Intro

Africa is a place of longing and as such surely addictive. After a memorable journey through Mali we then made Cameroon the center of our interest. This country does unite all the landscapes to be found in Africa. Deserts, mountains, prairie, savanna, grassland, rainforest and coastline. Furthermore, it is home to countless ethnic groups who are as different as the swaths of land in which they live.

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The entrance

With stop offs in Paris and Douala we head towards the north of Cameroon. In Maroua the Sunday fair is filled with people. We get to enjoy dried fish and have our first encounter with the so called „bili bili“ beer. It is more of a Sorghum fermented wine. Due to the heat it almost tastes like a hot wine punch. From what we get to witness the effect it has is obviously fierce. Groceries and spices are everywhere we look. The people are open and friendly. A good mood fills the vicinity and while glancing into the beer garden we have the notion that primarily the women are having a blast. The fair is an adventure.

This morning we had the impression that it was way cooler than in Douala. It is midday now and baking hot. The air is filled with a yellowish haze of sand. The land is dry during this time of the year, none of the creeks are carrying any water and hence are dusty. We get to meet Olivier. He used to install French schools, unfortunately only for white children. These days most of the Europeans are gone. A small number of priests and Baptists stayed behind. Some Turks moved here to set up greengroceries. Thanks to laws installed by the European Union exportation to European countries is prohibited. The streets are being built by . A Chinese engineer earns approximately 100 euros a month and is satisfied with the most rudimentary of housing. It doesn‘t come as a surprise that the streets rarely last very long. They‘re only there to support the logistics of those companies dealing with the excavation in mining anyway. Germans are still popular, not least because the bridges they built around the turn of the century are still standing.

It is our first day in Cameroon and we have the impression of a forgotten land. Even though it is high season there doesn‘t seem to be a lot of tourism. We are the only white people.

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