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TOUR TO CAMEROON, AFRICA<br />December 12, 2005 - January 1, 2006<br /><br />Tour members: Don and Nancy Miller, Joe and Denny Nkemontoh, and their three children, Dan, Ruth and Paul<br />

Grandpa's Report

Denny Nkemontoh
2006-02-25 19:44:06

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TOUR TO CAMEROON, AFRICA
December 12, 2005 - January 1, 2006

Tour members: Don and Nancy Miller, Joe and Denny Nkemontoh, and their three children, Dan, Ruth and Paul

Brief History: The country got its name in 1472 when the Portuguese sailors first began making sustained visits to the coastal region. They sailed into the area of what is now known as the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Cameroes (i.e. river of prawns). From that time on, the country has had a variety of names, depending on its political and linguistic history, namely Cameroon (British), Kamerun (German) and Cameroun (French).

The first settlements on Cameroon soil were made by Baptist missionaries. In 1844 the British Foreign Missionary Society secured land in West Cameroon to establish a church and school under the leadership of Joseph Merrick, a freed Jamaican slave of West African parentage. After suffering persecution and expulsion, Alfred Saker, an Englishman, came to the shore at the foot of Mount Cameroon in 1858 to establish the Baptist mission station of Victoria, now Limbe. He is considered to be the founder of the seaport city.

The early 1880s saw a mad rush by European powers for the partition of this part of West Africa. In 1884 Germany made a formal treaty with the African chiefs and began to colonize Cameroon, which lasted thirty years. During this time the country made remarkable progress. Plantations, rail lines, docks, and communication, irrigation and power facilities were established throughout the country, many remnants of which still exist today. We especially enjoyed our tour of the Botanical Garden in Limbe established by the German Colonial Government in 1890. Exotic crops, including coffee, tea, pineapple, coconut, rubber, banana, sugar cane and native species, such as palm oil and native rubber were among the trees/plants studied at the Garden before being planted on commercial plantations in Cameroon. Today, these crops contribute ...