"Kameruner"

In some bakeries in Hildesheim one can purchase a "Kameruner". This word in its most innocent meaning simply refers to a person from Cameroon or a person of Cameroon descent (as happens to be in my family, with Cameroon-German family members). When I saw the plain-twisted doughnut-like thing I wondered why it was called "Kameruner". I asked around and people told me that it's probably just like another doughnut-like baking good called "Berliner". People in Berlin, however, call this thing "Pfannkuchen". Hm. Do people in Cameroon have "Kameruners"?

Digging a bit deeper it turns out that - according to several online sources - the "Kameruner" was used as food for colonial soldiers. The name seems to go back to the time of the German empire (1871-1918) and its colonial ambitions. The German emperor and imperial government was located in Berlin. Apparently this "Kameruner" was send to colonial troups in "Deutsch-Kamerun" (1884-1919) to remind them of German food but also keep to them fed and energized in the unfamiliar and likely hostile (against the invaders) environment. In one instance, I found a reference to a peanut or Kamerunnuss (Cameroon nut) and that the "Kameruner" could have been a baked representation of peanuts - a colonial import. In any case, the name of this baking good is an embodied (and not particularly healthy) reminder of the German colonial history in its more sweentened, and uncritical form.