Cameroon’s Reunification Monument: A New Historical and Touristic Destination

Cameroon Re-Uni­fi­ca­tion Monument

There are var­ied opin­ions about Africa, includ­ing the Cen­tral African nation of Cameroon. When vis­it­ing Cameroon for the first time, peo­ple expect dif­fer­ent things.

But what seems to be giv­ing Cameroon and Buea, the South West Region­al Head­quar­ters and for­mer Cap­i­tal of Ger­man Kamerun, in par­tic­u­lar a new image, is the new his­tor­i­cal touris­tic site, the Reuni­fi­ca­tion Monument.

The mon­u­ment sym­bol­izes the lega­cy, begin­ning on May 20, 1972, since East and West Cameroon unit­ed to become the present-day Repub­lic of Cameroon.

Bare­ly months after the cel­e­bra­tion in Buea, the mon­u­ment is a huge touris­tic attrac­tion, with the influx of tourists, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al, clam­or­ing to see the sym­bol­ic struc­ture. It is esti­mat­ed that about 150 tourists vis­it the site each month.

Struc­tural­ly, the mon­u­ment com­pris­es con­crete, and ten met­al cylin­ders sup­port­ing the logo of the Cameroon gold­en jubilee. The cen­tral piece is made up of ten met­al cylin­ders of vary­ing heights– rep­re­sent­ing the ten regions of Cameroon.
This gives a clear­er view of the 50th-anniver­sary logo. The logo is char­ac­ter­is­tic of a globe, por­tray­ing the map of Cameroon, sup­port­ed by two hands at its cen­ter. Slight­ly above it–is the code of arms rep­re­sent­ing the peace and uni­ty that reigns in the country.

There are met­al cylin­ders sup­port­ing the logo, which sym­bol­ize pow­er, growth, and emer­gence dynam­ics, fun­da­men­tal to the eco­nom­ic, social, and cul­tur­al devel­op­ment of Cameroon.

Locat­ed at the foot of the giant Mt. Cameroon, the mon­u­ment adds to oth­er his­tor­i­cal touris­tic sites in the ranks of the Ger­man Prime Minister’s Lodge, con­struct­ed in 1902. The lodge was for­mer­ly the palace of Ger­man Gov­er­nor, Jesko Von Puttkamer.

There is also the Ger­man Post Office of 1902, The Bis­mar­ck Foun­tain, The Cameroon Press Pho­to Archives, The Ancient Native Author­i­ty School, and also Mount Cameroon Nation­al Park, an eco-touris­tic attraction.

This monument–which is like­ly to improve the econ­o­my of the Buea community–has become a fer­tile ground for cam­era­men and jour­nal­ists alike.
Some Buea-based pho­tog­ra­phers are already deriv­ing income from the spot, due to their make-shift pho­to stu­dios at the location.

Dur­ing the inau­gu­ra­tion of the mon­u­ment, Cameroon’s pres­i­dent, Paul Biya, said the mon­u­ment cements the peace­ful coex­is­tence among Cameroo­ni­ans, who through their diver­si­ty in cul­ture, are unit­ed under a one and indi­vis­i­ble nation.