Dschang & the Bamboutos highlands
A cool hill-station town at 1,400 m, built by German and French colonists to escape the heat.
History
Sitting at around 1,400 m in the West Region's highlands, Dschang has one of the coolest climates in Cameroon, which is exactly why German colonists first developed it as a hill station in the early 1900s, followed by the French, who expanded it into a rest and agricultural research centre. That legacy survives in the University of Dschang, one of Cameroon's leading agricultural universities, and in the town's Lac Municipal, a landscaped lake and park built during the French period that remains the town's main gathering spot. The surrounding Bamboutos highlands, terraced with market gardens and coffee, are dramatically cut by the Dschang cliffs (Falaise de Dschang), a volcanic escarpment popular with hikers.
Beyond the facts
Culture & traditions
A living tradition or belief tied to the place, distinct from its recorded history.
Dschang sits in Baham and Bandjoun chiefdom territory, and the surrounding Bamiléké farming villages built their terraced hillside plots around communal labour groups called 'njangi,' rotating savings-and-work associations that still fund everything from farm labour to funerals and school fees across the West Region today. As a university town, Dschang has also become one of the livelier places in Cameroon to hear both traditional Bamiléké music and its contemporary urban offshoots side by side.