January - March 2017 •
The Lion King
• 19
Lake Maga
is located in the far North region
of Cameroun. A trip across this lake is quite
intruiging, revealing the flimsy huts in which
fishermen and their families live during the
fishing season. The landscape is breath-taking
and there is also abundant birdlife on the lake.
Country Focus
Wide view of Yaoundé
capital city of Cameroun
T
he Republic of Cameroun is often
referred to as “Africa in miniature”
because it exhibits all major cli-
mates and vegetation of the conti-
nent: coast, desert, mountains, rainfor-
est, and savannah. At 475,442 square
kilometres (183,569 sq mi), Cameroun
is the world’s 53rd-largest country. The
country is located in Central and West
Africa on the Bight of Bonny, part of
the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic
Ocean.
Portuguese sailors reached the coast
in 1472. They noted an abundance
of the ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus
turneranus in the Wouri River and
named it Rio dos Camarões (Shrimp
River), which later became Cameroun
in English.
The German Empire claimed the terri-
tory as the colony of Kamerun in 1884
and began a steady push inland.
They initiated projects to improve the
colony’s infrastructure. Some of these
structures are still being used to this
day around the country.
With the defeat of Germany in World
War I, Kamerun became a League
of Nations mandate territory and was
split into French Camerouns and British
Camerouns in 1919.
East Cameroun gained its indepen-
dence from France on 1st January,
1960 to become the republic of
Cameroun. After a plebiscite in British
Cameroun on 11 February 1961, reuni-
fication was opted for and material-
ized on 1 October 1961. The fed-
Picture by Carsten ten Brink
