^ a b West 11.
  29. ^ "Cameroon", Amnesty International.
  30. ^ Cameroon is ranked a six in both categories on a scale of one to seven, with one being "most free" and seven being "least free". "Cameroon (2006)", Freedom House.
  31. ^ Kandemeh.
  32. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 126; Ngoh 328.
  33. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 30.
  34. ^ a b c Mbaku 15.
  35. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 105–6.
  36. ^ Mbaku 16.
  37. ^ a b Njeuma.
  38. ^ a b DeLancey and DeLancey 21.
  39. ^ West 64.
  40. ^ West 58–60.
  41. ^ "Cameroon", UNAIDS.
  42. ^ Lantum and andre Monono 14.
  43. ^ http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/breast_mutilation_does_not_prevent_rape_or_teen_pregnancy
  44. ^ Nicole Howley: 'Breast Ironing' puts young West and Central African girls at risk!
  45. ^ Décret N° 2008/376 du 12 novembre 2008, President of the Republic website. Accessed 9 June 2009.
  46. ^ Neba 250.
  47. ^ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26431.htm
  48. ^ Demographic Yearbook 1.
  49. ^ "Rank Order – Area".
  50. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 16.
  51. ^ Fomesky et al. 6.
  52. ^ Neba 14.
  53. ^ Neba 28.
  54. ^ "Highest Average Annual Precipitation Extremes".
  55. ^ a b Neba 16.
  56. ^ a b c Neba 17.
  57. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 161 report 1,700 killed; Hudgens and Trillo 1054 say "at least 2,000"; West 10 says "more than 2,000".
  58. ^ Gwanfogbe et al. 20; Neba 29.
  59. ^ "CIA Factbook 2009".
  60. ^ a b Musa, "Biya plan to keep power in Cameroon clears hurdle".
  61. ^ MFW4A
  62. ^ "The business law portal in Africa", OHADA.com. Accessed 22 March 2009.
  63. ^ Human Development Indices, Table 3: Human and income poverty, p. 35. Retrieved on 1 June 2009.
  64. ^ Hudgens and Trillo 1036.
  65. ^ a b Musa, "Gunmen kill one, kidnap 22 in Cameroon near CAR".
  66. ^ "Cameroon – Annual Report 2007".
  67. ^ Mbaku 20.
  68. ^ Mbaku 20–1.
  69. ^ West 3.
  70. ^ Neba 109–11.
  71. ^ Neba 111.
  72. ^ Neba 105–6.
  73. ^ Neba 106.
  74. ^ Neba 103–4.
  75. ^ Mbaku 139.
  76. ^ Mbaku 141.
  77. ^ Neba 65, 67.
  78. ^ West 13.
  79. ^ Neba 48.
  80. ^ Neba 108.
  81. ^ International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
  82. ^ "World Refugee Survey 2008". U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. 2008-06-19.
  83. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 28.
  84. ^ Neba 94.
  85. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 131; Niba.
  86. ^ http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e406?_hi=7&_pos=2
  87. ^ a b U.S.Department of State
  88. ^ Geschiere 169–70.
  89. ^ Mbaku 189; West 18.
  90. ^ Mbaku 204.
  91. ^ a b West 18.
  92. ^ a b Mbaku 189.
  93. ^ Mbaku 191.
  94. ^ West 18–9.
  95. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 184.
  96. ^ Mbaku 200.
  97. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 51; Nkolo & Ewens 443.
  98. ^ West 84–5.
  99. ^ Mbaku 121–2.
  100. ^ Hudgens and Trillo 1047; Mbaku 122; West 84.
  101. ^ Mbaku 121; Hudgens and Trillo 1049.
  102. ^ West 17.
  103. ^ Mbaku 110–3.
  104. ^ Mbaku 80–1
  105. ^ Fitzpatrick 38; Mbaku 77, 83–4; Volet.
  106. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 119–20; West 20.
  107. ^ Mbaku 85–6.
  108. ^ DeLancey and DeLancey 120.
  109. ^ West 127.
  110. ^ West 92–3, 127.
Cuisine Notes
^ Brady, Emily (2008-11-05). "The Years of Living Nervously". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-07.

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