Postage stamps and postal history of Cameroon

A 1906 German occupation stamp of "Kamerun".

Postage stamps have been used in Cameroon or Cameroun since the nineteenth century.

German protectorate

Cameroon became a German Protectorate in 1884 and used the postage stamps of Germany in 1897 and 1900 overprinted with Kamerun.[1]

French occupation

During World War I, from 1914 to 1916 it was occupied by Allied Troops and the French in Cameroon issued stamps of Equatorial Gabon in 1915 overprinted with Corps ExpeditionnaireFranco-Anglais Cameroun and in 1916 used the stamps of Middle Congo overprinted with Occupation Francaise de Cameroun, and continued to use Middle Congo overprints until the 1920s.[1]

Joint mandate

In 1922 Britain and France were granted separate United Nations mandates. When the French mandate of Cameroun became an independent republic in 1960, in September 1961, following a plebiscite, the British mandate joined the Republic of Cameroon.[1] For some time stamps of Nigeria were also overprinted with Cameroon. In 1995, the Republic joined the British Commonwealth.

An overprint on a Nigerian stamp.

Current issues

Today, issues vary in the language used. Some issues may be in French reading Rèpublique du Cameroun and others may be in English, reading Republic of Cameroon.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Stamps of the World. Stanley Gibbons. 2004. p. 547.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colony Cameroon stamps of Germany.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/20/2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.