DOUMA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - A prefecture apostolic from 1931, detached from the single mission of Cameroon, and elevated to an apostolic vicariate in 1932, this mission comprises the coastal part of the former mission, leaving the Ewondo and related tribes at Yaoundé, and includes in its territory the other tribes, especially those of the Bassa to the north and the Bulus to the south.
Several of the stations in D. owe their foundation to the Pallottines, including D. itself, then Eden (1890), Kribi (1891), and Ngowayang (1908). The area is 71,000 sq. km., and the population is about 400,000, of whom 120,000 are pagans, 5,277 Muslims, and 108,959 Protestants. The two great obstacles were, and in part still are, polygamy and Protestantism, with which, especially after the war, Catholic missionaries vied in enterprise to occupy the ground through catechists. In general, today Protestantism, which has also organized itself on a local basis with an independent indigenous “bishop,” is in decline.
There are 26 fathers (Spiritans), 21 indigenous secular priests, 5 brothers, and 29 sisters, of whom 11 are indigenous. There are 1,270 catechists. The mission counts (1948) 137,916 Catholics and 33,493 catechumens, distributed in 24 main stations and 14 secondary ones. There are 75 elementary schools with 7,750 pupils; 50 middle schools with 7,200 students; 30 higher schools with 4,989 students; 1 professional school with 25 students; and 1 normal school with 72 students. Among charitable works there is a leper asylum with 330 patients. The minor seminary has 19 students; several other seminarians study outside the mission.
Two small monthly newspapers maintain fervor among the Catholics of the mission.