Washington D.C., May 10, 2010 - Cameroonians and friends of Cameroon in the United States of America will organize a series of activities, starting on May 20, 2010, to commemorate 50 years of independence, re-unification, peace, stability, and economic growth in the country.
Events in the United States will focus on National Day celebrations on May 20, but will include an investment conference, a forum on the history of the country, and a cultural symposium that will highlight the rich and diverse artistic, gastronomic, dance, and sartorial heritage of Cameroon.
The event on May 20 will be hosted by the Ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon in Washington, His Excellency Joseph Charles Foe Atangana. It is being billed as a diplomatic fiesta during which leaders in diplomacy, politics, business, and the arts from across the U.S. will be given a glimpse of a nation that is generally recognized as "Africa in Miniature".
Ambassador Foe Atangana told a preparatory meeting in the conference hall of the Embassy that "the 50th anniversary of our independence will be celebrated throughout this year and should involve every citizen in the country and abroad." He invited all Cameroonians and friends of Cameroon in the US and across the globe to take another look at a country that was determined to find its rightful place in the concert of nations, rising to the status of a middle-income economy within the next generation.
The May 20 event will feature a special "Diaspora Recognition Program" during which a group of African-Americans who have traced their roots to Cameroon after undergoing DNA tests to determine their ancestry will be recognized and welcomed into the Cameroonian family.
An investment conference at the Gaylord Convention Center outside Washington D.C. will focus on Cameroon's investment potential - the vast untapped natural resources, an improving business climate, an investor-friendly investment code, and near limitless opportunities to do business in the country. The investment conference will bring together entrepreneurs from Cameroon, North America, Europe and Asia.
A forum on the history of Cameroon will trace the geo-political journey of a nation that started as a German Protectorate, to League of Nations Mandate, to UN Trusteeship, governed after the Second World War by both Britain and France, before emerging as the African continent's only officially bilingual independent nation, with English and French as languages of communication.
Cultural events will take place in Atlanta and other cities across the United States, featuring the rich culture of this nation of over 19 million people which has one of the highest concentrations of linguistic and dialectic groups in the world. Cameroon has about ten language clusters that break up into some 250 distinct dialectal groups. These groups together present great diversity in language, culinary arts, architecture, dress codes, music and dance, across a geography that ranges from the Sahelian North, to the Southern tropical rainforest, and taking in rolling savannah hills and plains.
The Cameroonian Diaspora in America has been described as one of the most educated and affluent immigrant groups. Ambassador Foe Atangana pointed to this and invited his countrymen and women to use this occasion to demonstrate this fact. A program to raise funds in support of children in foster care in Washington D.C. and initiated by a group of Cameroonian artists, the Ark Jammers, is a pointer to what is possible. In lauding their efforts, the Ambassador said he was fully aware of the commitment by many Cameroonians to philanthropy both in the U.S. and in Cameroon. He urged all concerned to keep doing what was right by their fellow human beings. That is the Cameroonian spirit, the Ambassador concluded.
