One of the biggest problems facing the new gèneration of scholars currently dealing with European imperialism is the lack of information in the West about the location and availability of archival sources in Africa. Although Gloria Westfall's recent survey has done much to rectify this situation for the former French possessions, more detailed work remains to be done on specific countries. This is particularly true of Cameroon, where much has changed in the twenty years since the last published description of the official archives appeared.

This paper summarizes the procedures necessary for entry into Cameroonian archives holding material relating to the colonial period, discusses the facilities available to researchers, and gives an overview of the physical condition and types of records held at each site. In particular, the holdings of the Buea and Yaoundè sections of the Archives Nationales, the archives of the Catholic church and those of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon are discussed.