Cameroon: Political System
According to CANCERMATTERS.NET, Cameroon is a presidential republic in the Commonwealth. The unicameral parliament with 180 members is elected every five years. The head of state is also directly elected every five years. See AbbreviationFinder for more information about Cameroon politics, and acronyms as well.
The official name of the country is:
| – République du Cameroun– Republic of Cameroon
– Republik Kamerun |
National anthem
“Chant de Ralliement” (Rallying Song) has been the official national anthem of Cameroon since 1957. The music comes from René Djam Afame, who wrote the words together with Samuel Minkio Bamba and Moïse Nyatte Nko’o. In 1978 the text was changed.
| The original text in French | In the English translation |
| O Cameroon, cradle of our ancestors,Go, stand up and jealous of your freedom.
Like a sun your proud flag must be, A fiery symbol of faith and unity, May all your children from North to South, From East to West be all love! To serve you that this is the only goal To fulfill their duty always.Refrain Dear Fatherland, dear land, You are our only and true happiness. Our joy, our life, Your love and the great honor.You are the tomb where our fathers sleep, The garden that our ancestors cultivated. We are working to make you prosperous, One fine day at last we will have arrived. From Africa be faithful child And progress always in peace, Hoping that your young children will love You without bounds forever. |
Oh Cameroon, you cradle of our ancestors,holy shrine in the middle of which they now rest,
their tears, their blood and their sweat soaked your soil, on your hills and valleys their flowers bloomed. Dear fatherland, no words can describe your worth! How can we ever pay the debt? We will achieve your well-being through work, love and peace, this will become your eternally true name!Refrain Land of Promise, Land of Glory! You, the keeper of life and joy! Yours be honor, yours be surrender and deep love, forever.From the Shari river, where the mongoose flows along the banks of the flat Boumba river, line your sons in unity around you, mighty as the Buea mountain be their team; awaken in them the love of the gentle ways, the regret for the mistakes of the past; let faithfulness grow for Mother Africa so that truthfulness lasts forever. |
National flag
The flag of Cameroon was officially introduced on May 20, 1975. Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, the colors of the flag and the star are interpreted as follows;
– Green symbolizes the country’s rich vegetation – which can be found mainly in the south.
– Yellow represents the sun and the savannah floor of the north.
– Red stands for the blood shed in the struggle for independence
– The golden star symbolizes the unification of an indivisible state
- Check top-mba-universities for public holidays, sports events, UNESCO world heritage sites and major places to visit in Cameroon.
Cameroon: people known
Vincent Aboubakar (born 1992)
The Cameroonian football player from Yaoundé played as a striker for the French Ligue 1 club Valenciennes FC.
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo (1924-1989)
Ahidjo, President of Cameroon from 1960 to 1982, developed a dictatorship by 1976 at the latest, which made his country one of the most stable in all of Africa. He resigned from his post in 1982 for health reasons and lived in southern France and Senegal until his death.
Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry (born 1946)
The former French astronaut, born in Douala in 1946, worked as an astronaut candidate for the French space agency CNES from 1980.
Francis Bebey (1929-2001)
The poet, singer, composer and songwriter also wrote the ethnomusic work “Musique de L’Afrique” (1969).
Jean-Pierre Bekolo (born 1966)
The African film director from Yaoundé, currently a lecturer at Duke University, joins the experimental tradition established by Djibril Diop Mambéty with his work.
Joseph Bessala (1941-2010)
Jospeh Bessala, a Cameroonian welterweight boxer, initially worked as an amateur before becoming a professional boxer in 1968. After he won the African welterweight title twice, he lost to Moroccan Mimoun Mohatar in 1978 and then stepped back from boxing.
Mongo Beti, actually Alexandre Beyidi (1932-2001)
The African writer and critic of neocolonialism caused a sensation in the 1950s with his novel “Le pauvre Christ de Bomba” (The poor Christian of Bomba) with his critical portrayal of missionaries excited.
Calixthe Beyala (born 1961)
The French writer of Cameroonian origin, who was born in Douala in 1961, repeatedly touches on taboo subjects such as the oppression of women and the outdated traditions in a world dominated by men in her not uncontroversial works.
Paul Biya (born 1933) Paul Biya, born
in Mvomeka’a in 1933 as Paul Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo, has been the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He succeeded his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo and established a multi-party system in the 1990s. Biya’s policy has been criticized again and again, especially by the English-speaking Cameroonians, as they feel left out of the political process. In 2004 Biya was re-elected with almost 71%, which many people in the country see as a fraud.
Biboul Darouiche (born 1963)
Biboul Darouiche, a Cameroonian percussionist and composer, came from Yaoundé. He works all over the world and has worked with greats like Al Di Meola and Miles Davis.
Manu Dibango (born 1933)
The pianist, saxophonist and vibraphone player, who was actually born in Douala in 1933 as Emmanuel N’Djoké Dibango, repeatedly combined jazz with elements of traditional Cameroonian music.
Hans Dominik (1870-1910)
The officer of the Imperial Protection Force for Cameroon and head of the Yaounde station pacified the colony and published two books about his work, which, despite some glossing over, are a valuable source of understanding the history and ethnology of Cameroon.
Samuel Eto’o (born 1981)
The footballer played for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona as a striker.
Narcisse Ewodo (born 1972)
The former French-Cameroonian basketball player, born in Yaoundé in 1972, played for the German Bundesliga club BG Karlsruhe until 2007, but had to retire from professional basketball due to a shoulder injury.
Richard Kund (1852-1904)
The German officer and explorer, born in 1852, founded the scientific research station Yaoundé in 1888, i.e. today’s Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
Véronique Mang (born 1984)
The French sprinter of Cameroonian origin was born in Douala in 1984 and won the silver medal over 100 meters in Barcelona in 2010. She is currently starting for the Entente Franconville Cesame Val d’Oise.
Albert Roger Miller (Milla) (born 1952)
Because of an official’s mistake, Miller is also known as Milla. He was voted the best football player in Africa in 1976 and 1990. He is now a national hero and also an advisor to the president.
Marlyse Bernadett Ngo Ndoumbouk (born 1985)
This Cameroonian soccer player was born in 1985 in Yaoundé. Ngo Ndoumbouk has been playing since she was ten and was discovered in 2000 by the Cameroonian club Louves MINCOF Yaoundé. Since 2009 she has been playing for the German Bundesliga club FF USV Jena.
Gerhard Heinrich Vieter SAC (1853-1914)
Vieter was a Catholic bishop and the first Vicar Apostolic of Cameroon. At the beginning of 2005, the current Archbishop of Yaounde initiated the official beatification process for Bishop Vieters.
Cameroon: animals
Mammals
The biodiversity is particularly rich in the north of the country, here you can still meet elephants, giraffes, leopards, buffalo and various antelope species in the animal reserves . Noteworthy are the giant eland antelope, which is threatened with extinction, with its large, twisted horns, as well as the colorful bongo antelope. The characteristic feature of the latter are the white stripes on the russet fur.
Particularly noticeable are the numerous species of monkeys that one can encounter not only in the protected areas. While chimpanzees, mandrill monkey and the critically endangered Cross River gorilla can only find in the woods, living Dog-faced baboons and monkeys often outside the national parks. The drill from the vervet family is also threatened by hunting and clearing of the rainforests.
Reptiles
Crocodiles live on the Bénoué River, other reptiles are the mountain chameleon, which occurs almost exclusively on the great Cameroon Mountain, and the comb chameleon, which prefers to hide in the bushes and in the elephant grass.
Snakes (not poisonous)
Widely used is the python, which mainly by notice that he curls up in case of danger into a ball and hence the name “Ball Python” has received.
The rock python (Python sebae) can also be found here.
Poisonous animals
Boomslang, African tree snake
Gaboon viper
Ordinary puff adder
Rhinoceros viper
Black mamba
Black and white cobra, white lipped cobra, Naja melanoleuca
Southern bird snake, Thelotornis capensis
Insects, spiders
Very uncomfortable, as the bite of the driver ants is painful, which one encounters at every step in the woods at the latest. Other representatives of the invertebrate fauna are cockroaches, praying mantises, giant dragonflies and termites, all of which can also be found almost everywhere.
Birds
There is a particularly large abundance of birds in the Waza National Park. Here live alongside ostriches, storks, ibises and cranes and pelicans, geese, herons, kingfishers and belonging to the family of storks marabou. Birds of prey such as eagles and vultures are also part of the local avifauna.
Some of the species that live here are strictly endemic, which means that their occurrence is restricted to Cameroon. These include the Bamenda Apalis which Bamendalappenschnäpper, the Bannerman weaver and the Bannermanturako.
Underwater world
In the Bénoué river there are said to be the 50 kg Capitaine fish, which are considered a delicacy. The Lagdo reservoir plays a particularly important role in fishing, and the Logone River in northern Cameroon on the border with Chad is also very rich in fish.
Cameroon: plants
Cameroon’s landscapes vary greatly depending on the climatic zones, of which there are some. The west is dominated by mountain forests and grassland, there is tropical rainforest in the south of the country, this goes north into the wet savannah and finally into the shrub and thorn savannah as well as steppe areas.
Trees
The kapok trees are clearly one of the largest trees in the rainforest. They reach sizes of up to 70 m and are characterized by fold-like roots at the foot of the tree. The German name is “Wollbaum”, in English it is known as “Silk cotton tree”. This is because there are cotton-like hairs in the fruit capsules that can be used to stuff mattresses.
Other rainforest trees are the popular sources of wood, mahogany (sapelli), teak and ebony. However, the African mahogany is not a real mahogany, as it only occurs in Central and South America.
In wetlands, the raphia palm thrives with the longest leaves in the palm family, as they can reach a length of up to 20 m.
The baobab is typical of the bush savannah in the Bénoué basin. This tree with its strikingly shaped trunk and silver-gray bark belongs to the wool tree family and can live up to 1000 years. Furthermore, it is characterized by its cucumber-shaped and wood-skinned fruits as well as fatty seeds. The baobab can store up to 5000 liters of water in the dry season, but then it loses all its leaves in order to protect itself from excessive evaporation and thus from dying of thirst. Acacias are also very common in this area and mango trees are also found here, as they get along well with dry locations such as the savannah.
In areas where the primary forest has been cut down, the umbrella tree grows, which is typical of a secondary forest and a clear sign of the
Other plants
On the shores of Lake Chad in the north of Cameroon there is a rather sparse vegetation, mainly thorn bushes thrive here. Grass only occurs in the rainy season between July and August.
Crops
The cultivation of oil palms, rubber trees and cocoa and the areas required for them are increasingly displacing the natural tropical coastal forest. However, the predominant cultural landscape is located in the Bamiléké plateau, where fruit trees and eucalyptus trees are grown. Cereals, coffee and tea are also cultivated in Cameroon.
The neem tree not only has healing properties, but is also used for the production of pesticides, as the seeds contain a poison that is very effective against insects.
Medicinal plants
The neem tree has a long tradition as a medicinal plant in its native India. Extracts from the leaves and seeds have a blood-purifying effect, are supposed to prevent infections and relieve burns.
Poisonous plants
An extremely poisonous plant is the calabar bean, which belongs to the butterfly family. The climbing plant can reach a height of 15 m. The poison from the seeds causes muscle spasms and was previously used to determine the guilt of a criminal. The bean was swallowed, and if the poison did its job, the criminal identified in this way was punished on the spot. If the poison remained ineffective, the person was considered innocent. The active ingredient physostigmine from the seeds of the calabar bean is used in medicine for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and in homeopathy.
Introduced plants
The neem tree, which is very common in localities, was imported from India.
