A Voyage of Two Continents visits Cameroon

by Brother Leo V. Ryan, CSV

(Editor's Note: In anticipation of his 80th birthday in April of 2007, Brother Leo V. Ryan, CSV was gifted with a Fall 2006 cruise from Lisbon, Portugal to Capetown, South Africa. He visited two countries in Europe and made 12 visits to nine West African countries.)

The earliest settlers in modern Cameroon were the "Pygmies" of the south and southeast forests. They were displaced, actually driven deeper into the forests of the present Central African Republic by various Bantu speaking tribes some 2,000 years ago.

By 1472 the Portuguese Navigator, Fernando Po arrived along the Atlantic Coast and named the region "Rio dus Cameroes" because of the plentiful prawns they caught there. During the slave trading days, the Bantu Empire actually traded with many British, French and German merchants operating along the coast. Trade shifted from slavery to "legitimate" exports of palm oil, ivory and gold.

The first European settlement was established by England in 1845 when an English missionary arrived near what today is Douala. The same Gustau Nachfigal, who earlier in 1884 signed the treaty of Germany Protection in Togo, now on July 12, 1884, also signed a similar treaty with three Douala Chiefs: Bell, Deidu and Akwa. They, individually and collectively, ceded their sovereignty to Kaiser Wilhelm in exchange for trade privileges. The next year, Baron von Soden arrived to become the first German governor of Kamerun. (German spelling)

You may recall that it was at the Treaty of Berlin (1848) that England, France and Germany carved out their respective territories in Africa. Their divisions were made without any respect for tribal kingdoms or linguistic groupings. After World War I, the German countries in Africa were reassigned or expropriated by Britain and France. Togo had already been acquired by the French. In 1922, the then League of Nations placed Cameroon under joint British and French mandates. After World War II, the United Nations renewed their mandate.

Mandated territory is how, in history, we initially referred to the Cameroons. What emerged in League of Nations (later UN) mandate was a British Sector or British Cameroon headquartered at Douala and administered from English Nigeria. The French sector or French Cameroon centered around Yaounde which served as its administrative headquarters. Together these two Cameroons are twice as large as Britain and slightly larger than California. The call for unification of the two Cameroons originated in the French sector together with their demand for independence from France. Since both were now UN Protectorates, the UN conducted a plebiscite.

Ahmadou Ahidjo working within the French sector framework founded in 1958 a political party, Union Camerounaise. He became Prime Minister of the Cameroon Legislative Assembly. He proclaimed the Cameroons independent on January 1, 1960. It took 12 years before a new constitution would be adopted, which dissolved the old federal system and finally created the unified Republic of Cameroon.

The Cameroon has had only two presidents in its history: Ahmadou Ahidju for 22 years (1960 - 1982) and his Prime Minister Paul Boya for 26 years (1982 - 2006).

Because of the common Cameroonian border with Nigeria and the long standing British Cameroon mandate administered from Nigeria, it was not surprising that my first visit to the Cameroons should be by rental car overland from Enugu, capital of Nigeria's Eastern Region, to the border crossing at Ekok. My destination was to Mamfe (West Cameroon). Thomas McGavick, a student of Marquette University was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching in Mamfe. The McGavick name was a St. Viator College name and his great uncle had been an early Bishop of La Crosse. Tom had visited me in Lagos and I was returning the courtesy. It was my first excursion out of Nigeria.

There was the usual chaos and confusion at the market in Enugu about renting a car and hiring a driver. The negotiations delayed our departure. Despite bumpy roads then only tracks, we made good time to the border crossing at Ekuk. This was pre-civil war in Nigeria. Traffic through Ekuk was light. Border guards mostly slept. We awaken them and were quickly waved on. We fully expected to be in Mamfe by late afternoon. Tom had arranged a welcome program for me at his school that evening.

As you might surmise, we didn't make it. Once across the border we were greeted by a tropical rain storm. The road tracks quickly turned to mud. An approaching and a much overloaded Lorry had skidded in the mud. The driver lost control and the Lorry slipped sideways partially in the ditch and partially on the road. The Lorry now completely blocked the narrow tracks in the rainforest.

The rains continued, the mud softened and the Lorry wheels dug deeper in the mud. My driver and I were doomed to spend the night in the Cameroon Rainforest. Curious locals appeared out of the bush. Everyone worked for hours before darkness but was unable to dislodge the Lorry from the ditch. The rains came; the mud grew softer and soon the Lorry lost all traction. There was nothing to do but wait out the rain and stay put until dawn when help might come from the nearest town. We spent a restless night amid the screeching of birds and the cry of monkeys.

Next day road equipment appeared. The Lorry was righted and the road opened. We continued our trip to Mamfe, arriving 24 hours later. There is a popular expression: WAWA meaning "West Africa Wins Again."

It was at Mamfe that I saw evidence of the German influence. Mamfe had organized streets and public areas. The Chief of Mamfe lived in the home of a former German official. The home was castle-like in structure and was surrounded by a protective moat.

Another fascination of mine with Cameroons and Mamfe was generated by the stories written by Gerald Durrell about his animal collecting exploits in (then) British Cameroon. Durrell sought out unique tropical animals for zoos especially in England. He then wrote about his adventures in discovering their natural habitat, catching and caring for them and then relocating them. I have a collection of nine of his volumes. The Overloaded Ark, The Bafut Beagles and A Zoo in My Luggage are the best among them. They are a delightful read, as the British say, humorous and informative. Mamfe was his base of operations in the Cameroons.

He established the Jersey Conservation Trust Zoo on the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands off the southern coast of Britain. During my Cambridge University year (1988 - 1989), I was able to visit his remarkable and unique sanctuary for his "Cameroon friends of the forest."

To return to the Douala of today. Douala was originally organized on the east shore of the Wouli River ("The River of Death"). Modern industrial Douala is organized along the west shore of the river.

Douala is a major port city, a market city and the country's largest city. The port is so large that it is 15 miles from the port to the city. The country's railroad center is also integrated with the port. No vendors or local traders were allowed in the port area. No band greeted us here as they did in Ghana, Togo and Benin. If you wanted to buy local craft or souvenir items it was necessary to walk to the main gate, some 3 miles, or go into the city.

The French enlarged the port to facilitate imports and exports. Export products are fish, groundnuts (peanuts), date palm oil, lumber and oil itself. The port reeked of fish. The port at Douala was enlarged so that Douala could also serve as the larger port facility for the smaller French countries of Togo and Benin.

Douala does not have much of a skyline. Most buildings appeared to be older structures although they are new high-rise offices. Many buildings appeared to be unfinished construction. The tallest buildings were banks and insurance companies. Buildings and condos were under construction. The city was clean with street sweepers keeping it maintained. Cameroon has two seasons: rainy and dry. We were informed that this was "The little rain season." Mount Cameroon is Africa's highest mountain, but only visible on a good day. It was not visible during our October 31, 2006 visit.

Motorcycles were everywhere. Many served as taxis. New and used cars for sale were simply parked along the street. Traders harked their wares along or on every sidewalk and especially at intersections and roundabouts. Tires and auto hub caps were popular street sale items.

Two police officers joined our bus for our city tour. We stopped at the city square, now a park to admire two simple monuments. The first was a sculpture of General Le Clerc, head of the French Freedom Fighters. Cameroon was under the Free French in World War II. The second monument was across the street in the center of the park honoring the Unknown Cameroon Soldiers of World War I who fought along beside French troops.

An interesting note: There were automobiles parked in the four streets forming the perimeter of the park. That would be common in most cities. Here the four streets had become a gigantic car wash. Teams of three men were washing and polishing each of the cars. Clean cars complimented the clean streets - so unlike Senegal, The Gambia, Ghana, Togo and Benin.

We proceeded across the street to view from the outside the oddity of a house, uniquely constructed, which served as the summer palace of Ding Akwa XII, a direct descendant of King Akwa who in 1884 signed the original treaty which agreed to establishing the German Protectorate. We visited his grave, behind the palace and the monument commemorating his reign.

We rejoined our bus and headed out of the city to a oceanside site for a demonstration of drummer and local dancing. Most of us agreed that in comparison to drummers and dancers we had seen especially in Ghana and Togo, the drum troop and six dancers seemed quite amateur. Their performances were more like a rehearsal than professional performance.

Returning to the city we passed several nursery's growing flowers and young trees. Suddenly, we stopped at one street flower market. We were led to a complex of many interconnecting alleys converted into a sales area for traders in traditional arts and crafts.

The pathways were narrow and the sales display areas no bigger than a closet. Most of the masks and carvings were similar to those we had seen in every country since Ghana, so there was less novelty in our visit. The traders were offensively aggressive. The result was that the group called an abrupt end to the visit.

The disappointment of the promised exhibit of "traditional dancing" and the location and super aggressiveness of the traders made the promise of a visit to "enjoy the best range of souvenirs in the country" less than enjoyable. Whether our unhappiness and disappointment was the reason the stop to "Step Inside the Catholic Cathedral" was reduced (for our group) to a drive by. The Cathedral was a neo-Romanesque 1930 structure. Other bus groups visited the "one of the few attractive edifices in town." (Roujh Guide to West Africa, p. 1174.)

Our "pass by" did also include the English Evangelical Church called The Temple of the Century and the Bonalembe Baptist Church. Bonalembe Baptist was the first church was built to commemorate the centennial of the arrival of the first English missionary, Alfred Saker. The second church served as a reminder of German colonial presence. Today the Cameroon is 55% Christian (about one half Catholic), 5% Muslim and 40% Animist.

Most people felt "let down" not only by the tour and the tour guides but by Douala itself. Douala was essentially non-descript. Douala was dismal - an industrial port city, with little of architecture, culture or history to display. The guides were less than informative about the history, economics or politics of the country.

Perhaps we were tired from the daily assault to the mind on new countries and cultures. The ordinariness of the Cameroon, viewed from the perspective of a industrial port city simply did not ignite our imaginations.