Though small in numbers, Cameroonians are beginning to make a mark in Minnesota

Years of slow but steady immigration from Cameroon have made Minnesota an unexpected hub for the central African community.

The state’s Cameroonian population has more than doubled since 2016, when peaceful protests in the country’s English-speaking regions escalated into civil war with the government of the French-speaking majority.

“The media doesn’t say much about it,” said Adrian Abongmbu, a Cameroon immigrant and accounting manager at Alight, a Minneapolis-based humanitarian aid agency. “But we see it because I know from our community how many family members have been lost and how many have fled for their safety.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, an estimated 1,403 people in Minnesota in 2016 reported being born in Cameroon. That number had grown to nearly 3,600 by 2022.

When Abongmbu moved to Minnesota a dozen years ago, he remembered meeting people from the Cameroonian community at gatherings in the homes of families who came from the same tribe as his wife.

“It’s grown exponentially,” Abongmbu said of the Bafut tribal community. “It’s come to a point where it can’t happen at someone’s house. We have to rent a big hall to host people. And that’s just one community.”

Abongmbu said he attributes the growth of the Cameroonian community in Minnesota to the affordable cost of living here. “It’s very moderate. And it’s very family-friendly,” he said. “It’s easy for people to start their lives in Minnesota.”

The community’s growth in Minnesota tracks a nationwide trend. More than 89,000 people in the U.S. reported Cameroon as their place of birth in 2022, according to census data, with the largest Cameroonian community in Maryland.

Abongmbu lives in Ramsey with his wife, daughter and two sons. His mother emigrated from Cameroon in 2021 to join them; it’s not uncommon, he said, for Cameroonians in Minnesota to encourage family members and friends in other states to move here.

Cameroonians living in the U.S. since 2022 without documentation are eligible for Temporary Protected Status through June 2025. That designation can be renewed if the U.S. government finds a certain country is unsafe for deportation, though it does not give recipients a path to citizenship.

Abongmbu said one of the biggest gatherings for the Cameroonian community in the U.S. is a soccer tournament held every year in August in the Twin Cities. The tournament is hosted by the Minnesota Cameroon Community, more commonly known as MINCAM.

The group, founded in 2008, held weekend-long cultural events, fundraisers, and gatherings at a community center in St. Paul. Walter Dobgima, who was MINCAM’s president in 2020-2022, said there were performances, vendors and a gala typically hosted during the soccer tournament’s final match. “That was one big event that everyone looked forward to,” he said.

Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a petition in 2022 alleging MINCAM had mismanaged the community center, letting it fall into disrepair. The group subsequently agreed to improve its policies and oversight, but the community center has since closed.

Florence Wanda, of Lakeville, moved to Minnesota in 2000 and has since encouraged her sisters, their children and grandchildren to join her. Wanda, who comes from the Bamileke people who live in Cameroon’s western high plateau, said there are many tribal groups within the Cameroonian community.

“When I came it was really small so everybody was together,” Wanda said of gatherings. “But as the population is growing, there are a lot of groups based on their tribes.”

Wanda and her husband, Delaure, run Diaspora One Tikar One People, a nonprofit for cultural education and heritage preservation. They will host the Minnesota African Cultural Festival in September. Wanda’s daughter, Modoh, is chief executive officer of the first African Fashion Week in Minnesota, also to be held in September.

Modoh Wanda remembers attending Bamilike gatherings at the homes of her family’s friends, dressed in traditional clothes. She said the men would sit together and discuss business matters in one room while the women talked about the same things in another room. They offered mutual support if someone was sick and struggling to pay hospital bills.

“It was a way for our community to take care of each other,” she said.

Manka Nkimbeng, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, moved to Minneapolis for work in 2019. She had visited family in the state in 2006 and remembers the Cameroonian community then as being small but close-knit. She’s seen a variety of Cameroonian businesses open here, such as grocery stores like the Bali African Market in New Hope.

Nkimbeng, a member of the Mankon tribe who serves on the Mankon Cultural and Development Association, recently participated in a Mother’s Day event in St. Paul for Cameroonian mothers. They took a limo ride around the city, dressed in Barbie-pink gowns.

“It was such a unique experience,” Nkimbeng said. “It was the first time we honored our mothers in that way.”

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This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan’s stories in your inbox.