how many ethnic groups are there in cameroon
Ethnic groups in Cameroon Cameroon has an extremely heterogeneous population, consisting of approximately 250 ethnic groups. Cameroon Highlanders constitute the plurality at 38 percent of the total population. They include the Bamileke and the Bamoun. The coastal tropical forest peoples, including the Bassa, Douala, and many smaller entities account for about 12 percent of the population. In the southern tropical forest, ethnic groups include the Ewondo, Bulu, and Fang (all Beti subgroups), and the Maka and Pygmies (officially called Bakas). They account for about 18 percent of the population. The Fulani (Fula: FulÉ“e; French: Peul or Peuhl) account for about 14 percent of the population and the Kirdi account for about 18 percent.
Bantu peoples Around 3,000 years ago, speakers of the Proto-Bantu language group began a millennia-long series of migrations eastward from their homeland between West Africa and Central Africa, at the border of eastern Nigeria and Cameroon.[4] This Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to central, southern and southeastern Africa, regions they had previously been absent from. The proto-Bantu migrants in the process assimilated and/or displaced a number of earlier inhabitants that they came across, such as Pygmy and Khoisan populations in the centre and south, respectively. They also encountered some Afro-Asiatic outlier groups in the southeast who had been there for centuries, having migrated from Northeast Africa.[5][6]