Africa Notes: Cameroon: Background to a Crisis - November 1991

Located on the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa, Cameroon is a country with a mixed colonial heritage, parts or all of its territory having been administered at one time or another by Germany, France, and Britain.

Sometimes referred to as an "Africa in miniature," Cameroon is socially diverse, comprising various ethnic groups of West and Central African descent, adherents of Islam and Christianity, and speakers of French, English, and numerous African languages. Once one of Africa's outstanding success stories, blending economic growth and political stability in a continent short of both, Cameroon now faces serious economic difficulties and a crisis of political legitimacy.