For a quarter-century following independence, Cameroon was one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. The drop in commodity prices for its principal exports —petroleum, cocoa, coffee, and cotton — in the mid-1980s, combined with an overvalued currency and economic mismanagement, led to a decade-long recession. Real per capita GDP fell by more than 60% from 1986 to 1994. The current account and fiscal deficits widened, and foreign debt grew. Yet because of its oil reserves and favorable agricultural conditions, Cameroon still has one of the best-endowed primary commodity economies in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Cameroon at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Central African CFA Francs.

The government embarked upon a series of economic reform programs supported by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) beginning in the late 1980s. Many of these measures have been painful; the government slashed civil service salaries by 65% in 1993. The CFA franc — the common currency of Cameroon and 13 other African states — was devalued by 50% in January 1994. The government failed to meet the conditions of the first four IMF programs.

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun), is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country is called "Africa in miniature" for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, and savannas. The highest point is Mount Cameroon in the southwest, and the largest cities are Douala, Yaoundé, and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 200 different linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. French and English are the official languages.

Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões ("River of Prawns"), the name from which Cameroon derives. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms. Cameroon became a German colony in 1884.

Jean-Jacques Ekindi (born January 1945) is a Cameroonian politician. He is the National President of the Progressive Movement (Mouvement Progressiste, MP) and is currently a Deputy in the National Assembly of Cameroon.

Ekindi was born in Douala. Early in his political career, he was a member of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC). He was politically active while studying in France, and he was arrested for political reasons in 1970 when he returned to Cameroon for a visit. After nearly two years in prison, he was released and resumed his studies in France. When the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) was created as the governing party in 1985, replacing the Cameroon National Union (CNU), Ekindi joined the party, encouraged by President Paul Biya's promises of reform.

Ekindi was elected as the President of the Wouri Section of the CPDM in 1986. His election was considered part of an effort by President Biya to reconcile factions in the party by allowing politicians such as Ekindi, who had been considered disloyal in the past, to take prominent leadership roles as Section Presidents. In 1990, at the beginning of the period of multiparty political reform, he was considered to be among the leading progressive figures within the CPDM. In early 1991, Ekindi was re-elected as President of the Wouri Section, defeating Albert Dzongang. However, he left the CPDM in May 1991. Ekindi was considered the most important CPDM member to defect to the opposition at that time.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism of French expression. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.

His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings — his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reveries of a Solitary Walker — exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the Age of Sensibility, featuring an increasing focus on subjectivity and introspection that has characterized the modern age. His Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and his On the Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.

Rousseau was a successful composer of music. He wrote seven operas as well as music in other forms, and he made contributions to music as a theorist.

Laurent Esso (born August 10, 1942) is a Cameroonian politician who has held a succession of key posts under President Paul Biya since 1988. He served in the government of Cameroon as Minister of Justice from 1996 to 2000, Minister of Public Health from 2000 to 2001, Minister of Defense from 2001 to 2004, and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2006. Subsequently Esso was Secretary-General of the Presidency, with the rank of Minister of State, from September 2006 to December 2011. He has again served as Minister of Justice since December 2011.

An ethnic Sawa, Esso was born at Douala. He was a magistrate and subsequently worked as Chancellor of the University of Yaoundé.

Esso left his post at the University of Yaoundé when President Paul Biya appointed him as Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency on May 16, 1988. Considered a "reform-minded technocrat", Esso spent less than a year as Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency before Biya instead appointed him as Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency on April 13, 1989. Esso remained Director of the Civil Cabinet for seven years; he was then appointed as Minister of Justice in the government named on September 19, 1996. On March 18, 2000, he was moved from his position as Justice Minister to that of Minister of Public Health; after one year in the latter position, he was appointed as Minister-Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense on April 27, 2001. In the government named on December 8, 2004, he was instead appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which position he remained until he was appointed as Minister of State and Secretary-General of the Presidency on September 22, 2006.