White Man and Cameroon Jungles
Monday, June 11, 2012
Cameroon sits at a crossroads between West Africa and even more exotic and unexplored Central Africa, fitting at times into both geographical designations. One example of it being part of Central rather than West Africa is its currency; Like Chad, Gabon, Congo, and Central African Republic, Cameroon uses the Central African Franc, a currency with the same value as but not interchangeable with the West African Franc we had been using throughout French speaking West Africa.
In the post-independence years Cameroon was one of the more prosperous African countries, but declining commodity prices and serious official corruption have tarnished its economic success over the last quarter century. Because Cameroon was split between British and French control for five decades before independence, both English and French are official languages with each dominant in the former colonial power's region of control. There advantages to both sides of the country's linguistic divide. Whereas it was easier for us to communicate with people in the English-speaking provinces, the bread, pastry, and other found was infinitely better in the French-speaking areas. Some things just never change wherever you go in the world. We entered Cameroon in the English speaking western region near the Nigerian border and finished up in the French dominant region around Douala and Kribi.Read the story by a white man (Modernnomad67) in Cameroon Jungle. Also see the images.
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:06 AM,
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