1400s Europeans started their occupation, such as from the Kamerun then split between north and south regions by France and Britain. Following the Second World War came under the United Nations as UN Trusteeships, anticipating that the Kirdi would be granted their own self-governance, which seemed perspective as most political groups began to form from the people groups. During the eleventh century and onwards into the nineteenth century Muslim Fulani from the Niger basin have migrated to Cameroon, this continued into the nineteenth century. The Fulani population grew at the coast and southern area of Cameroon and converted the pre-existing inhabitants. During the late 1770s and the early 19th century, the Fulani, an Islamic pastoral people of the western Sahel, conquered most of what is now northern Cameroon, subjugating or displacing its largely non-Muslim inhabitants. In 1960, Cameroon declared its independence and adopted a constitution by popular referendum. By 1972, the constitution was redrafted essentially establishing a one-party state. Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo, a Fulani Muslim from French Cameroons, would remain in power from 1960 to his death in 1989. The kirdi have sought representation in recent years from minority parties like the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in opposition to the Fulani-dominated Union Nationale pour la Démocratie et le Progrès (UNDP). Christian missionaries have had some success among the Kirdi in recent years. Major Kirdi personalities include Luc Ayang and Etienne Hollong. Religion Christian missions have had some success among the Kirdi in recent years. While kirdi generally bears the meaning "pagan," in opposition to the Fulani and other Muslim groups, they do not all practice atavistic customs and pagan rituals, many have converted to Christianity and are increasingly self-identifying as a Christian political bloc, to contrast the Muslims opposing blocs. Islamisation during the Fulani jihad The Kirdi are the historical people of the Mandara mountains, as well as the historical peoples of the Far North Region, Cameroon. In the nineteenth century the Islamic scholar and jihad, Modibbo Adama, began the Fulani colonization. This mass migration led to more than 60 percent of the region's total population being of Fulani peoples, not native to that region. The great displacement of the historical residents of these regions started in the early nineteenth century, from what would come to be known as the Adamawa Emirate. The Fulani colonization would eventually lead to the Fulani becoming the preeminent people in the region. Given that