Description of Bamenda, Cameroon (From Triple Agent Double Cross)

Triple Agent, Double Cross

Chapter 4

Gavin loved Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest Province. The city’s congested, ethnically diverse, commercially driven, and religiously varied character reminded him so much of life in Banganté and the rest of the Bamilekéland and Bamounland. Something else he liked about Bamenda was its Anglophone culture, a reminder of his Anglophone upbringing following the tragedies his family experienced in the nineteen sixties. However, he could not close his eyes to something peculiar that he recently perceived about Bamenda in particular and the people of the Northwest Province in general…

Chapter 8

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Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest Province and Mezam Division, is a city dissected into two by Mother Nature, giving it the appearance of two connecting arms resting on opposite sides of a rectangle, or like two arms of a swastika, or even like two connected stairs. The elevated and sparsely populated southern portion is called Upstation, while the densely settled northern lower half is officially referred to as Downtown. This lower section is popularly known as Abakwa. A cliff serves as a natural divide, separating these two halves of the city. The cliff steeps and slants in an alternating manner, reaching a height of about two hundred yards at some points.

      The Metamorphic and Igneous nature of the rocks made the construction of the two-and-a-half-mile asphalt road connecting these two parts of the city a difficult job to do. In fact, it took almost a year to complete that section of the road. The portion is so winding and steep that some motorists new to the road barely crawl in their drive down. However, rugged drivers skid it at 20 miles/hr and above.

      Upstation has most of the government offices and the bigwigs of Bamenda, while Downtown or Abakwa has the people. Upstation harbors the secrets of the government and the affluent few, while Downtown is the custodian of the gossip, plots, conspiracies, solidarity, and cooperation among the struggling masses… 

By Janvier Tchouteu, author of “Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa”  https://amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ5NZXL/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_ZSJY62088EQE8AYPFM0X via @amazon