Introduction
When Fernando Po’s Portuguese seafarers sailed up the estuary of the river Wouri, in the crook of the Gulf of Guinea, in 1472, they were so astounded by the abundance of prawns they found there that they called it the Rio dos Camaroes (“the river of prawns”) – hence the name “Cameroon”. Present-day Cameroon covers a surface area of 475,440 square kilometres and has a population of 16,087,000.
The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch, British and Germans. Cameroon was shared out between France and Britain at the end of World War I, and was only to gain its independence in 1960 and 1961 (in the case of French Cameroon and British Cameroons respectively). The federal structure set up at that time was replaced in 1972 by the Unitary Republic of Cameroon. On 4 November 1982, President Ahmadou Ahidjo handed over power to Paul Biya, who is still in office today. Since 25 January 1984, the country has officially been called the Republic of Cameroon. Cameroon has two official languages, English and French, and has managed to achieve unity and stability without sacrificing the wealth of cultures which are a fea-ture of the country.
Cameroon is bordered to the south by Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo; on its south-west side, it overlooks the vast Atlantic Ocean; all along its western border, it stands shoulder to shoulder with Nigeria; on its eastern side, it grazes the Central African Republic and Chad; and to the north, it ends in a corridor leading to the plentiful fishing waters of Lake Chad.
With its long coastline, softly sloping mountains, arid plains and verdant plateaux, thick forests with trees 30 or even 50 metres high, and open forests shading into savannas, Cameroon’s landscape is strikingly varied. The country is drained by numerous rivers, most of which spring from the country’s two “water-towers” – the mountainous area in the west and the Adamawa Plateau. At 4,095 metres, Mount Cameroon towers majestically over the country as a whole, and is the most likely candidate for the volcano described by the Carthaginian seafarer Hanno as “the Chariot of the Gods”.
