page_title: South Region (Cameroon)
section_title: Government
hierarchical_section_title: South Region (Cameroon) / Administration and social conditions / Government
caption_attribution_description: Map of the divisions of South province in Cameroon. Created by Rarelibra 19:57, 1 September 2006 (UTC) for public domain use, using MapInfo Professional v8.5 and various mapping resources.
context_page_description: The South Region is located in the southwestern and south-central portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the east by the East Region, to the north by the Centre Region, to the northwest by the Littoral Region, to the west by the Gulf of Guinea, and to the south by the countries of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Congo. The South occupies 47,720 km² of territory, making it the fourth largest region in the nation. The major ethnic groups are the various Beti-Pahuin peoples, such as the Ewondo, Fang, and Bulu.
  The South Region has a fair amount of industry, its main commerce consisting of logging, timber, mining, and offshore oil drilling. Commercial agriculture is also important in the South, the major cash crops being cocoa and rubber. Cattle rearing and fishing are significant economic components, as well. Much of the population is made up of subsistence farmers.
context_section_description: The capital of the region is Ebolowa, where the presidentially appointed governor has his offices. The region is further divided into four departments (départements), also called divisions, each under the supervision of a presidentially appointed prefect (préfet) or senior divisional officer.
  The Océan department is the farthest west, located on the coast and administered from Kribi. Bordering this are the Vallée-du-Ntem (Ntem-Valley) department, governed from Ambam, and the Mvila department, headed from Ebolowa. Farthest east is the Dja-et-Lobo (Dja and Lobo) department, with Sangmélima its capital.
  The Beti-Pahuin and other ethnic groups in the South have little traditional political organisational structure. Instead, groups of families are loosely organised into clans under a single patriarch. During the French colonial period, the Bulu formed a tribal union of their various clans. Today, these elders hold little actual power, and most such positions are merely honorary.
caption: Divisions of South Region
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