History of Cameroon

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The History of Cameroon The earliest Cameroonian civilization dates back to 8,000 BCE when the Baka people migrated into what is now known as modern day Cameroon. The Baka people were hunters and gatherers from the Central African rainforest. They are known to typically be very short (around five feet in height) and also known to be very good hunters who are extremely good at living off the land. They lived in the southern and eastern regions of the country till around 200 BCE when there was an increase in migration from Bantu-speaking tribes, which forced the Baka off of arable land and into surrounding forests. Meanwhile in the dry north of Cameroon, Arabic and Hamitic migratory groups began to settle and build several different important civilizations around the Chad Basin. Some of these tribes that had strongholds of power in the area were the Karem, Bournou, and Sou peoples. At the start of 1500 BC the nomadic, Islamist Fulani tribe migrated to the Northern area where these various ethnic groups were settled and by the 1700’s had established a powerful presence in the region displacing large groups of non-Muslim inhabitants. The Portuguese were one of the first European countries to arrive in Cameroon in the 15th century. Fernando Po was an explorer from Portugal who was leading an expedition up the Wouri River in 1472. He noticed that the river had an abundance of large shrimps, so he decided to call the river Rios dos Camaroes (in English it means the River of Prawns) which becomes the base of forming the name Cameroon. When the Portuguese first arrived in Cameroon they were primarily interested in acquiring slaves and coastal trade. They were initially restricted to the coastal areas because of Malaria. Europeans had not yet created the medicine Quinine (which was created later in the 1870’s) to combat the disease and were afraid of catching it.

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