Read Around the World February 2022: Cameroon

Map link 

Better late than never I did finish my read yesterday I promise but it was bedtime when I finished it.

Fun facts from this website

• Location: Central Africa.
• Capital City:Yaoundé.
• There are about 230 spoken languages spoken in Cameroon including French and English.
• Cameroon has one of three waterfalls in Africa that empties directly into the ocean.
• Cameroon is one of the wettest countries on Earth. (Does it beat England?)
• Cameroon is the first country in Africa to make it to the quarter-finals of FIFA world cup.
• Germany, France, and Britain have colonized Cameroon.
• Cameroon is home to the highest peak in the sub-Saharan and central Africa.

I chose to visit Cameroon via How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue. This book is set in a fictional African country but the author is from Cameroon so that works for me.

The story focuses on a small village in Africa called Kosawa and how a big oil company from America is destroying the land and poisoning the people aided and abetted by the corrupt leader of the country who is only interested in money and power. At first the people of Kosawa are passive believing this is how things are but when their men go to the government to complain and never return things become heated and revolution is in the air.

This book explores colonialism, despotism and the destruction of traditional ways of life through the eyes of local village people and particularly through the eyes of Thula a young women directly impacted by the corrupt behaviour of the government who after gaining an American education comes back home to fight the oil company via the American court system.

While this book doesn’t have a happy ending it is well worth reading to realise the impact the greedy west has had on the lands and people of the lands that contain something we want in this case oil.

4 Stars – an important book and an interesting read.

Other readers visited Cameroon in the following ways:

Sprainedbrain from Litsy – How Beautiful we Were she also gave this 4 stars

Simona & Currey from Litsy – Cruel City by Mongo Beti this was a So-So

ToriestorieS from Litsy – A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell  this was a pick

Did you join us on this trip? Share what you read.

Next up is Comoros a place I have never heard of. Please share your reading plans as I need all the help I can get!

I apologise for the formatting but WordPress is being temperamental (even more so than normal LOL)