70 Fun Facts About Cameroon

What is the capital city of Cameroon?

It sits about 750 m up in the Centre Region and became the colonial capital under France in 1922.

Which port city is Cameroon's largest city and economic capital?

It sits on the Wouri estuary and handles most of the country's exports of oil, cocoa, coffee and timber.

Cameroon's name comes from the Portuguese Rio dos Camarões, meaning river of what?

The abundant ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus turneranus impressed the sailors who arrived in 1472.

Because it has coast, desert, mountains, rainforest and savanna, Cameroon is often nicknamed what?

It has been classed as part of both West Africa and Central Africa, and speaks around 250 native languages.

Who became president of Cameroon in 1982?

Born in 1933, he succeeded Ahmadou Ahidjo and by the 2020s was the world's longest consecutively serving non-royal national leader.

Who was Cameroon's first president, from independence in 1960 until his surprise resignation in 1982?

Sentenced to death in absentia over an alleged 1984 coup plot, he died in exile in Dakar in 1989.

Under what name did the German Empire claim Cameroon as a colony in 1884?

Locals resisted in the Bafut and Adamawa Wars, and the colony ran plantations on forced labour.

After World War I, the German colony was split as League of Nations mandates between which two powers?

The British ran their strip from Nigeria, prompting complaints that it was a neglected 'colony of a colony'.

In what year did French Cameroun become independent?

It was 1 January; the southern British Cameroons voted to join it in October 1961.

Cameroon's public holiday on 20 May, National Day, marks a 1972 referendum that did what?

The two federated states, East and West Cameroon, each had their own legislature and prime minister until then.

How many stars appear on Cameroon's tricolour flag?

Two stars stood for the federated states until 1975, when a single central star replaced them as a symbol of unity.

Cameroon's flag was first adopted in 1957 as a vertical tricolour of which three colours?

The star sits on the red middle stripe and varies widely in size.

Which currency does Cameroon use?

It is issued by the Bank of Central African States, headquartered in the capital, for six countries.

What are the two official languages of Cameroon?

Officially about 70% speak French and 30% English, and an urban mix called Camfranglais has grown since the 1970s.

Under what name have Anglophone separatists sought independence in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest since 2017?

The name comes from Ambas Bay; no country has recognised the would-be republic.

Which body settled the Cameroon-Nigeria dispute over the Bakassi peninsula in 2002?

The court relied on a 1913 Anglo-German agreement; the last of the peninsula was handed over in August 2008.

Cameroon's men's national football team is nicknamed what?

They have qualified for the World Cup eight times, more than any other African team.

Cameroon, the first African quarter-finalist at the 1990 World Cup, lost narrowly to whom?

It went to extra time; Cameroon had stunned holders Argentina in the tournament's opening match.

Which 38-year-old came out of retirement to score four goals for Cameroon at Italia '90?

He celebrated each goal with a hip-swinging dance at the corner flag and was later named in Pelé's FIFA 100.

A Cameroonian striker broke his own record as the oldest World Cup goalscorer in 1994 at what age?

The goal came against Russia; he had only returned to the national team after a personal plea from the president.

Samuel Eto'o won the African Player of the Year award a record how many times?

He is also the Africa Cup of Nations' all-time top scorer with 18 goals and now runs Cameroon's football federation.

Cameroon won Olympic gold in men's football at which Games?

It remains one of six Olympic medals in the country's history, and Eto'o was in the squad.

Cameroon is the only African country to have beaten which team in tournament play?

The 2022 win in Qatar came in the group stage; the earlier one was at the Confederations Cup.

Which triple jumper won Cameroon Olympic gold at both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008?

Her 15.39 m in Beijing set an Olympic record; she later switched to competing for France.

Cameroon-born Joel Embiid was named NBA Most Valuable Player in 2023 while playing centre for which team?

He nicknamed himself 'the Process' and was the first foreign player to lead the NBA in scoring.

Which Cameroonian forward, nicknamed 'Spicy P', won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019?

He was the first player to win Most Improved Player and a championship in the same season.

Which Cameroonian UFC heavyweight champion (2021-23) was famed as its hardest puncher?

He finished seven of his fourteen UFC fights by knockout inside two minutes of round one.

Manu Dibango's 1972 hit, called the most sampled African song in history, is titled what?

The saxophonist fused jazz, funk and Cameroonian rhythms; he died of COVID-19 in March 2020.

Which Cameroonian dance style began as war music of the Ewondo people around the capital?

Anne-Marie Nzié shaped it into pop from the 1940s and Les Têtes Brulées took it abroad.

Makossa, Cameroon's best-known pop genre, takes its name from a dance of which coastal people?

It grew out of the kossa dance in the 1950s, though the first recordings only came a decade later.

Sultan Ibrahim Njoya of the Bamum kingdom is remembered for inventing what in 1896?

It evolved from pictographs to a semi-syllabary in 14 years, and he also devised an artificial language, Shümom.

Which walled city with a royal palace museum is the historic seat of the Bamum sultans?

Njoya ruled from there from about 1886 until his death in 1933.

Which amphibian, up to 4.5 kg and the largest of its type, lives only in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea?

Specimens reach about 45 cm from snout to vent and are threatened by the food and pet trades.

Which stew of bitter leaves, ground peanuts and crayfish is regarded as Cameroon's national dish?

It comes from the largest city and is served with plantains or bobolo, fermented cassava steamed in leaves.

Which southeastern Cameroon site became its first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987?

It was listed for its species diversity, five threatened mammals and lack of disturbance.

Waza National Park, home to lions, elephants and giraffes, lies in which region of Cameroon?

Founded as a hunting reserve in 1934, it became a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1979.

The country's highest point, an active stratovolcano near the Gulf of Guinea, is what?

Its local name Mongo ma Ndemi means 'Mountain of Greatness'; it last erupted in February 2012.

Roughly how tall is Cameroon's highest peak?

It is the highest point in sub-Saharan western and central Africa and the fourth most prominent peak on the continent.

A 1909 eruption of Mount Cameroon forced the German colonial government temporarily out of which capital town?

It is one of only two known eruptions to have reached the sea; the mountain has erupted repeatedly since.

A 1986 limnic eruption at which crater lake in Cameroon killed about 1,746 people?

A degassing tube installed in 2001 now siphons gas-rich water from the bottom to prevent a repeat.

The 1986 crater-lake disaster in Cameroon released a huge cloud of what?

Heavier than air, the cloud rolled downhill into villages after rising at nearly 100 km/h.

How many died in the 1984 eruption at Cameroon's Lake Monoun, two years before the famous one?

Terrorism was suspected at first; the later event finally explained the deaths.

Cameroon's territory is divided into how many semi-autonomous regions?

Each is headed by a presidentially appointed governor and split into 58 divisions.

Cameroon's president is elected by popular vote for a term of how many years?

The 180-member National Assembly, by contrast, is elected for five-year terms.

In 2017 the government cut off the Internet in Cameroon's English-speaking regions for how long?

The blackout hit some five million people, including the tech start-ups of 'Silicon Mountain' in the Southwest.

How many countries share a land border with Cameroon?

They are Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.

Which is Cameroon's largest river, powering the country's biggest hydroelectric station at Edéa?

It runs about 603 km from the confluence of the Djérem and Lom rivers to the Gulf of Guinea.

Which deepwater port opened in 2014 near a southern beach resort to take over from Douala?

The resort town also boasts the Lobé Falls, which tumble almost directly into the Atlantic.

Portuguese sailors first reached the Cameroon coast in which year?

Excavations in the northwest highlands show people had lived there for 30,000 years before that.

Which German explorer signed the 1884 treaty annexing the Cameroon coast for the Kaiser?

A Hamburg trading firm had already built a warehouse on the Wouri estuary in 1868.

Which anti-colonial leader of the outlawed UPC was killed by the French army in 1958?

France banned the party in 1955, sparking a guerrilla war that ended only in 1971.

Which Cameroonian novelist wrote the 1956 anti-colonial classic Une vie de boy, translated as Houseboy?

He later served as foreign minister and chaired UNICEF in 1977-78.

Cameroonian-American Imbolo Mbue won the PEN/Faulkner Award for which 2016 debut novel?

It follows a family from Limbe chasing the American dream in New York around the 2008 crash.

Cameroon competed at the Winter Olympics just once, in 2002, with how many athletes?

Cross-country skier Isaac Menyoli was the lone representative in Salt Lake City.

Which brewer sponsored and lent its name to the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope for many years?

The 38 km race up the volcano and back began in 1973 and starts at the Molyko stadium.

Rhumsiki, Cameroon's most visited village, is famous for volcanic plugs in which mountains?

Writer André Gide called it one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world; Kapsiki Peak rises 1,224 m.

Camfranglais, popular in Cameroon's cities, mixes the two official languages and what?

Cameroonian Pidgin English is the lingua franca of the formerly British-run regions.

The Sawa Ngondo festival centres on a devotee visiting the underwater kingdom of which spirits?

Tradition says he stays under for hours and emerges with dry clothes; children may not attend.

Cameroon's anthem was composed in 1928 by teacher-training students in which village?

An English version by Bernard Fonlon was written in 1961 and officially adopted in 1978.

Which culture arose around Lake Chad about 500 CE, later giving way to the Kanem and Bornu empires?

Along with the Baka hunter-gatherers of the rainforest they were among the territory's earliest peoples.

Which Fulani-Kanuri term meaning 'pagan' is applied to northern peoples who resisted Islam?

It covers between 26 and 40-odd groups; some writers have reclaimed the once pejorative label.

Which Nigerian highlife hit is described as the top-selling African record in history?

Prince Nico Mbarga's 1976 song still echoes through Anglophone Cameroon's music.

Cameroon's oldest human traces, 30,000 years old, come from which Northwest Region rock shelter?

Bantu migrations across eastern and southern Africa are thought to have started from this region about 2,000 years ago.

Cameroon has qualified for the men's World Cup how many times, more than any other African nation?

Four of those were in a row, from 1990 to 2002, yet the team has escaped the group stage only once.

What did Britain eventually do with most of the plantations seized in its Cameroons mandate?

Few investors bid at the London auctions meant to fund war reparations, so German firms returned to Douala.

On what date did France outlaw the pro-independence Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC)?

The ban set off a long guerrilla war and the assassinations of UPC leaders such as Félix-Roland Moumié.

Which 2006 deal set out Nigeria's withdrawal from the Bakassi peninsula in Cameroon's favour?

The ICJ had ruled in 2002 that the 1913 Anglo-German Agreement gave sovereignty to Cameroon.

Roughly what share of Cameroon's roadways are tarred?

Three trans-African highways cross the country, including the Lagos–Mombasa and Tripoli–Cape Town routes.

What has overtaken deforestation as the main threat to Cameroon's wildlife?

Bushmeat, long a rural staple, is now a delicacy in the cities.

Which internationally recognised couturier is one of Cameroon's most prominent fashion designers?

Traditional Cameroonian dress includes the pagne wrap, the chechia hat and the male gandura.