CARTOGRAPHY AS DIPLOMATIC TOOL IN THE TERRITORIAL FORMATION OF KAMERUN FROM 1884 TO 1916

J.P. Nghonda

National Institute OF Cartography, Cameroon

enpcam@yahoo.com

The rush of European colonial powers towards Africa in the 19^th century has been marked by violent rivalries between England, Germany and France. In the Gulf of Guinea and especially in Cameroon, their race for overseas territories required from their respective government the systematic use of cartography at different stages of the land appropriation process. Maps and cartography documents proved to be an irreplaceable auxiliary or tool of their diplomacy in the sharing of this vital area.

Whereas cartography guiding's role for missionaries, soldiers, administrators, traders and other users is often well known, its worth as diplomatic and legal instrument of conquest is not clearly shown by scholars.

Thanks to a certain number of surveys and archives documents used in a multidisciplinary approach including Law, History and Geography, we were able to assess the significant role actually played by cartography in the colonial boundaries demarcation. This paper deals with the evolution of the German Cameroon boundaries through various agreements related to borders delimitation signed at diplomatic meetings between Germany and rival powers. These arrangements more often included suitable maps. In addition, the paper points out one-sided or concerted borders revision according to geopolitical changes that occurred during the First World War. This results in a successive change of Cameroon international boundaries that appears at present day as one of the sources of land disputes with neighbouring States like the conflict over the Bakassi peninsula.