Нгаундере

The site of modern Ngaoundéré had previously been occupied by a Mbum capital, but the present city dates from around 1835, when it was founded by the Fulani leader Ardo Njobdi. The Fula continued to hold the area during the 19th century and Ngaoundéré was visited in 1882 by Robert Flegel. Ardo Muhammadu Abbo signed a protection agreement with the German explorer Siegfried Passarge in 1894 and a series of agreements between Germany, Britain, and France placed the area within Germany's sphere of influence. The German army occupied the town (period German: Ngaundere) by main force on August 20, 1901. On July 29, 1915, the town was the scene of a skirmish between German and British troops during World War I's Kamerun campaign. Following the war, the area fell under French occupation until the independence of Cameroon.

Population

The Mbum were the earlier population of the surrounding area before the 19th-century invasion of the Fulani. The Fulani have ruled the area since the foundation of Ngaoundere in approximately 1835 in conjunction with the Mbum, who are considered a protected people according to Islamic law. The ruler is required to be descended from the ruling Fulani family on his father's side, extending back to the first Lamido of Ngaoundéré Ardo Njobdi of Boundang. On his mother's side, he is expected to be an Mbum descendant, so that he may represent the entirety of the population. Being the largest city in the Adamawa Region by far, Ngaoundéré attracts numerous settlers from the surrounding rural areas, including Díi from further north, Gbaya from the Meiganga area and Pere from the west. The population expanded greatly after completion of the railway in 1973, with a large percentage of the additional population originating from outside of Adamawa Region. This is evident in the ironic dichotomy between the so-called Grand Marché, adjacent to the Grand Mosqué and housing mainly local merchants, and the much larger Petit Marché located to the northwest in a neighbourhood housing a population largely originating in the southern regions of Cameroon.^[]