Introduction / History

The Bakoko, also called Basoo, people have lived along the western coast of Cameroon for centuries. They do not have a written language. They do not have a Bible. They are one of the 3,000 people groups that don't have a single verse of God's Word.

In their secluded environment, numerous rivers fed by heavy rains continue to expand the deltas, which flow into the Gulf of Guinea. Many of the swamplands are covered with mangrove trees and other vegetation. From the coastal flats, the Bakoko can see the plains gradually rise upward to inland plateaus.

The Bakoko are mainly subsistence farmers. They occasionally raise goats and sheep, but their cash crops include rubber, oil palms, coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas. Their main staples are cocoyams, cassava, maize and plantains. They eat dried and fresh fish and meat when available. They also enjoy tropical fruits.

More than 50,000 Bakoko live throughout the Littoral Province of Cameroon. The men normally wear Western-style clothing. The women wear both Westernstyle clothing and African wrappers (skirts) with a colorful head tie. Their homes are usually rectangular and made from wattle and daub (clay and cow dung mixed together). They also used sun-baked myd bricks. For those who can afford it, cement blocks are replacing the mud bricks.

Overlapping boards split from tree trunks, or sheets of corrugated tin, form the framework for their homes. Thatched roofs are gradually being replaced by tin.