Mount Cameroon

The sacred Mount Cameroon is the tallest mountain in Western Africa, and it rises straight from the ocean through tropical rainforests to a cold, windy summit. Indeed, snow sometimes falls at the mountain's top, a rare occasion in the tropics. Because of its uniqueness, the people around the mountain have considered it to be holy, sacred, a living mountain that has to be treated with great deference. In the town of Debuncha, the second wettest place on Earth, at the southwest corner of the lower slopes, there are many stories of the mountain's miracles. Indeed, the Bakweri people have told narratives of power about the mountain for years. When the Germans, English, and French visited the area, they discovered a heightened awareness of ancestral forces ...