Cameroon

From the arid savannas of the Sahel to the lush primeval forest, from the black beaches of volcanic sand, dominated by the majestic Mount Cameroon, to the surreal peaks of the Mandara Mountains, “Africa in miniature” fully maintains its promises of landscape and morphological variety.

An exceptional geography for this generous land that includes as many cultural treasures, with over 200 peoples that make up the rich ethnographic mosaic of Cameroon. Populations such as the Hidé, with their characteristic decorated calebasse headdresses, the Barka Pygmies, the only depositories of a lifestyle in symbiosis with the most intricate and apparently inhospitable nature. Or the Koma, which are handed down from generation to generation, ancient ancestral traditions of animist rituals, and the Mesgum with their suggestive raw earth howitzer dwellings, without forgetting the colorful system of powerful chefferies, guarantors of the tradition of the central-western peoples, who for centuries have exercised ancestral and symbolic power from their courts, in parallel with institutional politics, intertwining and overlapping it in a subtle balance.

It is not surprising that such a rich land has over the centuries tempted the colonialism of the European powers in constant competition with each other. This is how today the ancient traces of the first Portuguese coastal presence and the most recent English, German and French dominations, in politics, economy and religion, survive almost everywhere. If native languages and ancestral beliefs still prevail intact and more deeply felt than ever, Cameroon is also the country where a large part of the population is able to express themselves in German, French and English, as well as presenting a mix of Christian religious currents, from Catholicism to Protestantism, without forgetting the Arab-Muslim influence that came through centuries of trans-Saharan trade and peulh theocratic wars, lapping most of the Cameroonian savannahs.

Every region of Cameroon is a microcosm in its own right, and visiting this country is like immersing yourself in a mosaic of cultural and geographical realities, different from each other.