First Contacts to Cameroon- Portugal

Bernard Fonlon wrote an article called “The Language Problem in Cameroon. (An Historical Perspective)” in which he said, “The first contact that Cameroon had with the Western World was with the Portuguese.” Fonlon said Fernando Gomez and his crew were representing King Alphonso V on their journey and found “what is now the Wouri River”. They named it the “river Rio dos Camaroes, the River of Prawns” because there were so many prawns (shrimp like animals) in the water about 1472. [1]

                         Prawns are like shrimp, They are what Cameroon was named after.
                     https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prawns_at_Sydney_Fish_Market_-_2.jpg

                                  

In a source by Ernst van Veen, King Alphonso V received power “of conquest and mission” after Prince Henry “the Navigator” died. He mandated “a royal monopoly on the trade in gold, pepper, precious stones, civet cats (for their musk), and ivory, but leased the slave trade to private contractors.”[2]

                    Henry the Navigator (The Uncle of King Alphonso)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Henry_the_Navigator#/media/File:20_Escudos_c%C3%A9l%C3%A9brant_le_500e_anniversaire_de_la_mort_de_l%E2%80%99infant_Don_Henrique_dit_le_navigateur,1960.jpg

            According to John Lang, King Alphonso was the nephew of Prince Henry. After Prince Henry died, Fernando Gomez rented the “African trade for a period of five years” from King Alphonso, he also had to abide by certain rules. One expectation was for Fernando to explore “at least one hundred leagues of coast to the south, beginning from Sierra Leone…each year.”[3] In Lang‘s book he says Fernando “past[s] the Cameroon Mountains”[4] and it seems he was looking for gold since “the thirst for gold”[5], since it began with Henry the Navigator.

                                     

 

            Sierra Leone where Gomes was to being his expedition and go south.                https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone#/media/File:LocationSierraLeone.svg

            The story becomes clear when it is put altogether. Henry the Navigator from Portugal was exploring many countries. His explorations drove his people to travel and explore, with the hopes of finding gold. Henry dies and King Alphonso, his nephew, inherits the expeditions. Alphonso, instead, rents out the opportunity, to explore and trade in Africa, to Fernando Gomez for half a decade, with requirements. It was during this time Gomez finds the water which was swarming with prawns, and names the river. This is Cameroon first encounter with an outside culture and it is how Cameroon received its name. Portugal did not settle in Cameroon on the first encounter. After the visitors from Portugal named the river they continued their journey south looking for gold.

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[1] Bernard Fonlon, “The Language Problem in Cameroon. (An Historical Perspective),” Comparative Education 5, no.1 (February 1969): 28, accessed February 17, 2017, JSTOR.

[2] Ernst van Veen, “Empire, Portuguese: The African Adventures”, Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. (Detroit: Macmillan, 2007), 416, accessed February 17, 2017, World Scholar: Latin American & the Caribbean.

[3]John Lang, “The Rediscovery of West Africa”, The Land of the Golden Trade [West Africa] (London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1910), 35, accessed February 17, 2017, https://ia802205.us.archive.org/33/items/landofgoldentrad00langrich/landofgoldentrad00langrich.pdf

[4] John Lang, “The Rediscovery of West Africa”, The Land of the Golden Trade [West Africa] (London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1910), 35(Page 55 on the PDF), accessed February 17, 2017, https://ia802205.us.archive.org/33/items/landofgoldentrad00langrich/landofgoldentrad00langrich.pdf

[5] John Lang, “The Rediscovery of West Africa”, The Land of the Golden Trade [West Africa] (London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1910), 35(Page 55 on the PDF), accessed February 17, 2017, https://ia802205.us.archive.org/33/items/landofgoldentrad00langrich/landofgoldentrad00langrich.pdf