This thesis project in historical ecology explores, in a colonial and postcolonial context, the changes and continuities in the uses, management practices and distribution of the Raphia vinifera palm species in the Grassfields region of Cameroon. Based on an empirical study at the local level and the analysis of oral, written and photographic historical sources, this research project traces 1) changes in the cultivation practices of this multi-purpose palm tree and their effects on its distribution in the landscape, examines 2) why certain actors, and in particular women, contributed to the spread of raphia to new habitats where it was not historically cultivated, and finally, examines 3) the historical practices of local transplantation and regional translocation of raphia seedlings that supported the expansion of the ecological distribution of this species during the 20th century.