Welcome to Cameroon/Ethiopia Study Abroad Program!

Are you interested in participating in the Bloomsburg University Faculty-Led study-abroad program to Africa? Would you like to hear from students who would be studying and traveling in Cameroon and Ethiopia this summer? Do you want to share your own experiences studying or traveling in any part of Africa? We welcome your inquiries on any aspect of the program as well as your own experiences or interest in Africa.


Program Director: Dr. S. Ekema Agbaw, Professor of English, BU
Ekema Agbaw has extensive experience organizing study-abroad programs particularly in Cameroon, his country of origin. In 1987 he initiated the Dickinson College Study-Abroad program at the University of Yaounde. The program was formalized six years later, in 1994, and has become one of the most successful African programs for American undergraduate students. In 2009 he traveled to Cameroon with Dr. Mackin, provost and vice president for academic affairs, to establish linkages between Bloomsburg University and three Cameroon universities. Following these connections, in the summer of 2009, he took the first group of Bloomsburg University students for a month long trip to Cameroon and Ethiopia. FOLLOW THIS BLOG to find out about students’ experiences!

Program Summary
The study abroad program in Cameroon is happening on May 17 -June 17 of this year (2010). It is the outcome of a recent exchange agreement between Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and the University of Buea. Students will be taking three courses that include classroom time and field experiences. During the field experiences students will receive lectures from local experts and interview the native people on various aspects of their culture.

Cameroon
Cameroon is an ideal setting for a program designed to give American students a direct knowledge of Africa. Located in west-central Africa, Cameroon has been described as a microcosm of the continent. Linguists have identified almost all of the African Language groups in Cameroon. Superimposed upon this ethno-linguistic diversity are the remnants of a triple colonial heritage—German, British, and French—which have not only shaped the cultural landscape of the country, but continue to influence the educational and administrative systems. The physical environment of Cameroon is as diverse as the people. As one travels inland from the Atlantic coast, the dense equatorial forest of the southern provinces thins out into the grass fields of the west and northwest provinces. Further north, towards the Lake Chad basin, the savannah of the Adamawa highlands pushes into the Sahel region. Although the students will be taking classes at the University of Buea in the southwest province, weekend field trips to different parts of Cameroon would enable them to experience Africa’s diversity in a single country.

Courses Offered

• Non-Western Literature: African Women and Their Stories

This course would give students the opportunity to explore the representations of African women in literature and film. Through their own field research, students will collect life stories from women in rural and urban settings. This would enable them to compare the fictional representations of African women with the life experiences of real women.

• Gender and Development in Sub-Sahara Africa

This course will explore the development of traditional roles of women in African societies to the present time, including both work and family roles. Included is African women’s contribution to politics as well as social and economic development. It will include field trips to several places where African women can be seen at work such as homes, offices, farms, plantations, and factories.

• Natural Disasters: University of Buea

Students will study principles of Earth’s internal and external processes through an examination of their manifestations in Cameroon and other parts of Africa as naturally occurring disasters.

Field Trips

• Korup Rain Forest & Pamol Plantations in Ndian Division

• Botanical Garden, CDC Rubber and Delmonte Banana Plantations & Seme beach in Limbe

• Foumban Palace & the Bamenda region

• Pygmy village in Kribi

• City Tour of Yaounde and Douala

• Fako Mountain and its recent volcanic eruption