Maroua, capital city of the Far North Province of Cameroon, 812 km (503 mi) northwest of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé. Maroua has markets, banks, and offices sprawling over a large area, dotted with numerous shade trees. Famed for jewelry, leather, silver, baskets, dyes, and perfumes, the city is a center of traditional crafts. The course of the Mayo Kaliao runs through Maroua, but its riverbed is often dry. Located on the eastern edge of the Mandara Mountains, the city has an airport and is popular with travellers as the starting point for trips to Waza National Park, Mora, and Mokolo. Pic de Mindif, 25 km (16 mi) southeast, is one of the most challenging peaks to climb in Africa. Maroua's Diamaré Museum contains articles from the Sao and Fulani cultures, musical instruments, pottery, jewelry, and other treasures dating back as far as the 1100s. Ethnically diverse, Maroua is where the dominant Muslim peoples of the plains, particularly the Fulani and Mandara (or Wandala) meet the Kirdi, who live in perched villages in the highlands and practice animism (the belief that all objects and living beings have spirits). Under the control of the powerful Fulani Sokoto Caliphate throughout the 1800s, the town was sacked by a German colonial force in 1902 and occupied by the French in September 1914, after which it became part of French Cameroons until Cameroonian independence in 1960. Population (1992 estimate) 140,000.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
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