Editing Cameroon (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Shumom-text.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bamum script]] is a writing system developed by King Njoya in the late 19th century.]]
Evidence from digs at [[Shum Laka]] in the [[Northwest Region (Cameroon)|Northwest Region]] shows human occupation in Cameroon dating back 30,000 years.<ref name=Lavachery2001>Lavachery, Philippe (2001) The Holocene Archaeological Sequence of Shum Laka Rock Shelter (Grasslands, Western Cameroon). ''African Archaeological Review'' 18(4):213-247.</ref><ref name=Cornelissen2003>Cornelissen, Els (2003) On Microlithic Quartz Industries at the End of the Pleistocene in Central Africa: The Evidence from Shum Laka (NW Cameroon). ''African Archaeological Review'' 20(1):1-24.</ref> The longest continuous inhabitants are groups such as the [[Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon)|Baka]] ([[Pygmy peoples|Pygmies]]).<ref>[[#DeLancey|DeLancey and DeLancey]] 2.</ref> From there, [[Bantu expansion|Bantu migrations]] into eastern, southern and central Africa are believed to have occurred about 2,000 years ago.<ref name="history"/> The [[Sao civilisation|Sao]] culture arose around [[Lake Chad]], {{circa|500 CE}}, and gave way to the Kanem and its successor state, the [[Kanem–Bornu Empire|Bornu Empire]]. Kingdoms, [[Fon (title)|fondoms]], and [[chiefdom]]s arose in the west.<ref name=Njung/>

[[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese sailors]] reached the coast in 1472. They noted an abundance of the ghost shrimp ''[[Lepidophthalmus turneranus]]'' in the [[Wouri River]] and named it {{lang|pt|Rio dos Camarões}} (''Shrimp River''), which became ''Cameroon'' in English.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pondi |first=J.E. |title=Cameroon and the Commonwealth of nations |journal=The Round Table |volume=86 |issue=344 |pages=563–570 |year=1997 |doi=10.1080/00358539708454389|issn = 0035-8533}}</ref> Over the following few centuries, European interests regularised trade with the coastal peoples, and Christian [[missionaries]] pushed inland.<ref name=Fanso/>

In 1896, Sultan [[Ibrahim Njoya]] created the [[Bamum script]], or Shu Mom, for the [[Bamum language]].<ref>[[#DeLancey|DeLancey and DeLancey]] 59</ref><ref name="NMAA">{{cite web|url=http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/inscribing/bamum.html|title=Bamum|publisher=National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution|access-date=29 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101155844/http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/inscribing/bamum.html|archive-date=1 January 2012}}</ref> It is taught in Cameroon today by the [[Bamum Scripts and Archives Project]].<ref name="NMAA"/>