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Cameroon

Alternative Titles: Kameroon, Kamerun, Republic of Cameroon, République du Cameroun
Cameroon, country lying at the junction of western and central Africa. Its ethnically diverse population is among the most urban in western Africa. The capital is Yaoundé, located in the south-central part of the country.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Cameroon
Flag of Cameroon
flag of Cameroon
National anthem of Cameroon
OFFICIAL NAME
République du Cameroun (French); Republic of Cameroon (English)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT
unitary multiparty republic with two legislative houses (Senate [100]1; National Assembly [180])
HEAD OF STATE
President: Paul Biya
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT
Prime Minister: Philémon Yang
CAPITAL
Yaoundé
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES
French; English
OFFICIAL RELIGION
none
MONETARY UNIT
CFA franc (CFAF)
POPULATION
(2016 est.) 22,556,000
TOTAL AREA (SQ MI)
183,920
TOTAL AREA (SQ KM)
476,350
URBAN-RURAL POPULATION
Urban: (2014) 53.8%
Rural: (2014) 46.2%
LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH
Male: (2015) 56.6 years
Female: (2015) 59.3 years
LITERACY: PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION AGE 15 AND OVER LITERATE
Male: (2011) 81.2%
Female: (2011) 69.2%
GNI PER CAPITA (U.S.$)
(2015) 1,330
  • 1Thirty seats are appointed by the president and 70 seats are indirectly elected; the Senate was provided for under the constitutional revision of 1996 but was not formed until 2013.
Country Data Overview (PDF)Country Data Overview
The country’s name is derived from Rio dos Camarões (“River of Prawns”)—the name given to the Wouri River estuary by Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries. Camarões was also used to designate the river’s neighbouring mountains. Until the late 19th century, English usage confined the term “the Cameroons” to the mountains, while the estuary was called the Cameroons River or, locally, the Bay. In 1884 the Germans extended the word Kamerun to their entire protectorate, which largely corresponded to the present state.
  • Cameroon
    Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc



Plant and animal life

The hot and humid south supports dense rainforests in which hardwood evergreen trees—including mahogany, ebony, obeche, dibetu, and sapelli—may grow more than 200 feet (60 metres) tall. There are large numbers of orchids and ferns. Mangroves grow along the coasts and at the mouths of rivers. The rainforest gives way to the semi-deciduous forest of the central region, where a number of tree species shed their leaves during the dry season. North of the semi-deciduous forest, the vegetation is composed of wooded savanna with scattered trees 10 to 60 feet (3 to 18 metres) high. The density of trees decreases toward the Chad basin, where they are sparse and mainly of Acacia species.
  • Dense rainforest of the Guinea Coast region, Korup National Park, Cameroon.
    Dense rainforest of the Guinea Coast region, Korup National Park, Cameroon.
    Edward Parker/Oxford Scientific Films
The tropical rainforest at elevations between 4,000 and 8,000 feet (1,200 and 2,400 metres) differs from that of the lowlands: the trees are smaller, are of different species, and are festooned with mosses, lichens, and other epiphytes. Above the rainforest zone are drier woodlands, tall grasslands, or patches of mountain bamboo. Above about 7,800 feet (2,400 metres) in the interior and above about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) on Mount Cameroon, short grasses predominate.
The country’s dense forests are inhabited by screaming red and green monkeys, chimpanzees, and mandrills, as well as rodents, bats, and numerous birds—from tiny sunbirds to giant hawks and eagles. A few elephants survive in the forest and in the grassy woodlands, where baboons and several types of antelope are the most common animals. Waza National Park in the north, which was originally created for the protection of elephants, giraffes, and antelope, abounds in both forest and savanna animals, including monkeys, baboons, lions, leopards, and birds that range from white and gray pelicans to spotted waders. To the south lies Dja Faunal Reserve, one of the best-protected rainforests in Africa and a reserve renowned for its biodiversity. In the late 1980s the reserve was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.
European roller (Coracias garrulus), Waza National Park, Cameroon.
© Larry D. Blackmer

Economy

In the two decades following independence, Cameroon was quite prosperous. The government initially concentrated on expansion of educational facilities, diversification of farm production, selective industrialization, rural development, and the introduction of rural cooperatives. In subsequent years, however, less central planning and more reliance on private enterprise and free trade became the dominant trends.
In the mid-1980s, economic mismanagement, coupled with the drop in price of important export commodities—particularly cocoa, coffee, and oil—forced the country into a lengthy recession. In the late 1980s, budget deficits compelled Cameroon to resort to external borrowing and to accept the intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in structural adjustment programs. Cameroon’s economy continues to depend heavily on the sale of its products on the world market, and fluctuations in the global prices of its primary goods—petroleum and cocoa—have made its economic situation unpredictable; corruption, a persistent problem, also hampers economic development.



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