CAMEROON LIES BETWEEN WEST AND EQUATORIAL AFRICA. The Atlantic Ocean laps its southwestern coastline.
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CLIMATE |
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Cameroon has a tropical climate. In the north the rainy season lasts from June to the beginning of October; the rest of the year is dry. In the south the rainy season is longer, between April and November. There is a huge difference in the amount of rainfall. Near Chad in the far north, there is hardly any rain; on the slopes of Mount Cameroon in the west, it rains nearly all the time—sometimes reaching 400 inches (over 1,000 centimeters) in a year.
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Migrations of the Bantu-speakers
No written records exist about the early history of the different peoples of the Cameroon (ka-muh-ROON) region. The earliest peoples were likely to have lived by hunting animals, gathering wild fruits and vegetables, and catching fish in local rivers.
Evidence from the study of archaeology and languages suggests that Cameroon (and part of eastern Nigeria) may have been the first homeland of the Bantu-speaking people. Today nearly 100,000,000 Bantu-speakers are spread throughout Africa south of the Sahara. Bantu, meaning "the people," is one of the major language groups of Africa; within this group are approximately seven hundred different, but related, languages.
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FACTS AND FIGURES |
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Official name: Republic of Cameroon Status: Independent state Capital: Yaoundé Major towns: Douala, Garoua, Kumba, Maroua, Nkongsamba, Bamenda, Bafoussam Area: 183,569 square miles (475,442 square kilometers) Population: 17,300,000 Population density: 94 per square mile (36 per square kilometer) Peoples: More than 150 ethnic groups, including Bamileke, Bamoun, Douala, Fang, Fulani, Gbaya, Hausa, Kapsigi, Margi, Mbum Official languages: French and English Currency: CFA franc National day: Independence Day (January 1); National Day (May 20) Country’s name: The origin is not certain, but it probably comes from camerões, the Portuguese word for shrimps. The first Portuguese to reach the Wouri River in the fifteenth-century were amazed by the large number of giant shrimps they saw.
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The earliest Bantu-speakers in the Cameroon region may have included people who were forced to move southward as the Sahara dried up and turned to desert. By three thousand years ago, their farming, fishing, and hunting settlements had expanded to the south and east of Cameroon through the Congo equatorial basin. Around two thousand years ago, they learned ironworking technology, which greatly improved their farming and hunting capabilities and enabled them to spread across much of Africa south of the equator.
There is not enough evidence to explain why the Bantu began to migrate from the Cameroon region. However, some historians believe that it may have been due to a large increase in the population. This meant that there was no longer enough land available to grow crops to feed all the people.
