Cameroon

http://travel.independent.co.uk/afri...icle353763.ece

African adventures in Cameroon
The Baka pygmies of Cameroon still eke out a living from the land.
Robert Nurden joins them in the rainforest

Published: 26 March 2006

It was like walking through an impenetrable green mist. The narrow path
wound this way and that, skirting round fronds and branches and
vegetation of all shapes and shades. It was stiflingly hot even though
the thick forest canopy was shading us from the direct rays of the sun.


Something screeched high up in the trees. My guide, Boukou, flapped his
arms in imitation of a bird and named it in his own language, then in
French, for my benefit. It was, I learned, an African grey parrot. Away
in the distance we could hear chimps chattering. The sound rose to a
deafening, angst-ridden crescendo of squawks and cries that put the
forest on edge and sent a shiver down my spine. Eventually the
cacophony shrunk to a muffled clucking.

Boukou's head was for ever turning this way and that, reading the signs
of teeming life that crowded in on us. His easy, lolling walk had taken
him down countless paths like this throughout the 40-odd years of his
hunting and gathering existence. I was being taken on a trek through
the equatorial rainforest of Cameroon. Boukou was a Baka pygmy, an
elder in one of the few remaining clans that still manage - just - to
eke out a sustainable living in a symbiotic relationship with the land.

Boukou tore a trailing vine from an overhanging branch and wound it
round his middle. It was eru, the ubiquitous forest plant that tastes
of spinach and forms a vital part of the Baka diet. He stopped to
examine some tracks in the wet mud, prodding the earth with his bony
fingers. "Duiker," he said, filing away the information, "one hour
ago."

We walked on, threading our way through the undergrowth. The sound of
women laughing rippled through the trees, the guffaws getting louder as
we approached. They were from the next village. Some had babies wrapped
in cloth tied to their sides; others swung machetes and scythes which,
Boukou told me, they had been using in the nearby fields.

I had no idea the Baka were horticulturalists as well. I was under the
impression the forest provided for their every need. The revelation -
and others yet to come - stirred up a hornet's nest of conflicting
relationships that scuppered any notion that these gentle people led an
existence, at one with nature. A well-meaning aid agency had apparently
sent in an expert to train the nearby clans to become farmers. The idea
was they should cultivate cassava and peanuts, but the project was
failing as the forest was already sending its trailers across the
field, eager to reclaim the land.

Suddenly Boukou was nowhere to be seen. I looked up and saw his legs
clamped around the vertical trunk he'd just climbed, his body hidden by
branches. He was inspecting a bees' nest. "Honey not ready yet," he
shouted down. "Next week."

The sun broke through as a clearing opened up before us. A huge tree
trunk was lying flat on the floor, having taken mountains of greenery
with it. A logging company had been there just days before, its
bulldozers carving a mile-long piste into the virgin forest. For every
tree extracted about 20 others will be felled and left to rot.

"We hate the loggers," said Boukou. "Some of my people lead these
companies to the best trees and they get paid. How can they do this?"
Probably because they're forced to by the Bantu, who do the cutting for
the European and Malaysian companies which, in turn, get tax breaks
from the Cameroon government. It is estimated that the country has lost
90 per cent of its frontier rainforest. My bucolic weekend with raw
nature was turning sour. I should have known better: travel broadens
the mind, but no one promises a party.

Eventually we got to the road and a small settlement. A lorry stacked
high with six enormous teak logs was parked 100 yards up the track. We
sauntered up to the driver, who was already revving up the engine
preparing for the last leg of the journey to the coast. Boukou detained
him, just long enough so we could see the bulging bags piled up behind
his seat. Some fur and flesh poked through the bags and buzzing flies
filled the cab. What we were witnessing was the rampant and illegal
trade in bushmeat, a scourge wherever there is logging.

Nearby were a couple of pepper soup ladies, their Mother Hubbard
dresses flowing from their ample hips. At their feet were cauldrons of
meat stew: porcupine, chimpanzee, monkey, babbon and civet. Inside the
shack workers were bolting down their lunch. The desecration takes two
forms: as vital food for the thousands of loggers because there are no
cereal crops available; and as a cynically commercial enterprise to
provide luxury dishes for posh restaurants in Yaoundé and Europe.

"This is where our traditional life is going," said Boukou, as we
returned to his village. His family greeted us, running across the
compound waving clusters of dates they'd gathered. "My children's
children will not be interested in the forest," he said. "This is the
beginning of the end."

We ate antelope in honey with eru, washed down with palm oil. As I fell
asleep in the guest room - a mud hut dotted with beds of deep, dried
grass - the sounds of the forest slipped through the walls: whirring
crickets, screaming hornbills and croaking frogs. Somehow it seemed
right that the jungle was keeping me awake.

Major Travel (020-7393 1070; majortravel.co.uk) has return flights from
Heathrow to Yaoundé via Paris from £677

1. Mount Cameroon

WHAT TO SEE: Climb the tallest mountain in West Africa which, at
4,095m, is comparable with the Alps. It is also the second wettest
place on earth. The trek through its unique biodiversity of farmland,
montane forest, savannah, lava flows and rock is arduous and takes two
to three days. Start from Buea, where you can book your guide.

CONTACT: Cameroon Tourist Board

(00 237 233 219).

2. Yaoundé Market

WHAT TO SEE In most markets there will be carcasses of anything that
moves, many of the animals threatened species. An average flight from
West Africa to London has an estimated 550lb of bushmeat on board. The
region yields up to five million tons a year.

CONTACT Open daily. Born Free Foundation campaigns against the practice
(01403 240170; bornfree.org.uk).

3. Kribi

WHAT TO SEE The golden sands stretch 50 miles south to the Equatorial
Guinea border. Chill out on your own balcony beneath the palms while
watching 24/7 beach football. Get up early and wait for the boats to
land before haggling for the freshest of fish to cook in your
apartment.

CONTACT Stay at the Auberge du Phare (00 237 346 11 06).

4. Honey

WHAT TO SEE Spend the day at Berudep apiary, a cooperative in the
north-west that trains local farmers in beekeeping. Help build a hive
with local tools and materials and learn about the nutritional and
medicinal benefits of honey. Eat some honeycomb and buy beeswax
candles.

CONTACT Berudep apiary (00 237 760 1407; berudep.org).

5. Pygmies

WHAT TO SEE Trek with a French-speaking Baka pygmy guide through the
equatorial rainforest to see both the traditional arts of collecting
honey and seeds and subsistence hunting and new skills in horticulture
and animal husbandry. Have a meal with the guide's family in their
village.

CONTACT Organise a trip into the Reserve du Dja through the Auberge du
Raphia, Lomié.

6. Animal rescue

WHAT TO SEE Take time to see Cameroon's most important wildlife rescue
centre. The orphans of animals slaughtered for bushmeat and unwanted
pets are taken there to be looked after. You can see baboons, chimps,
apes, monkeys, drill, civets, pottos, parrots and kites before they are
returned to the wild.

CONTACT Limbé Wildlife Centre (00 237 99 82 503; limbewildlife.org).

7. Bafut

WHAT TO SEE This is where the naturalist Gerald Durrell stayed in the
1950s, gathering material for his book "The Bafut Beagles". One of his
real-life characters, Peter Shu, is alive and well, and opens up his
huge collection of venomous and rare snakes to visitors.

CONTACT Savanna Botanical Gardens, Bafut (00 237 36 38 70).

8. Wildlife

WHAT TO SEE Head north-east to the Bouba Ndjida National Park, the best
place to spot wildlife. Elephant, giraffe, hippo, buffalo, lion and
leopard are common and if you're lucky the extremely rare black rhino
and Derby eland will show up.

CONTACT Stay at the Transcam Hotel, Ngaoundéré, (00 237 225 13 32),
where you can hire a car and book a guide.

9. Birds

WHAT TO SEE They say Cameroon, with its diverse landscape, is Africa in
miniature, and that applies to birds too, with 900 species on offer,
including the exotic-sounding mountain babbler, Bannerman's turaco and
banded wattle-eye.

CONTACT Bristol-based Wild Wings (0117-9658 333; wildwings.co.uk) can
arrange a tour.

10. Twin lakes

WHAT TO SEE Take a day trek to Man Lake (green water) and Woman Lake
(blue), inside the massive caldera of the volcanic Manengouba Mountain
deep in the rainforest. Start from Bangem, home to the hospitable
Bakossi people.

CONTACT Stay at the local government guesthouse on the edge of Bangem.

It was like walking through an impenetrable green mist. The narrow path
wound this way and that, skirting round fronds and branches and
vegetation of all shapes and shades. It was stiflingly hot even though
the thick forest canopy was shading us from the direct rays of the sun.


Something screeched high up in the trees. My guide, Boukou, flapped his
arms in imitation of a bird and named it in his own language, then in
French, for my benefit. It was, I learned, an African grey parrot. Away
in the distance we could hear chimps chattering. The sound rose to a
deafening, angst-ridden crescendo of squawks and cries that put the
forest on edge and sent a shiver down my spine. Eventually the
cacophony shrunk to a muffled clucking.

Boukou's head was for ever turning this way and that, reading the signs
of teeming life that crowded in on us. His easy, lolling walk had taken
him down countless paths like this throughout the 40-odd years of his
hunting and gathering existence. I was being taken on a trek through
the equatorial rainforest of Cameroon. Boukou was a Baka pygmy, an
elder in one of the few remaining clans that still manage - just - to
eke out a sustainable living in a symbiotic relationship with the land.

Boukou tore a trailing vine from an overhanging branch and wound it
round his middle. It was eru, the ubiquitous forest plant that tastes
of spinach and forms a vital part of the Baka diet. He stopped to
examine some tracks in the wet mud, prodding the earth with his bony
fingers. "Duiker," he said, filing away the information, "one hour
ago."

We walked on, threading our way through the undergrowth. The sound of
women laughing rippled through the trees, the guffaws getting louder as
we approached. They were from the next village. Some had babies wrapped
in cloth tied to their sides; others swung machetes and scythes which,
Boukou told me, they had been using in the nearby fields.

I had no idea the Baka were horticulturalists as well. I was under the
impression the forest provided for their every need. The revelation -
and others yet to come - stirred up a hornet's nest of conflicting
relationships that scuppered any notion that these gentle people led an
existence, at one with nature. A well-meaning aid agency had apparently
sent in an expert to train the nearby clans to become farmers. The idea
was they should cultivate cassava and peanuts, but the project was
failing as the forest was already sending its trailers across the
field, eager to reclaim the land.

Suddenly Boukou was nowhere to be seen. I looked up and saw his legs
clamped around the vertical trunk he'd just climbed, his body hidden by
branches. He was inspecting a bees' nest. "Honey not ready yet," he
shouted down. "Next week."

The sun broke through as a clearing opened up before us. A huge tree
trunk was lying flat on the floor, having taken mountains of greenery
with it. A logging company had been there just days before, its
bulldozers carving a mile-long piste into the virgin forest. For every
tree extracted about 20 others will be felled and left to rot.

"We hate the loggers," said Boukou. "Some of my people lead these
companies to the best trees and they get paid. How can they do this?"
Probably because they're forced to by the Bantu, who do the cutting for
the European and Malaysian companies which, in turn, get tax breaks
from the Cameroon government. It is estimated that the country has lost
90 per cent of its frontier rainforest. My bucolic weekend with raw
nature was turning sour. I should have known better: travel broadens
the mind, but no one promises a party.

Eventually we got to the road and a small settlement. A lorry stacked
high with six enormous teak logs was parked 100 yards up the track. We
sauntered up to the driver, who was already revving up the engine
preparing for the last leg of the journey to the coast. Boukou detained
him, just long enough so we could see the bulging bags piled up behind
his seat. Some fur and flesh poked through the bags and buzzing flies
filled the cab. What we were witnessing was the rampant and illegal
trade in bushmeat, a scourge wherever there is logging.

Nearby were a couple of pepper soup ladies, their Mother Hubbard
dresses flowing from their ample hips. At their feet were cauldrons of
meat stew: porcupine, chimpanzee, monkey, babbon and civet. Inside the
shack workers were bolting down their lunch. The desecration takes two
forms: as vital food for the thousands of loggers because there are no
cereal crops available; and as a cynically commercial enterprise to
provide luxury dishes for posh restaurants in Yaoundé and Europe.

"This is where our traditional life is going," said Boukou, as we
returned to his village. His family greeted us, running across the
compound waving clusters of dates they'd gathered. "My children's
children will not be interested in the forest," he said. "This is the
beginning of the end."

We ate antelope in honey with eru, washed down with palm oil. As I fell
asleep in the guest room - a mud hut dotted with beds of deep, dried
grass - the sounds of the forest slipped through the walls: whirring
crickets, screaming hornbills and croaking frogs. Somehow it seemed
right that the jungle was keeping me awake.
Major Travel (020-7393 1070; majortravel.co.uk) has return flights from
Heathrow to Yaoundé via Paris from £677

1. Mount Cameroon

WHAT TO SEE: Climb the tallest mountain in West Africa which, at
4,095m, is comparable with the Alps. It is also the second wettest
place on earth. The trek through its unique biodiversity of farmland,
montane forest, savannah, lava flows and rock is arduous and takes two
to three days. Start from Buea, where you can book your guide.

CONTACT: Cameroon Tourist Board

(00 237 233 219).

2. Yaoundé Market

WHAT TO SEE In most markets there will be carcasses of anything that
moves, many of the animals threatened species. An average flight from
West Africa to London has an estimated 550lb of bushmeat on board. The
region yields up to five million tons a year.

CONTACT Open daily. Born Free Foundation campaigns against the practice
(01403 240170; bornfree.org.uk).

3. Kribi

WHAT TO SEE The golden sands stretch 50 miles south to the Equatorial
Guinea border. Chill out on your own balcony beneath the palms while
watching 24/7 beach football. Get up early and wait for the boats to
land before haggling for the freshest of fish to cook in your
apartment.

CONTACT Stay at the Auberge du Phare (00 237 346 11 06).

4. Honey

WHAT TO SEE Spend the day at Berudep apiary, a cooperative in the
north-west that trains local farmers in beekeeping. Help build a hive
with local tools and materials and learn about the nutritional and
medicinal benefits of honey. Eat some honeycomb and buy beeswax
candles.

CONTACT Berudep apiary (00 237 760 1407; berudep.org).

5. Pygmies

WHAT TO SEE Trek with a French-speaking Baka pygmy guide through the
equatorial rainforest to see both the traditional arts of collecting
honey and seeds and subsistence hunting and new skills in horticulture
and animal husbandry. Have a meal with the guide's family in their
village.

CONTACT Organise a trip into the Reserve du Dja through the Auberge du
Raphia, Lomié.

6. Animal rescue

WHAT TO SEE Take time to see Cameroon's most important wildlife rescue
centre. The orphans of animals slaughtered for bushmeat and unwanted
pets are taken there to be looked after. You can see baboons, chimps,
apes, monkeys, drill, civets, pottos, parrots and kites before they are
returned to the wild.

CONTACT Limbé Wildlife Centre (00 237 99 82 503; limbewildlife.org).

7. Bafut

WHAT TO SEE This is where the naturalist Gerald Durrell stayed in the
1950s, gathering material for his book "The Bafut Beagles". One of his
real-life characters, Peter Shu, is alive and well, and opens up his
huge collection of venomous and rare snakes to visitors.

CONTACT Savanna Botanical Gardens, Bafut (00 237 36 38 70).

8. Wildlife

WHAT TO SEE Head north-east to the Bouba Ndjida National Park, the best
place to spot wildlife. Elephant, giraffe, hippo, buffalo, lion and
leopard are common and if you're lucky the extremely rare black rhino
and Derby eland will show up.

CONTACT Stay at the Transcam Hotel, Ngaoundéré, (00 237 225 13 32),
where you can hire a car and book a guide.

9. Birds

WHAT TO SEE They say Cameroon, with its diverse landscape, is Africa in
miniature, and that applies to birds too, with 900 species on offer,
including the exotic-sounding mountain babbler, Bannerman's turaco and
banded wattle-eye.

CONTACT Bristol-based Wild Wings (0117-9658 333; wildwings.co.uk) can
arrange a tour.

10. Twin lakes

WHAT TO SEE Take a day trek to Man Lake (green water) and Woman Lake
(blue), inside the massive caldera of the volcanic Manengouba Mountain
deep in the rainforest. Start from Bangem, home to the hospitable
Bakossi people.

CONTACT Stay at the local government guesthouse on the edge of Bangem.