Provinces of Cameroon

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Updates: 

On 2006-06-12, Nigeria and Cameroon signed an agreement transferring the Bakassi Peninsula from Nigeria to Cameroon. This transfer is in compliance with a 2002 decision by the International Court of Justice. The transfer should be fully implemented within two years. The area will now be in Sud-Ouest province. A post to Wikipedia says that it measures about 700 km². Thanks to Seth Itzkowitz for reporting this.

The Europa World Year Book 2001 has figures for the 1987 census.

Correction: In "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", 1982 was given as the date for a reorganization, in which Centre-Sud province was split into Centre and Sud, and Nord province was split into Adamaoua, Extrême-Nord, and Nord. The correct date is 1983-08-22. According to Geographic Notes for 1985-09-30, published by the U.S. State Department, that was the date of Presidential decree 83-390. I have greatly augmented the change history, as shown below.

Country overview: 

In 1900, the German protectorate of Kamerun covered a little more territory than Cameroon does now. On 1911-11-04, it was augmented by a cession of 270,000 sq. km. taken from French Equatorial Africa. In 1916-01, during World War I, France and England seized Kamerun from Germany. France immediately re-integrated its 1911 cession into French Equatorial Africa. On 1922-07-20, former Kamerun was mandated partly to England (90,000 sq. km.) and partly to France (700,000 sq. km.). The British mandate (British Cameroons) was treated as two parts: Northern and Southern Cameroons. After World War II, the mandate was converted to a trust territory under the aegis of the United Nations. The French mandate became the territory of Cameroun. Cameroun gained its independence from France on 1960-01-01. Southern Cameroons united with it on 1961-10-01.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Cameroun
2. Dutch: Kameroen, Republiek Kameroen (formal)
3. English: Republic of Cameroon (formal), Cameroons (obsolete), Cameroun (obsolete), Kamerun (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Kamerun
5. French: Cameroun, République f du Cameroun m (formal)
6. German: Kamerun n
7. Icelandic: Kamerún
8. Italian: Camerun m
9. Norwegian: Kamerun, Republikken Kamerun (formal)
10. Portuguese: Camarões, República f dos Camarões mp (formal)
11. Spanish: Camerún, República f del Camerún m (formal)
12. Swedish: Kamerun

Origin of name: 

from the Cameroon River, Portuguese Rio dos Camarões: Crayfish River

Primary subdivisions: 

Cameroon is divided into ten provinces.

The two-letter ISO codes (that is, the last two letters of the HASC codes) are used as the first two letters of a license plate number to indicate the vehicle's province of origin. The Universal Postal Union recommends using the ISO codes in postal addresses.

The Ethnia  site seems to think that the name of Nord province is East Benue, but I haven't seen that name used anywhere else.

Further subdivisions:

See the Departments of Cameroon page.

The provinces are subdivided into départements, which are in turn subdivided into arrondissements. The number of départements has changed from time to time. There were 33 in ~1965, 39 in ~1982, 49 in ~1987, and 58 in 2000.

Origins of names: 

1. Adamaoua: conquered by Moddibo (King) Adama in the early 19th century
2. Extrême-Nord: French for Far North
3. Littoral: French for Coastal

Change history: 

1. In 1900, the German protectorate of Kamerun covered a little more territory than Cameroon does now. In 1908, Germany ceded a duck-bill-shaped region east of the Logone River to French Kongo (Chad). On 1911-11-04, Kamerun was augmented by a cession of 278,000 sq. km. taken from the Congo territory in French Equatorial Africa. In 1916-01, during World War I, France and England seized Kamerun from Germany. France immediately re-integrated its 1911 cession into French Equatorial Africa. On 1922-07-20, former Kamerun was mandated partly to England (89,270 sq. km.) and partly to France (710,000 sq. km., including the cession of 1911, which was restored to Congo). The British mandate (British Cameroons) was treated as two parts: Northern and Southern Cameroons. After World War II, the mandate was converted to a trust territory under the aegis of the United Nations. The French mandate became the French territory of Cameroun. Cameroun gained its independence from France on 1960-01-01. Southern Cameroons united with it on 1961-10-01. Northern Cameroons later joined Nigeria.
2. In 1949, Southern Cameroons was divided into two provinces: Bamenda (capital Bamenda) and Southern (capital Buea). They correspond to the present-day Nord-Ouest and Sud-Ouest province, respectively.
3. After World War II, Cameroun consisted of fourteen regions. By 1960, the number had grown to nineteen. The following table combines the data from the 1946 census with those from the 1951 census. I deduced which 1951 regions corresponded with each of the 1946 regions by comparing areas and populations, and taking geographical proximity into account. It may be that some transfers of territory took place. Spelling variations are reproduced from the sources: Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1951 and 1957 editions.

1. 1960-01-01: Cameroun (English name Cameroon) gained its independence from France.
2. 1961-10-01: Southern Cameroons united with Cameroon. The new country consisted of two federal states: East Cameroon (capital Yaoundé, FIPS code CM01) and West Cameroon (capital Buea, FIPS code CM02). East Cameroon was equivalent to the old Cameroon, and West Cameroon was the same as Southern Cameroons. At some point, possibly here, the status of regions was changed to departments.
3. ~1963: Number of departments in East Cameroon increased to thirty. I don't have before-and-after maps showing the details. Tentatively, Bamiléké split into Bamboutos, Haut-Nkam, Ménoua, Mifi, and Ndé; Mayo-Danaï split from Diamaré; Lom-et-Kadeï split into Lom-et-Djerem and Kadeï; and Nyong-et-Sanaga split into Haute-Sanaga, Lékié, Méfou, Nyong-et-Kéllé, Nyong-et-Mfoumou, and Nyong-et-Soo.
4. 1968-08: On a Defense Department map of this date, West Cameroon federal state consists of six "divisions". East Cameroon federal state consists of thirty departments.
5. ~1968: The Times Atlas of the World, Comprehensive Edition, shows Cameroon subdivided into West Cameroon (French: Cameroun Occidental) and five lower-level divisions named Centre-Sud, Est, Littoral, Nord, and Ouest.
6. 1972-06-02: New constitution adopted, following a referendum (1972-05-21) on forming a unitary state. It was probably on or about this date that the two federal states were abolished, and the seven provinces listed in the following table became the new first-level subdivisions.

1. 1983-08-22: Centre-Sud province split into two provinces: Centre and Sud. Nord province split into three provinces: Adamaoua, Nord, and Extrême-Nord.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. All the directional names (Centre, Est, etc.) can be translated.
2. Adamaoua: Adamaua (Portuguese), Adamawa (English)
3. Littoral: Litoral (Portuguese, Spanish)