Evolution of Colonial Towns and Factors Influencing Toponymic Practices in Germano-Anglo Cameroon

Abstract

The study examines Germano-Anglo colonial towns in Cameroon to determine factors accounting for the scarcity of infrastructure as well as streets and places with Eurocentric names. Using primary and secondary data, it demonstrates that the lack of infrastructure in the polity is a function of negligence by colonial and post-colonial authorities. With few pieces of public infrastructure, the authorities have had few streets and places to attribute names from Eurocentric lexical dictionaries. These findings contribute to knowledge of the relative impact of endogenous and exogenous factors on toponymic traditions as well as inter-country differentials in African countries’ development profiles.