By 2022 an estimated 3,600 Cameroonians called the State of Minnesota home, more than doubling since 2016.[1]
A member of this group, Adrian Abongmbu, who came here around 12 years ago, believes this growth is due to the affordable cost of living here. He said, the costs here are “very moderate. And it’s very family-friendly. It’s easy for people to start their lives in Minnesota.” He, his wife and three children live here and were joined by his mother after she immigrated from Cameroon in 2021. “It’s not uncommon for Cameroonians in the State to encourage family members and friends in other states to move here,” Adrian said.
Another Cameroonian resident of Minnesota, Florence Wanda and her husband run a nonprofit for education and heritage preservation that this September will host the Minnesota African Cultural Festival while her daughter, Modoh, is chief executive officer of the state’s first African Fashion Week.
Yet another Cameroonian resident of this State, Manka Nkimbeng, is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and a member of her tribe’s Cultural and Development Association. She recently participated in a Mother’s Day event in St. Paul while taking a limo ride around the city.
In 2022 more than 89,000 people in the U.S. reported Cameroon as their place of birth. Those without U.S. documentation are eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) through June 2025. The U.S. Government can extend that designation if their home country is determined still to be unsafe for deportation although that status does not provide a path for U.S. citizenship.
This blogger’s church in downtown Minneapolis, Westminster Presbyterian, has a small group of Cameroonian members, who inspired the church to establish a global partnership with a Presbyterian church in that country.
And a former Westminster Senior Pastor, Rev. Arnold Lowe (1941-1965) after his ordination in 1912 had served as a missionary in Kamerun when it was a German colony, and his daughter made a significant financial gift in his honor to the Presbyterian seminary in Cameroon.
This blogger enjoyed a trip to visit that church and seminary and learn more about the country, which has been undergoing a challenging time over disputes between the French-speaking majority (Francophones) and the English-speaking minority (Anglophones) as a result of those countries assuming responsibility for that country after Germany was stripped of its African colonies after World War I by the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.[2]
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[1] Ansari & Tu, Though small in numbers, Cameroonians are beginning to make a mark in Minnesota. StarTribune (June 8, 2024).
[2] See List of Posts to dwkcommentaries—Topical: CAMEROON; Kamerun, Wikipedia. See also “A Preacher for the times; THE REVEREND ARNOLD LOWE” (pp. 84-91) in LIVING FAITH: Stories from the first 150 years, Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1857-2007, Minneapolis, Minnesota.