British Cameroon

This article is about the historical British colony. For the modern state, see Cameroon. For the historical French colony, see French Cameroons. For the territories ceded to Germany by France in 1911, see Neukamerun. For the 1884–1916 German colony, see Kamerun. For the joint British-French mandate, see Cameroun.

British Cameroons
1922–1961
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: God Save the King/Queen
Status	Mandate of the United Kingdom
Capital	Buea
Common languages	English (official) Duaka, Oroko, Grassfields, Fula, Kanuri widely spoken
Religion	Christianity (southern area) Islam (northern area)
Historical era	World War I
• Kamerun partitioned	July 20 1922
• Integration into Nigeria and Cameroon	October 1 1961
Currency	British West Africa pound
ISO 3166 code	CM
Preceded by Succeeded by Kamerun Nigeria Cameroon
Today part of	Cameroon Nigeria

British Cameroons was a British Mandate territory in British West Africa. Today, the territory forms parts of Northern Nigeria in West Africa and Cameroon in Central Africa.

History

Cameroon 1901–1972

  German Kamerun

  British Cameroons

  French Cameroun

  Republic of Cameroon

The area of present-day Cameroon was claimed by Germany as a protectorate during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century.

League of Nations Mandate

During World War I, it was occupied by British, French and Belgian troops, and a later League of Nations Mandate to Great Britain and France by the League of Nations in 1922. The French mandate was known as Cameroun and the British territory was administered as two areas, Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Northern Cameroons consisted of two non-contiguous sections, divided by a point where the Nigerian and Cameroun borders met. In the 1930s, most of the white population consisted of Germans with Nazi sympathies; they were interned in British camps starting in June 1940. The native population of 400,000 showed little interest in volunteering for the British forces; only 3500 men did so.

Independence

French Cameroun became independent, as Cameroun or Cameroon, in January 1960, and Nigeria was scheduled for independence later that same year, which raised question of what to do with the British territory. After some discussion (which had been going on since 1959), a plebiscite was agreed to, and held on 11 February 1961. The Muslim-majority Northern area opted for union with Nigeria, and the Southern area voted to join Cameroon.

Northern Cameroons became a region of Nigeria on 31 May 1961, while Southern Cameroons became part of Cameroon later that year on 1 October 1961. In the meantime, the area was administered as a United Kingdom Trust Territory.

See also

• Postage stamps and postal history of British Cameroons

External links

• The road to the unitary state of Cameroon 1959-1972
• National Service Memoirs of a National Serviceman who served in the British Cameroons at the time of the vote to join with the French Cameroons or Nigeria