BAMBUI TOWN, North West Region of Cameroon

(BUEA)

BAMBUI TOWN, North West Region of Cameroon

BAMBUI, though a rural area is an emerging township in the North West Region of Cameroon. It is located at an elevation of about 1350 meters above sea level. It has a population of about 50,000 people.

Bambui is the headquarters of Tubah Sub-Division in the North West Region of Cameroon. Its popularly known by it inhabitants as “abeh-mbeuh”. BAMBUI is located at the cross-roads that lead to some of the North West Region’s major towns of Bamenda, Ndop, Kumbo, Fundong and Nkambe.

BAMBUI is a jewel in the crown of the Bamenda grass field communities of Cameroon and a place to be for anyone that wants to have a flavor of a good mix of modern and indigenous African life.

It has a lush, rolling, and fertile plains, a mild tropical climate, and an extremely industrious farming community. For these reasons, BAMBUI is one of the bread baskets of the North West Region in particular and of Cameroon in general. BAMBUI is neatly enfolded between SABGA and the undulating foothills that separate it with its neighbors, virtually in the shape of a bowl.

BAMBUI is strategically located, with excellent road infrastructure, and a galaxy of educational and religious institutions such as the government owned Institute of Agricultural Research and Development (IRAD), the School of Agriculture of the University of Dschang, a National Polytechnic and a Catholic institutions such as the Saint Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary (STAMS), a Nunnery called Capuchin Friars, two communities or Convents of Reverend Sisters, as well as the hospitality of the people. BAMBUI is metamorphosing into a metropolis, but without compromising its culture and cultural identity.

BAMBUI has been a fondom in its own right for nearly 400 years. BAMBUI is ruled by a Paramount Chief and made up of the sub-chiefdoms of Manju, Mallam, Matulaah, Fingeh, and Alaakubeh. The people of BAMBUI trace their ancestry to the Tikar tribe, which originated from the Adamawa, in the North and Far North Regions of Cameroon.

BAMBUI fondom migrated to their present location in waves, led by family heads who had the desire of setting up their own dynasties. The first arrivals were the people of Manju, Matulaah and Mallam and were descendants of the same family led by their own family heads. The people of Alaakubeh and Fingeh sub-chiefdoms, migrated to BAMBUI later in the 20th century from Santa sub-Division and Kom in Boyo Division following chieftaincy and/or land disputes between them and their ancestral homes. The people of Alaakubeh and Fingeh were offered residence in BAMBUI by the Fon at that time (late Amungwafor II who ruled the fondom from 1947-1995).