Cameroon

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Country Name

Cameroon, or officially the Republic of Cameroon.

Location

Cameroon is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by 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. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Capital

Yaoundé.

Reason for naming the country

Cameroon is called Cameroun in French, Kamerun in German, Camarões in Portuguese, and Cameroon in English.

The country's name derives from camarões, meaning 'shrimps', so-called by the 15th-century Portuguese explorer Fernando Po who named the River Wouri Rio dos Camarões ('shrimp river'), after the many shrimps.

Flag

The Cameroon flag was adopted on May 20, 1975.

The flag of Cameroon consists of three vertical stripes the left stripe is green; the middle is red, and the right stripe is yellow, in the middle of the flag is a five-pointed yellow star. Red, yellow, and green are the pan-African colors and the pattern of the flag is similar to the French Tricolor.

The green color represents the rich forest vegetation of the country's southern region, as well as signifying hope for a happy future.

The red represents independence and unity; the yellow represents the savannas in the north and the sun is the source of Cameroon's happiness.

The star symbolizes the unity of the country.

Language

Both English and French are official languages, although French is the most understood language, German, the language of the original colonizers, has long since been displaced by French and English.

Religion

Cameroon has a high level of religious freedom and diversity. The predominant faith is Christianity, practiced by about two-thirds of the population, while Islam is a significant minority faith, adhered to by about one-fifth.

Currency

Central African CFA franc (XAF).