Travel Guide Buea

Buéa (pronounced Boeya in English) lies 30km north of Limbé, in the foggy lands surrounding the slopes of Mount Cameroon. It was first capital of the German protectorate from 1901 to 1909, then capital of Western Cameroon between 1961 and 1972. Today, Buéa is the capital of the South-West region. The atmosphere here is weighed down by the humid, foggy climate, especially in the rainy season.This climate is nonetheless conducive to the cultivation of tea and palm trees, whose plantations surround the town and constitute, along with Mount Cameroon, one of the region's main eco-tourist attractions.These plantations belong to the CDC (Cameroon Development Corporation), the main agro-industrial enterprise in the South-West, and are in the process of being privatized by the government. But the BLCC (Bakwera Land Claim Committee), one of the most fervent protagonists in the fight against state privatization of the CDC, is not about to let this happen.This committee, which is very attached to the land it has won so dearly in the past, illustrates local resistance to the "all-privatization" policy applied by the Cameroonian government, all the more so as the opacity in which the transfer operations are taking place is fuelling resentment (rumour has it that South African interests have taken over the tea sector), at a time when English-speaking Cameroon wants to assert its presence.