DOUALA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - An apostolic prefecture since 1931, having been detached from the single mission of Cameroon, and elevated to an apostolic vicariate in 1932, this mission comprises the coastal part of the old mission, and leaving the Ewondo and related tribes to Yaoundé, it includes within its territory the other tribes, but above all those of the Bassa, in the North, and of the Bulus, in the South.
Several of the stations of D. owe their foundation to the Pallottines, as does D. itself, then Eden (1890), Kribi (1891), Ngowayang (1908). The area is 71,000 sq km and the population about 400,000 inhabitants, of whom 120,000 are pagans, 5,277 Muslims, 108,959 Protestants. The two great obstacles were, and in part still are, polygamy and Protestantism, with which, especially after the war, the Catholic missionaries vied in enterprise to occupy the ground by means of catechists. In general today Protestantism, which has also organized itself on a local basis with an independent native "bishop," is in decline.
The fathers (Congregation of the Holy Spirit) number 26, the native secular priests 21; brothers 5, sisters 29 of whom 11 are native. The catechists number 1,270. The mission counts (1948) 137,916 Catholics and 33,493 catechumens, distributed among 24 principal stations and 14 secondary ones. There are 75 elementary schools with 7,750 pupils; 50 middle schools with 7,290 pupils; 30 higher schools with 4,989 pupils, 1 vocational school with 25 pupils, a normal school with 72 pupils. Among the charitable works there is a leper asylum with 330 patients. The minor seminary has 19 pupils; several other seminarians study outside the mission.
Two small monthly newspapers maintain fervor among the Catholics of the mission.