Kamerun, kah'me roon, or Cameroon, a German colony in West Africa, at the head of the Bight of Biafra. It is bounded on the s. and e. by the French Kongo and on the n. w. by the British colony of Nigeria. The country takes its name from the Kamerun River, which flows in a southwesterly direction through it. Another and still longer river, the Sanaga, flows into the sea a little south of the Kamerun and is navigable for forty miles. The Kamerun Mountains extend through the colony from the southwest to the northeast and in some places attain an altitude of 13,760 feet. The most important products are the banana, the oil palm, the sweet potato, the ground nut, the manioc and the yam; and tobacco, coffee and cocoa are also successfully cultivated. A considerable trade in oil, cotton and ivory is carried on. The majority of the inhabitants are Bantus. Kamerun is the chief trading town and seat of government. The government is administered by a local governor, but his influence over the interiors is only nominal. Germany annexed the coast in 1884 and the interior soon after. Population, estimated at 4,500.000; area, about 191,000 square miles.