New Cameroon Views Blog: A Peek at Douala, the gateway to "The Heart of Africa" (Excerpt of "Flash of the Sun")

Friday, November 14, 2014

A Peek at Douala, the gateway to "The Heart of Africa" (Excerpt of "Flash of the Sun")

Now that you have disembarked in your journey into the heart of Africa, where do find yourself? You are certainly at the doorsteps of the city of Douala.

You are stepping into Douala because it is also the gateway to Cameroon. In the distant picturesque background is the Cameroon Mountain, an imposing volcanic outcrop from the Atlantic Ocean that features layers of forest, grassland and rocky desert in its entire altitude. You will also find beautiful creeks, rivers, and streams that crisscross and surround Douala. These unique features give the area its beauty and lustrousness—something admirers of nature always marvel at whenever they view the city from the air, the sea or from land.

Now, brace yourself for the challenge of walking into a unique unknown by opening the gates of Cameroon through the soul of Douala.

Douala is the city where the German colonial administration sought to build a cross of Berlin, Leipzig and Hanover in Africa, leaving behind an impressive array of architectural monuments as a stamp of their presence in the land, an exploit that lasted three decades and made Douala the melting pot of multi-ethnic German Kamerun.

The French also embarked on an ambitious project of making Douala a sub-Saharan Paris after they kicked the Germans out of the city in 1916. After all, the machinery of the Free French forces in Sub-Saharan Africa was molded here and Jacques-Philippe LeClerc made his debut in the city, eventually becoming the finest French general in the field during the Second World War.

Now that you have walked into Cameroon, what do you find going on inside the heart of Douala? If you perk your head a little higher, you will find a modest one-storey building standing in the northwestern portion of the neighborhood of Bali, close to Akwa.

They say the Akwa neighborhood has been popular for over a century now. It hosts Douala’s popular waterfront and main thoroughfare where you will find some of Cameroon’s famous restaurants, bistros, bars, hotels, coffee houses and French-style bakeries and nightclubs—all within commanding view of the sea, creeks and swamps. It is the part of the city frequented by the city's large expatriate population and tourists, and those Cameroonians with a taste for contemporary trends. They say the city’s inhabitants regard Akwa as their mirror to the rest of the world.