World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Cameroon

Environment

Straddling the equator on the western coast of Africa, Cameroon shares a long north-western border with Nigeria, a north-eastern border with Chad, a western border with the Central African Republic, a south-western border with the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), and southern borders with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The western coastal plain receives heavy rainfall and is heavily forested. Mt Cameroon, an active volcano, is the highest point in West Africa and lies along the northern coast. Other highlands extend from there, along the Nigerian border and into northern Cameroon. Central plateaus are savannah grasslands. Large areas of Cameroon have fertile soils exploited for farming and the country has modest oil reserves.

History

The first inhabitants of Cameroon were hunter-gatherer groups such as the BaAka. Bantu speaking groups followed. Peuhl moved into the north of present-day Cameroon beginning late in the 18th century. The Peuhl captured many Kirdi for sale through the trans-Saharan slave trade and introduced Islam.

Europeans first arrived in the south in the 16th century, establishing trading posts along the coast and sending southerners into slavery across the Atlantic.

Germany established a protectorate of Kamerun in 1884, sparking resistance from many local peoples. This was divided between Britain and France after Germany's defeat in World War I under the auspices of the League of Nations. British Cameroon, in the north, was ruled from Lagos, Nigeria, while French Cameroon, which made up 80 per cent of the territory, was divided among other French colonies, with a remnant ruled from today's capital, Yaounde. Britain abolished forced labour, but France continued to use forced labour for the production of cash crops until after World War II.

An armed rebellion against French rule, espousing Marxist ideology, erupted in 1955. The Bamiléké and Bassa ethnic groups were at the centre of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC). The conflict continued into the post-independence era and cost many thousands of lives.

French Cameroon gained independence in 1960 as the Republic of Cameroon. The following year, the people in the northern part of British Cameroon, mostly Muslims, voted to join Nigeria in a referendum sponsored by the United Nations. The southern part of British Cameroon, home to mostly Christians, opted to join Cameroon, now called the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Under the 24-year rule of the country's first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, a Peulh from the north, various ethnic groups vied for power through his patronage network. Ahaidjo established one-party rule in 1966, and put down the last of the UPC rebellion by 1970. A constitutional amendment in 1972 ended the federal system and renamed the country the 'United Republic of Cameroon'.

Ahidjo resigned in 1982, handing power to his prime minister, Paul Biya - an ethnic Bulu. However, Ahidjo loyalists attempted a coup two years later, and its failure led him to flee the country. In 1984, Biya changed the name of the country back to 'Republic of Cameroon' and won elections in which he was the only candidate. He has remained in power ever since, staging additional fraudulent elections 1988, 1992 and 1997. He has maintained close ties with France.

President Biya's ethnic group, the Bulu, has dominated politics and the military. Beyond the exclusion of other ethnic groups, Biya has favoured Francophones over Anglophones. In the 1990s, in the face of increasing hostility and repression by central government, Anglophone pressure groups persisted in challenging their second-class status and calling for greater regional autonomy. A group called the Southern Cameroon National Council even called for the secession of the country's two southern, English-speaking provinces, and was promptly banned.

Peoples

Main languages: French (official), English (official), Bamiléké, Fang, Ewondo, Kirdi, Fulfulde, Pidgin English.

Main religions: traditional beliefs (40%), Christianity and syncretic Christianity (40%), Islam and syncretic Islam (20%).

Main minority groups: western highlanders (grassfielders), including Bamiléké, Bamoun and other north-western peoples, 6.8 million (38%); southern tropical forest peoples, including Ewondo, Bulu and Fang, as well as 50,000 BaAka, BaKola, BaGyeli and Bedzam ('Pygmies'), 3.2 million (18%); Kirdi, 3.2 million (18%); Islamic northern peoples of the Sahel, including Peulh, 2.5 million (14%); coastal tropical forest peoples, including Bassa, Douala and smaller groups in the south-west, 2.2 million (12%).

[Note: Figures for religion come from US CIRF, 2007. Percentages for the five regional-cultural groups are taken from the US State Department's background note on Cameroon, 2007. The number for BaAka, BaKola, BaGyeli and Bedzam comes from a Cameroonian submission to CERD, 15 Oct 1997. Numbers are converted to percentages and vice-versa using the CIA's 2007 estimate for total population: 18 million.]

Heavily influenced by German, British and especially French imperial interests, Cameroon is home to more than 250 ethnic groups and sub-groups, many of which spread across neighbouring countries. These can be classified in five major regional-cultural groups.

Western highlanders, also called grassfielders, form the largest of these with about 38 per cent of the population. They include the Bamiléké, Bamoun and other north-western peoples. In a region of fertile soils, Bamiléké are noted and frequently resented for their success in farming and commerce.

Southern tropical forest peoples make up 18 per cent of the population and include the Ewondo, Bulu and Fang, all of which are in the Beti cluster of peoples. Much of the country's political elite has come from the Bulu sub-group. Nomadic forest peoples, commonly referred to as 'Pygmies' eke out precarious livelihoods in the shrinking forests of the south-west and south-east. These groups include the BaAka, BaKola, BaGyeli and Bedzam. They have faced pressure from the Catholic Church and the government to settle in 'pilot villages' and along roadways, and have been exploited by logging companies to assist in the destruction of their forest environment.

Kirdi is a collective name for several non-Muslim peoples in the north who make up around 18 per cent of the total population. They outnumber the Muslim population of the north but are much less organized politically.

Islamic peoples of the northern Sahel make up around 14 per cent of the population. These include the Peulh, who are cotton and rice farmers, as well as livestock herders. Peulh elites have gained national political prominence.

Coastal tropical forest peoples make up around 12 per cent of the population and include Bassa, Douala and smaller groups of the south-west.

Overlaying Cameroon's rich ethnic diversity is a split between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon, a legacy of the country's divided colonial history. Both English and French are official languages, but Francophone Cameroonians outnumber Anglophone Cameroonians by about four-to-one.

Around 40 per cent of Cameroonians still practice traditional religions. Christians, roughly equally divided among Roman Catholics and Protestants also make up around 40 per cent of the population and are more concentrated in the south and west. Muslims, who make up about 20 per cent of the population, are found in all parts of the country, but more concentrated in the north. Many Christians and Muslims integrate traditional beliefs into their religious practices.

Governance

Cameroon is run by the president. He appoints governors, local officials, judges and over 60 cabinet ministers. He also oversees other elements of a vast patronage network, appointing and firing the heads of over 100 large state companies. The National Assembly has no authority, and the judiciary is subject to orders from the president's Ministry of Justice. Corruption is rampant and there are no reliable guarantees of civil liberties.

Minorities

None listed.

Resources

Minority based and advocacy organisations

General

AGED (Afrique Genre Environnement et Developpement)
Tel: +237-998 64 51, 907-35-82, 713-06-67

Association for the Reconstruction and Development of the Moko-oh Peoples Cameroon (AFTRADEMOP)
Tel: +237- 769-29-45
Email: aftrademop@yahoo.com

Association of Human Rights and Torture Defenders (AHURTOD)
Tel: +237-963-11-18
Email: ahurtod@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.ahurtod-cameroon.int.tf

CED (Centre pour l'Environnement et le Developpement)
Tel: +237-222-38-57

Commission Nationale des Droits de l'Homme et des Libertes
Tel: +237-999-86-81, 200-06-96, 222-61-17

Consortium d'Appui aux Actions pour la Promotion et le Développement de l'Afrique (CAPDA)
Tel: +237-775-3963
Email: capda@voila.fr

Fondation Humanus (Humanus International)
Tel: +237-775-29-44/523-51-54
Email: fondation_humanus@yahoo.fr, governance_alert2000@yahoo.fr

Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association (MBOSCUDA)
Tel: +237-765-71-86

Forest peoples

CADDAP (Centre d'Action pour le Developpement Durable des Autochtones Pygmees)
Tel: +237-504-21-56

Sources and further reading

General

Argenti, N., The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence and Belated Histories in the Cameroon Grassfields, Chicago University Press, 2007.

Baka: http://www.baka.co.uk

Bahuchet, S., 'Les Pygmées d'aujourd hui en Afrique centrale', Journal des africanistes, vol. 61, no. 1, 1991, pp. 5-35.

DeLancey, M.W., Cameroon: Dependence and Independence, Boulder, CO, Westview, 1989.

Geschiere, P., Village Communities and the State: Changing Relations among the Maka of South-Eastern Cameroon since the Colonial Conquest, London, Kegan Paul, 1982.

Higgens, Kathleen. 1985. 'Ritual and symbol in Baka life history.' Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly 10(4): 100-6.

Kofele-Kale, N., Tribesmen and Patriots: Political Culture in a Poly-ethnic African State, Washington, DC, University Press of America, 1981.

Kofele-Kale, N., 'Ethnicity, religionism and political power: a post-mortem of Ahidjo's Cameroon', in Schatzberg, M.G. and Zartman, I.W. (eds), The Political Economy of Cameroon, New York, Praeger, 1986.

Konings, P., Negotiating an Anglophone Identity: A Study of the Politics of Recognition and Representation in Cameroon (Afrika- Studiecentrum), Brill, 2003.

Young, E. (1999) 'Cameroon' in Africana; The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience ed. by K.A. Appiah and H.L Gates Ney York; Basic/Civitas Books.

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation - entry on Southern Cameroons: http://www.unpo.org/member_profile.php?id=59

Forest peoples

Bahuchet, S., 'Les Pygmées d'aujourd hui en Afrique centrale', Journal des africanistes, vol. 61, no. 1, 1991, pp. 5-35.

Geschiere, P., Village Communities and the State: Changing Relations among the Maka of South-Eastern Cameroon since the Colonial Conquest, London, Kegan Paul, 1982.

Higgens, Kathleen. 1985. 'Ritual and symbol in Baka life history.' Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly 10(4): 100-6.