East Region (Cameroon)

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East Region
Region
Lom-et-Djérem
Government
• Governor	Gregoire Mvongo[1]
Area
• Total	109,002 km2 (42,086 sq mi)
Population  (2015)
• Total	835,642
• Density	7.7/km2 (20/sq mi)
HDI (2017)	0.549[2] low · 7th of 10

The East Region (

.

The East Region has very little

. The region is thus of little political import and is often ignored by Cameroonian politicians. This coupled with the low level of development in the province have led to its being dubbed "the forgotten province".

The southwest region is the most endowed with natural resources like oil,timber and plantain plantation

Geography

Land

The

becomes the dominant soil component. While the region supports an abundance of plant life, it is not particularly fertile due to leaching caused by the humid environment. Eastern dirt hardens quickly in the sun, and it is often used as a building material by poorer inhabitants.

Drainage

The region contains several river systems: the

Congo River basin

.

Relief

Almost the entire territory of the East Region lies on the South Cameroon Plateau that forms the southeastern half of the country. The elevation thus varies between 500 and 1000 metres above sea level except for lower-lying plains of 200 to 500 metres in the extreme southeast centered on the Dja, Boumba, Sangha, and Ngoko Rivers. The land consists largely of monotonous, gently undulating hills known as "half-oranges" due to their resemblance to that fruit.

Climate

The East has a

. Instead, there is a long dry season from December to May, a light wet season from May to June, a short dry season from July to October, and a heavy wet season from October to November. Humidity and cloud cover are relatively high, and precipitation averages 1500–2000 mm per year except in the extreme eastern and northern portions, where it is slightly less.

Plant and animal life

Approximately the lower two thirds of the region is covered in

. Trees here are sparser, but still may grow to be as tall as 20 metres.

The government of Cameroon has established four forest and game reserves in the East: the

(Réserve Pangar Djerem) protects one of the more heavily wooded parts of the Guinean savanna in the region's northwest and extends into the Adamawa Region.

Animal life is abundant and diverse. The forests are inhabited by numerous species of

trade.

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1976	366,235	—
1987	517,198	+3.19%
2005	771,755	+2.25%
2015	835,642	+0.80%
source:[3]

Settlement patterns

The East had 517,198 inhabitants in 1987, and it remains the most sparsely populated of

and the Cameroonian government, a fact that has only further prevented larger numbers of people from settling in the region.

The majority of the population is thus primarily situated in

palm fronds are a common covering, though metal roofing has become more common.

People

The majority of the inhabitants of the East are members of

comprise another significant population.

Most eastern peoples speak their own distinctive languages, though educated individuals usually also know

.

The people of the East are predominantly

Christian

, particularly in the areas closer to the Adamawa Province.

Bantu

The speakers of

south of Yokadouma, and the Kunbabeeg live west of this Mpo-Mpoman territory. All of these groups speak distinct, but closely related, languages.

Though the capital, Bertoua, is a traditional Gbaya settlement, the region is today a melange of several tribes, including the

have lands south of Ndélélé.

Adamawa–Ubangi

The Gbaya are the most populous Ubangi group in the East, and they inhabit most of the Lom and Djerem division (including Bertoua) and the northernmost third of the Kadey division along the Kadey River. They also have smaller population centres, including the village of Gari-Gombo and Djampiel. The Kuo occupy the extreme northeastern corner of the region, including Wendoka. The Gbete (Kepere) live northwest of Bertoua, including the territory from Bélabo west to Yangamo. The Bangantu people live east of the Yokadouma-Moloundou road in the region's southeastern corner.

Baka pygmies

The rest of the region, that which is covered by thick forests and not serviced by roads, is inhabited by the Baka, Babaya, or Babinga pygmies. Though traditionally hunter-gatherers, in recent times, the Baka have established trade with their Bantu neighbours, exchanging wild game for crops or metal tools. This relationship is not always equal, however, and Bantu sometimes take advantage of the Baka, exploiting them for labour or ceding their territory to logging companies without compensation.

The Cameroonian government has tried to encourage the Baka to establish permanent settlements, and some pygmy villages exist in the territory. Most of the Baka remain nomadic, however, living in temporary shelters of leaves and sticks. A much greater force acting to end the Baka's traditional lifestyle is intermarriage and assimilation into neighbouring tribes.

Economy

Agriculture

The vast majority of the inhabitants of the region are

in the province's northeast.

Farms are mostly small-scale affairs planted in clearings in the forest. Farmers clear an area during the dry season using traditional implements such as axes and machetes. The area is then burned, with care taken to preserve fruit trees such as mangoes or plums. At the start of the wet season, spices and common vegetables are planted close to the home and tubers, such as cocoyams and manioc, are placed with plantains in larger plots farther afield. Farmyard manure is used as fertiliser. Crops are then harvested at the beginning of the next dry season.

This method of

allows for high yields in the short term, but quickly exhausts the soil. Farms are thus moved every two to three years, and land must remain fallow for up to ten years once it has been drained in this way. With the East's low population density, however, this generally presents little problem.

Commercial crops also exist. Cocoa and coffee are raised for profit in the areas of Abong-Mbang, Bertoua, and Yokadouma, as well as in the heavy forests south of these areas. Tobacco is grown in the plains north of Batouri. No large-scale commercial livestock exists in the East, though cattle from the northern regions of Cameroon are herded through the province on their way to market in Yaoundé.

Hunting and gathering

Crop growing is often supplemented by

are becoming much more common in modern times. Though most hunting is done on a small scale, larger-scale techniques are sometimes employed. In these bigger hunts, people set fire to areas of forest or grassland in order to flush out prey. Other hunters or dogs frighten the animals into running toward armed men who then kill them.

Industry

The major industry of the East is

.

In recent years, speculators have found deposits of gold near Bataré-Oya, cobalt near Lomié, and iron and aluminium in other areas. Companies have since moved in to exploit these resources as well. Other industries have a much smaller presence, such as a groundnut-oil mill located in Bertoua.

Transportation

For its vast size, the East has very little transportation infrastructure. With the exception of a few private logging roads, travel through the province is only feasible along the three main roads that cover the territory. The first of these, National Road #10, heads east from Yaoundé, passes through

or mini-buses run by private groups known as GICs (French acronym meaning "group d'initiative commune").

The East is accessible via

during the rainy season.

Tourism

Due to the remoteness of the region and the difficulty of travel within it, the East sees very few tourists. The area boasts huge tracts of relatively untouched rain forest, however, and non-governmental organisations such as

may also pursue game through these reserves.

Administration and social conditions

Government

A presidentially appointed governor heads the administration of the province from the capital city of Bertoua.

The East is divided into four departments (departements), each headed by a presidentially appointed senior divisional officer or prefect (prefet):

1. Boumba-et-Ngoko (Boumba and Ngoko) takes up the southeast and has its centre in Yokadouma.
2. Haut-Nyong (Upper Nyong) occupies the southwestern portion and is centred on Abong-Mbang.
3. Kadey (also spelled Kadéï or Kadei) forms the central-eastern portion of the territory and is governed from Batouri.
4. Lom-et-Djérem (Lom and Djérem) consists of the north of the province and has its capital in Bertoua
   .

Each of these divisions is further divided into sub-divisions, each headed by a sub-divisional officer or sub-prefect (sous-prefet). Individual towns usually have a mayor, and some villages have a traditional chief, though this person usually holds little actual authority.

Cameroonian politicians have traditionally ignored the East. The region is simply too underpopulated to have much influence in countrywide elections. Eastern residents have in recent years called for more infrastructure improvements from the government, especially the paving of roads. Candidates for office and government officials do occasionally make stops in the region to address such issues, but their message is often simply an excuse for why such improvements would be detrimental to the region. For example, they often argue that paved roads would only allow the forests upon which the region depends to be cut down at an even faster rate.

Education

School attendance rates are difficult to determine for the East, but are generally higher in the towns than in the villages. Primary schools are fairly widely distributed, but most of the region's secondary schools are located in larger villages or in towns, meaning that students from more remote areas must walk long distances, stay with relatives, or rent rooms during the school year. In addition, school fees keep many families from sending their children for an education.

Health

Due to its thick forests and equatorial climate, the East is home to a host of tropical diseases. Chief among these is malaria, which remains a major cause of death in the region. Dengue fever, filariasis, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis are also endemic. In 1997 and 1998, health professionals recorded outbreaks of what may have been the Ebola virus in the southwest near Ngoila. The World Health Organization today doubts that this "bloody diarrhea" was in fact that virus, however.

As with most of sub-Saharan Africa, poor

.

In recent years, the East has come into focus for its role in the

rate among operators of these logging vehicles to be about 18% and that of the sex workers to be as high as 30%.

Government efforts in the 1980s to improve the number and quality of

sorcerers

.

History

Early population movements

Archaeological finds around Batouri, Bertoua, and Bétaré-Oya attest to human presence in the territory of the East Province since prehistoric times. The earliest inhabitants of the region are commonly assumed to have been the

Fulani

. The Maka stayed to occupy the territories surrounding what is now Massaména and Abong-Mbang, and the Njem settled around present-day Mindourou and Lomié. The Kaka settled in the territory that is now Ndélélé.

The Adama-Ubangi peoples came into the territory as part of this same general migration, though they were usually the ones pushing the Bantu peoples further south. Gbaya tradition says that they moved into the region of Bertoua under a leader named Ndiba. His son, Mbartoua, was in power when the Germans arrived.

The coming of the Europeans

For the five centuries or so since the Portuguese first reached the coast of present Cameroon, European explorers made little attempt to push into the intererior. The region was a source of slaves, which were shipped out via the port at Douala or via the Congo River, though the numbers of natives taken were much smaller than in areas closer to the coast.

The

, both endeavors requiring forced labor by the natives. This often led to violence, such as when the Gbaya under Mbartoua led a rebellion in the Bertoua region in 1903. Another revolt occurred when the Kaka protested their loss of lucrative trade opportunities that they had enjoyed in pre-colonial days.

At the end of World War I in 1916, Germany was forced to cede its colony to France. The French divided Cameroon into nine administrative areas, and most of what is now the East Province fell into the Doumé-Loume-Yokadouma district with its capital in Doumé. The French largely continued the colonial practices of the Germans, with forced labor continuing into the early 20th century. They made further infrastructure improvements, as well, such as improving the road from Yaoundé to Bertoua and on to Garoua-Boulaï.

Post-independence

The boundaries of the East Province were finalised after Cameroon gained independence in 1961. The capital was moved from Doumé to Bertoua in 1972.

The region has largely been ignored since independence. One of the few developments of note include the extension of the

.

In the first months of 2014, thousands of

Culture

Traditional dance accessories

• 
• 
• 

Traditional Dances

• 
• 
• 
• 
  Tam-tam player

Traditional musical instruments

• 
  Tam-tam
• 
  Balafon

References

• Chrispin, Dr. Pettang, directeur, Cameroun: Guide touristique. Paris: Les Éditions Wala.
• Fanso, V.G. (1989) Cameroon History for Secondary Schools and Colleges, Vol. 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Nineteenth Century. Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd.
• Fitzpatrick, Mary (2002) "Cameroon," Lonely Planet West Africa, 5th ed. China: Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd.
• Fomensky, R., M. Gwanfogbe, and F. Tsala, editorial advisers (1985) Macmillan School Atlas for Cameroon. Malaysia: Macmillan Education Ltd.
• Gwanfogbe, Mathew, Ambrose Meligui, Jean Moukam, and Jeanette Nguoghia (1983) Geography of Cameroon. Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd.
• Neba, Aaron, Ph.D. (1999) Modern Geography of the Republic of Cameroon, 3rd ed. Bamenda: Neba Publishers.
• Ngoh, Victor Julius (1996) History of Cameroon Since 1800. Limbé: Presbook.