Cameroon: A Historical Landscape Quiz

Answer: The Fulani

A Muslim people, the Fulani came to power in what is now Cameroon through a series of jihads in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though never a majority of the region's population, their political sophistication (including allegiance to the Sokoto Caliphate that stretched across West Africa) cemented the Fulani as the dominant political force in the area before the colonial period.

Answer: The Portuguese

Portuguese sailors charted the area in 1472, and trade with coastal areas flourished off and on for several centuries. European incursion into the African interior was limited, however. Unlike the Americas, where European diseases like smallpox would often wipe out native populations more effectively than military force, Africa was essentially protected by malaria, which was particularly deadly to people from outside the continent.

By the 1850s, quinine had gradually emerged as an effective treatment for this parasitic disease, opening the rugged continent to European colonization.

Answer: Fernando Po (now known as Bioko)

The slave trade was a destructive influence for many reasons. It fostered wars in the interior, where powerful political groups would provoke conflicts with weaker tribes so they could sell the resulting prisoners of war as slaves. Demographically, the slave trade also stole thousands of healthy young people from the region. Economically, it diverted interest from more sustainable development of resources, commerce, and technology.

As the slave trade diminished in the nineteenth century, Cameroon's economy came to rely on exports of palm oil, ivory, and gold.

Answer: Germany lost World War I and ceded all its Cameroon rights to France and Britain.

During the First World War, Britain invaded the German colony (then spelled "Kamerun") from the British stronghold in Nigeria. By the war's midpoint, Britain had expelled German troops entirely. In the postwar League of Nations mandates, Cameroon was split between Britain and France. Though French and British colonial rule is looked at with disdain by most modern historical writers, it was almost certainly an improvement over Germany's colonial policies, which often bordered on genocide.

Answer: Intense programs of investment and French education, essentially trying to integrate Cameroon with European France culturally and economically

The French cultural impact on Cameroon was profound. Into the twenty-first century, French remained the most common language in the country, and Roman Catholic Christianity remained the dominant religion with a distinct Muslim minority in the north. In spite of (or, perhaps, because of) this activist French policy, anti-French sentiment grew into the 1940s, with French hegemony largely viewed as racist and condescending.

The situation in the British territory was scarcely better; since the British Cameroons were administered through Nigeria, the Cameroonians often complained that they were "a colony of a colony."

Answer: 1960

Postwar Cameroon (spelled "Cameroun" under French administration) saw a stepping-up of education, with increasing numbers of students sent to college in Senegal. This did produce unintended consequences for the French, however, as educated Africans began to work for increased autonomy instead of closer ties with France.

The anti-colonial Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) formed in 1948. In the face of its increasing radicalism, the UPC was banned in 1955, touching off a civil war that ran for many years and killed thousands, even after independence. Cameroun was granted autonomy in 1956 and became fully independent on January 1, 1960, merging with the much smaller South British Cameroons in 1961.

Answer: Ahmadou Ahidjo

A Fulani from the north of the country, Ahidjo worked through much of the south as a radio operator under the French postal service. He entered local politics in 1946, rising to President of the Legislative Assembly and, later, Deputy Prime Minister during the period of local autonomy.

He was elected President as leader of the largest political party (the Cameroon Union) and went uncontested in that office until 1982, eventually outlawing all opposition in 1976. He is largely credited with convincing South British Cameroons to federate with the country in 1961, and though his terms of office were dictatorial by Western standards, his administration was largely successful compared to the work of despots like Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko.

After stepping down in 1982, he had a nasty split with the new President and spent the rest of his life in exile.

Answer: Paul Biya

Though Biya stood for competitive, multiparty elections in 1992, 1997, 2004, and 2011, most observers consider these elections inherently corrupt and laced with fraud, and the state-controlled media censors most opposition voices in the country. Though the twenty-first century has seen a marked uptick in ostensible anti-corruption movements, the administration of Cameroon has been critiqued by independent media sources who largely consider Biya's regime an oppressive dictatorship. Travel through the country without bribery is difficult, and road banditry is pervasive.

It does bear mentioning, however, that Cameroon's per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) has consistently been in Sub-Saharan Africa's top ten under Biya's watch.

Answer: Lake Nyos

The phenomenon at Lake Nyos has come to be called a "limnic eruption." The lake sits over a volcanically active region which, over time, "charges" the lake with carbon dioxide. In normal circumstances, this is relatively harmless, and the lake resembles a gently aspirating carbonated beverage.

The 1986 event, whose cause is not known, was analogous to a soft drink being shaken and opened rapidly, causing a sudden, massive release of the embedded gas. The only previous incidence of this type of disaster occurred at Lake Monoun in 1984, also in Cameroon; this limnic eruption killed 37 people.

Answer: Roger Milla

The 1990 team's 1-0 victory over Argentina, along with a 2-1 triumph over Romania, propelled them into the tournament's second round, where Roger Milla scored two goals in extra time to lead the team to a 2-1 win over Colombia. Milla punctuated his goals with his trademark dance around the corner flag.

The great striker returned in 1994 to become the oldest player ever to score in the World Cup.