In the first century, the Sao people settled around Lake Chad and it is from them that much of the country’s remarkable sculpture originates. Present-day Cameroon was at the heartland of an area that extended into Nigeria, under the control of the Duala people. An estimated 200 distinct ethnic groups live in the region, the largest of which is the Bamileke, a Bantu-related tribe occupying the west and center of the country. Equatorial Bantu live in the area between the Congo basin and the plateau of the interior. Small hunting bands of pygmies (the original inhabitants of central Africa)
dwell in the remote southern forests.
Contact with Europe was first made in the 15th century, with the arrival of the Portuguese. The area later became a German protectorate in the 1880s. But after Germany’s defeat in World War I, Cameroon was divided between Britain and France under a League of Nations (and later a United Nations) mandate instituted in 1919. French Cameroon achieved independence in 1957, under the control of the principal pro-independence party, the
Union Nationale Camerounaise (UNC). In 1961, a plebiscite was held to decide the future of British Cameroon – the northern provinces voted to become part of Nigeria, while the south opted for union with French Cameroon. A centralized political and administrative system was introduced with the veteran northern politician, Ahmadou Ahidjo, as president.
In 1975, Paul Biya, the country’s dominant political figure in recent years, took up his first major appointment as prime minister. When Ahidjo stepped down of his own volition in 1982, Biya was chosen as his successor. Since then, as head of the UNC and its successor party, the
Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC), Biya has achieved political domination over Cameroon, seeing off the two major threats to his rule. The first of these came in 1984, when Ahidjo, discontented with the direction of his successor’s policies, launched a military coup. It failed. In 1992, the leader of a two-year-old semi-legal opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), John Fru Ndi, presented a major challenge to Biya at the year’s presidential election. Biya eventually claimed the election under uncertain circumstances; Fru Ndi was put under house arrest amid a state of emergency.
In general terms, opposition to Biya is concentrated in the north, among the Muslim communities, and among anglophone regions, which fear discrimination at the hands of the predominately francophone regime. At the most recent presidential poll in October 2004, Biya secured another seven-year term in office winning 70 per cent of the votes. International observers claim that the poll was fair and transparent but opposition parties made allegations of widespread fraud.
Cameroon joined the Commonwealth in 1993, although it also maintains a close relationship with France (not least through membership of the CFA Franc zone). Relations with Nigeria, Cameroon’s powerful neighbor, have been awkward as the result of several outstanding border disputes (linked in part to control of the oil-rich Niger delta); the main one, involving an area known as the Bakassi peninsula, has seen occasional small-scale military clashes between the two sides. In 2002, the dispute was settled by the International Court of Justice in favor of Cameroon but the Nigerians have not so far accepted the decision. Negotiations continue under the auspices of the UN. Cameroon joined the UN Security Council in 2002, as one of three African representatives (with Angola and Guinea) and as a result found itself subject to serious pressure over the Iraq issue during early 2003. Cameroon has itself been involved in mediation in Togo in the dispute between the government and its opponent
GovernmentThe president and the 180-seat
Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) hold executive and legislative power respectively. Both are elected for five-year terms. Further revisions to the existing 1972 constitution allow for the introduction of a second National Assembly chamber at a later date.
EconomyBecause of consistent agricultural performance and rapid growth of its oil industry, Cameroon has enjoyed broad economic success since independence, although it is vulnerable to changes in world commodity prices.
The main agricultural products are cocoa, coffee, palm oil, wood and rubber. There are sizeable but largely unexploited deposits of iron ore, copper, uranium and other metals. Hydro-electric projects supply most of the country’s energy; oil and gas are largely exported. There are some offshore oil deposits, although the largest are located near the disputed Bakassi peninsula. The manufacturing industry processes primary products.
During the 1990s, the government opened up much of the economy to competition. An IMF structural adjustment program continues to set the ground rules for the country’s economic policy. Cameroon became eligible for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) in 2000 which meant significant relief from debt upon completion in 2006. Since 2002, Douala has hosted one of sub-Saharan Africa’s few stock exchanges.
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