**3.2 Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Missionary and Trade links**

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade came across with the use of Pidgin English. Several authors have established that Pidgin English was introduced in Cameroon about 500 years ago, when the Portuguese traders made contact with Cameroon's coast [3–5]. According to Kouega [4] the period 1400–1800 was when this contact was established. This was the period of slave trade during which the Portuguese employed British privateers [4] to do the trade links. This explains why early samples of Pidgin had lexical items borrowed from both English and Portuguese. The Pidgin English language continued to be used by British missionaries and traders from 1800 to 1884. During this period, Baptist missionaries came to Cameroon and adopted Pidgin for their work. The Missionaries set up churches in which they used Pidgin for evangelization. Mission schools were established and the English Language was used as the language of instruction. Between 1845 and 1887, there were 75 Protestant missionaries in Cameroon. Some of these missionaries came from Jamaica, rather than the U.S. or Britain. During this time an English-based Pidgin grew in the areas where the English influence was felt through missionaries and traders. Pidgin English mixed with local languages and Pidgin English dialects developed. The arrival of the Germans in 1884, as a result of colonization, did not change the dynamics but German was used for administrative purposes. In 1890, the American Presbyterian Missionaries arrived through the South of Cameroon and established missionary activities using Pidgin English. The English-speaking missionaries posted to Cameroon learned Pidgin English to enable them integrate the Cameroon Society to evangelize.
