During German rule, the town became the capital of German Kamerun under the name of Kamerunstadt (“Cameroon City”). It was then renamed Douala after the name of the indigenous people Dua ala Ijaws (Njos) when it became part of French Cameroon. However, many of the natives migrated to the Niger Delta in Nigeria already during the Portuguese era. Around 1980 and 1990, the struggle for liberalization grew along with the country, and Douala was at the center of the civil disobedience campaign called ghost town operation (Ville Morte) during which economic activities shut down to make the country ungovernable and to force the government to allow multi-party and freedom of expression.
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