Cameroon is a central African nation on the Gulf of Guinea bordered by Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo.
It comprises 270 dialects, with French and English as official languages. Some other foreign languages are also part of the Cameroonian education system such as German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Arabic.
European explorers discovered the coast of Cameroun in the 15th century . They arrived in Douala, which is still the economic capital, through the Wouri River. They named it Rio dos Camaroes, whichmeans the River of Pawn or Shrimps in Portuguese.
Later with the arrival of the Germans, they renamed it to Kamerun, which changed after the defeat of Germany in the World War I. The country was then divided between France and Britain. From that time on, Kamerun became Cameroon in the English part and Cameroun in the French part. The Republic of Cameroon is also known as the Africa in miniature due to its diverse landscape that represent the continents major climates zones. landmarks such as white beaches, mountainous areas, tropical rainforest, savannah grassland and sparse deserts can be found in his central African country.
References:
Cameroon History, Language and Culture. World Travel Guide. https://www.worldtravelguide.net/guides/africa/cameroon/history-language-culture/. Accessed August 7, 2019.
german (adj.). Index. https://www.etymonline.com/word/german. Accessed August 7, 2019.
The Commonwealth. http://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/cameroon. Accessed August 5, 2019.
https://www.thoughtco.com/brief-history-of-cameroon-43616. Published May 23, 2019. Accessed August 5, 2019.
https://www.worldtravelguide.net/guides/africa/cameroon/history-language-culture/. Accessed August 7, 2019.
Written by Arline Sonita TCHAGNANG – Study visitor at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament, Luxembourg. She is currently is a student in the trilingual Master in Learning and Communication In Multilingual and Multicultural Context.