At the crossroads of West Africa and Central Africa, the territory of what is now Cameroon has seen human habitation since some time in the Middle Paleolithic, likely no later than 130,000 years ago. The earliest discovered archaeological evidence of humans dates from around 30,000 years ago at Shum Laka. The Bamenda highlands in western Cameroon near the border with Nigeria are the most likely origin for the Bantu peoples, whose language and culture came to dominate most of central and southern Africa between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE.
Duala is a dialect cluster spoken by the Duala and Mungo peoples of Cameroon. Duala belongs to the Bantu language family, in a subgroup called Sawabantu. It is a tonal language with subject–verb–object word order. Maho (2009) treats Duala as a cluster of five languages: Duala proper, Bodiman, Oli, Pongo and Mongo. He also notes a Duala-based pidgin named Jo.
Kamerun was an African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon. Kamerun also included northern parts of Gabon and the Congo with western parts of the Central African Republic, southwestern parts of Chad and far northeastern parts of Nigeria.
The German colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the German Empire. Unified in 1871, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a colonial empire until the Scramble for Africa in 1884. Claiming much of the remaining uncolonized areas of Africa, Germany built the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and French. The German colonial empire encompassed parts of Africa and Oceania.
Articles related to Cameroon include:
Vengo, or Babungo, is a Grassfields language and the language of the Vengo people from the village of Babungo in the Cameroonian Grassfields. The spelling Bamungo is also often found.
German West Africa (Deutsch-Westafrika) was an informal designation for the areas in West Africa that were part of the German Colonial Empire between 1884 and 1919. The term was normally used for the territories of Cameroon and Togo. German West Africa was not an administrative unit. However, in trade and in the vernacular the term was sometimes in use.
Ruben Um Nyobè was an anti-colonialist Cameroonian leader, slain by the French army on 13 September 1958, near his natal village of Boumnyebel, in the department of Nyong-et-Kellé in the maquis Bassa.
Neukamerun was the name of Central African territories ceded by the Third French Republic to the German Empire in 1911. Upon taking office in 1907, Theodor Seitz, governor of Kamerun, advocated the acquisition of territories from the French Congo.
Postage stamps have been used in Cameroon or Cameroun since the nineteenth century.
Ndumbé Lobé Bell or King Bell was a leader of the Duala people in what is now the southern part of Cameroon during the period when the Germans established their colony of Kamerun. He was an astute politician and a highly successful businessman.
The Kamerun campaign took place in the German colony of Kamerun in the African theatre of the First World War when the British, French and Belgians invaded the German colony from August 1914 to March 1916. Most of the campaign took place in Kamerun but skirmishes also broke out in British Nigeria. By the Spring of 1916, following Allied victories, the majority of German troops and the civil administration fled to the neighbouring neutral colony of Spanish Guinea. The campaign ended in a defeat for Germany and the partition of its former colony between France and Britain.
Curt Ernst von Morgen was a Prussian explorer and officer, later General of Infantry during World War I. He was a recipient of Pour le Mérite with Oak Leaves.
Michael Dreyer is a German artist, author, and director, who analyzes the basis of art. He creates, analyses and proves the connection between the presentation, history, attraction and forms of Art. Since 1982, Dreyer had worked as a professor at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Germany, where he had been teaching visual communication.
The Cameroon War is the name of the independence struggle between Cameroon's nationalist movement and France. The movement was spearheaded by the Cameroonian Peoples Union (UPC). Even after independence, the rebellion continued, shaping contemporary politics. The war began with riots in 1955 and continued after Cameroon gained independence in 1960. Following independence, the first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo requested continued French military intervention to fight the UPC rebels. The UPC rebellion was largely crushed by the Cameroonian Armed Forces and French Army by 1964. This war is often forgotten because it occurred at the height of France's biggest colonial independence struggle, the Algerian War.
Mahinland was a piece of land in the coast east of Lagos on the Bight of Benin in modern Nigeria. In the late 19th century it was briefly the object of German colonial initiatives.
Hilaire Mbakop is a literary scholar and writer. He publishes his works in German and French. His literary work bases on his intercultural experiences (e.g. Mambé's Homeland and Black African Aliens , on the other hand he practices social criticism and attacks political grievances.
Ernst Klaus Iwan Christian Friedrich Alfred von Raben was a German Major who had served as a commander of the Schutztruppe before surrendering at the Siege of Mora.
Cameroon–Germany relations are described as "good" by the German Foreign Office. The two countries share a long common history and Cameroon was a colony of Germany from 1884 to 1918. Also due to German involvement in development cooperation, Germany is "positively perceived" in the country today.
Hans Gustav Ferdinand Ramsay, from 1911 von Ramsay was an officer in the Imperial German Army and explorer of Africa.
