Douala

Douala is Cameroon's economic engine and its political orphan—a city that generates roughly 40% of the country's GDP while receiving a fraction of federal investment and being governed from Yaoundé, the political capital 250 kilometers inland. The arrangement is deliberate: Cameroon's post-independence governments kept political power in the interior to prevent the coastal economic elite from converting wealth into political control.

The Duala (Douala) people settled the Wouri River estuary, and German colonizers chose it as the capital of Kamerun in 1884. The Germans built the port, the railways, and the administrative infrastructure. After World War I, Britain and France split Cameroon between them; Douala fell under French mandate. At independence in 1960, Ahmadou Ahidjo moved the capital to Yaoundé—his power base—and Douala has contested the decision politically ever since.

The port of Douala handles over 95% of Cameroon's international trade and serves as the primary port for landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic. This chokepoint position makes Douala indispensable and creates enormous rent-seeking opportunities: corruption at the port is legendary, with businesses reporting that customs clearance can take weeks and require multiple unofficial payments.

Douala's climate is among the wettest in West Africa—annual rainfall exceeds 4,000mm—and flooding devastates low-lying neighborhoods annually. Informal settlements along waterways house hundreds of thousands in conditions where drainage infrastructure doesn't exist.

The Douala business community, particularly the Bamiléké ethnic group (Cameroon's largest commercial class), has built a private-sector economy despite minimal government support. Brasseries du Cameroun (breweries), cement, food processing, and timber processing anchor the industrial base.

Douala demonstrates that economic dominance without political power creates a specific kind of urban frustration—the city that pays the bills but doesn't write them.