Ngaoundéré

Ngaoundéré is beautifully placed on the Adamaoua plateau just north of the rainforest in Cameroon, about half the way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Lake Chad, the southernmost and northernmost points of Cameroon. From the plane Ngaoundéré shines in the sun. All the tin plates reflect the bright sun beams. From the ground, the town houses seem to grow from the soil where they stand on. Most of the houses are built from the earth. The reddish soil is beautiful and agreeable to look at in the afternoon sun.

The Adamaoua plateau and its villages, where conquered by the Muslim Fulani in 1804. In a few years the Fulani, who were very mobile due to their horses, overtook the control of most of Northern-Cameroon. A sultanate was installed in Ngaoundéré. The Sultan established his wealth and power on slavery, the sultan’s men where sent out to capture slaves from the surrounding country.

Since the early 19th century Ngaoundéré has been the administrative centre of the region. Norwegian and American missionaries arrived in Ngaoundéré in the early 1920ies, starting up programs to Christianize the population, to build schools and healthcare programmes. Today Ngaoundéré has some of the best hospitals (Hopital Norvegiene) and high schools in Northern Cameroon. The Sultanate tries to take care of its position as a regional institution within the new democracy in Cameroon. The central administration of the national Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon is situated in Ngaoundéré. Now the Sultan himself is present in on public events with church leaders.

Ngaoundéré is a fast growing town. The growth started by the arrival of the railway in 1974 and has continued through the 80s and the 90s. Today people immigrate from the neighboring countries and the northern part of Cameroon to Ngaoundéré.
Somehow paradoxically many of those who now arrive in the town, originate from the people who in earlier years were captured by the Sultan’s men and came to Ngaoundéré as slaves. The town has a huge cultural and religious complexity, but it seems like the social development is peaceful.