Early contact and the Atlantic trade

1472–1884

From 1472, Portuguese navigators reached the Wouri estuary and gave it the name that would become the country's own. The Duala city-states of the coast became intermediaries of Atlantic trade, first in ivory and then, from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, in enslaved people, before a transition to palm oil and other so-called "legitimate" goods. British Baptist missions settled on the coast from the 1840s.

Official sourceUNESCO – General History of AfricaPublished 1 Jan 1989Verified 4 Sept 2026

Events of this era

Events of this era
Date	Event	Source
1472	Portuguese contact and the naming of the Rio dos Camarões	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
c. 1660	Rise of the Duala as a coastal trading power	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
c. 1750	The Atlantic slave trade and the port of Bimbia	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
c. 1830–1860	Transition to so-called "legitimate" commerce	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
10 June 1840 – 7 May 1841	Anti-slave-trade treaties signed by Bell and Akwa	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
1845 – 1858	Alfred Saker’s Baptist mission and the founding of Victoria	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa