Talk:Bamileke languages

Cameroon,[a] officially the Republic of Cameroon,[b] is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea, and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Cameroon's population of nearly 31 million people speak 250 native languages, in addition to the national tongues of English and French, or both. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões (Shrimp River), which became Cameroon in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms.

Evidence from digs at Shum Laka in the Northwest Region shows human occupation in Cameroon dating back 30,000 years.[15][16] The longest continuous inhabitants are groups such as the Baka (Pygmies).[17] From there, Bantu migrations into eastern, southern and central Africa are believed to have occurred about 2,000 years ago.[18] The Sao culture arose around Lake Chad, c. 500 CE, and gave way to the Kanem and its successor state, the Bornu Empire. Kingdoms, fondoms, and chiefdoms arose in the west.[19]

Portuguese sailors reached the coast in 1472. They noted an abundance of the ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus turneranus in the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Camarões (Shrimp River), which became Cameroon in English.[20] Over the following few centuries, European interests regularised trade with the coastal peoples, and Christian missionaries pushed inland.[21]

In 1896, Sultan Ibrahim Njoya created the Bamum script, or Shu Mom, for the Bamum language.[22][23] It is taught in Cameroon today by the Bamum Scripts and Archives Project.[23]

German rule

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