Ngaoundéré

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Downtown Ngaoundéré with Mount Ngaoundéré in the distance

Ngaoundéré or N'Gaoundéré is the capital of the Adamawa Province of Cameroon. It has a population of 189,800 (2001 estimate). It lies at the northern end of the railway to Yaoundé and is also home to an airport. Attractions in the city include the Lamido Palace and the Lamido Grand Mosque. The name Ngaoundéré is a composite word meaning Navel-Mountain, where "Ngaou" means mountain and "ndéré" means navel. The town is named after a nearby mountain.

1 Population
2 Communications
3 Religion
4 Missionaries
5 Statistics
6 External links

[edit] Population

The Mbum are the indigenous population of Ngaoundéré and the immediate area. The Fulani invaded the area in the 18th century, becoming the ruling caste of the area. Beeing the largest city in Adamaoua by far, Ngaoundéré attracts numerous settlers from the surrounding rural areas, including Díi from further north, Gbaya from the Meiganga area, and Tikar and Pere from the west.

[edit] Communications

The city serves as an important communications hub, linking the south of Cameroon with the northern part of the country. There is a paved road of good standard, albeit with some potholes, extending from Ngaoundéré to Garoua and Maroua, and Tchad. The railway from Yaoundé ends here, and the railway station is always sprawling with life. The main goods are bananas, fruits and general goods from the south. The north sends cotton stemming from Nord and Chad and cattle from Adamaoua towards the south.

The airport has a 1.6 km strip, capable of accepting Boeing 737 and similar aircraft. In the 1980's and early 1990's, the airport had several flights a week to both Yaoundé and Douala in the south, and Garoua in the north. Because of economic decline and the decline of the national carrier, Cameroon Airlines, the airport currently sees very little traffic, if any. The airports ICAO code is FKKN while the IATA code is NGE.

Ngaoundéré is linked to the Cameroonian microwave network, but the system is not very reliable. However, a lot of private companies have two-way sattelite communications, and there are many cybercafé's in the city.

[edit] Religion

The city has a mixture of numerous religions. There are approx 60% muslims, most are rather pragmatic with regards to religious observancy. There are further 30% christians of various denominations, including Lutheran Protestant, Catholic, Baptist and Anglican. There has traditionally been few problems between the various religions, but a radicalization of Islam does seem to have taken place the last 10 years or so. Married women in the area have traditionnaly worn a cloth over their hair(irrespective of religion), but garments like Hijab were previously almost unknown. Some muslim women now choose to wear the hijab, but other muslim dresses like the burqa are unknown.

Ngaoundéré is a diocese in the Catholic Church. The current bishop is Joseph Djida.

[edit] Missionaries

The Norwegian Missionary Society first established a mission here in the early 1920's. The church built in 1923 still stands. At the time of construction, there were 3 christians in the city, but beeing optimistic, the church was built for a capacity of rougly 200. In cooperation with the local Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon EELC and the american ELCA the NMS has built a hospital, a high school and several other institutions.

Ngaoundéré used to hold one of the largest Norwegian contingencies any place in the world, with over 100 norwegians living there in the 80s. The neighbourhood was even dubbed "Norvége"(Norway in french).

The catholic church also has representatives and a large congregation in the area.