"It is a gorgeous country. My wife and I traveled continuously there for nearly half a year, and I know no better way to describe it than as and how we saw it" (p. 225, "The Mandate of Cameroun.: A Vast African Territory Ruled by Petty Sultans Under French Sway," National Geographic Magazine, February, 1931, by John W. Vandercook). The author has already interested us in this country!
Cameroun, in Mr. Vandercook's words, "is a vast territory that lies at the inner corner of the Gulf of guinea, just where West Africa becomes Equatorial Africa. It touches the sea for a distance of about 125 miles, and then fans out gigantically to reach the Sahara to the north, the Oubangui River to the east, and Gabon colony at its lower boundary" (p. 225).
Douala is the largest city in Cameroun. It "will never be proud of its climate. In the dry season it is hot, breathless beyond belief" (p. 227).
Mr. & Mrs. Vandercook travel north by train through the great equatorial forest. "Occasionally the forest breaks and the train passes plantations of tobacco, banana, palm oil, and cacao" (p. 229).
An ever-present danger was the presence of mosquitoes (carriers of malaria and yellow-fever), and the tsetse fly (carrier of sleeping sickness). One time two years ago in my nursing career, I cared for a patient who declined the medicine to prevent malaria and came back from Africa with malaria. She needed an unprecidented three dialysis treatments in one day. It was the only time our nephrologists stayed with the patient during the entire treatment. In 1931, huge nets around beds at night was the only prevention for this terrible disease.
The train climbed higher and reached Nkongsamba, then the pair of travelers used a car on the plateau. "Dominating the mood of the view is that sense of utter solitude one feels so powerfully in central Africa, of timelessness and emptiness" (p. 237).
Foumban is the next city of the road north. Njoya is the sultan. He has no standing army, but all subchiefs "and their male relatives ride and bear arms. . .He could assemble 200 mounted soldiers very quickly" (p. 239). Njoya has a harem of 200 wives.
Mr. Vandercook approved of Foumban: "one has an immediate impression of order, prosperity, civilization" (p. 240). Sultan Njoya keeps a museum with "carving, bronzes, spears, beadwork, brass jewelry, embroideries, and textile. . .because he admires them and because he takes pride in every tradition of his people" (p. 246).
Continuing the journey, "Beyond Foumban, if one wants to go beyond, there is but one way of traveling - on foot. . .Everything, of course, with the single exception of food, must be carried" (p. 246). "The path, a beaten dirt track from a foot to six feet wide, is clear and has no rivals and no forks" (p. 247).
On the trail the author enjoyed lowland groves with birds and butterflies, and long-tailed monkeys. "Now and then. . .the caravan meets a cattle herder, accompanied by anywhere from a dozen to 5,000 herd of the long-horned zebu" (p. 251).
"In only one particular is the plateau disappointing - in the scarcity, except for the zebu, of visible game. Animals are there, but one doesn't unless extraordinarily fortunate, see them. Every early morning the path is muddied with the treads of lions, leopards, hyenas, and sometimes great anubis baboons, but they have vanished witrh the coming of day . . . in the six-foot grass" (p. 251).
When fordiing streams, everyone had to look out for crocodiles. Agricultural methods were crude and primitive. The author noticed that the few automobiles and roads seemed to have no effect at all on the natives. The country was ruled by the French. With the presence of the Sultans, I'm not sure what the French rulers did. North to this country was a smaller "German Cameroun."
Mr. Vandercook felt like Cameroun had vast potential: "Sooner or later, the plateau will be a market garden of the world" (p. 259). He was saddened by the poor health of the people: "The vast majority of them are sick. Yaws, malaria, rickets, elephantiasis, or dengue, is in the blood of nearly every one, and, above all, sleeping sickness" (p. 260).
Yet hospitals were making impressive iinroads into combatting the diseases. Mr. Vandercook holds great hope, "The resources are there and the world wills that they be developed. No colony on the West AFrican coast has more varied possibilities. It is logical to think that what is now so little known will become eventually commonplace" (p. 260).
(My first safari!)
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