Culture minister, US ambassador visit Bimbia

Cameroon’s Minister of Arts and Culture, Madam Ama Tutu Muna, and the US Ambassador to Cameroon, His Excellency Michael S. Hoza, have paid an exploratory visit to Cameroon’s major slave trade site at Bimbia near Limbe last 11 November. The high profile visit was aimed at restoring the remains of the slave trade port.

Bimbia is the historical dock from where thousands of enslaved Cameroonians and other Africans boarded some 200 evil-ships to the Americas in the triangular and trans-Atlantic slave trade of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

At Bimbia, Minister Tutu Muna explained to the press that her Ministry was focusing on making the Bimbia slave trade site a world heritage as such drawing deserved attention from UNESCO.

It was the first time Ambassador Hoza ever set foot at the Bimbia site. He expressed the desire to join efforts with the Ministry of Arts and Culture to preserve the place.

Dr. Lisa Aubrey of the Arizona State University in the US, present during the visit, was one of the first to expose the slave supply zone from Cameroon many years ago in her works titled: “Exposing Bimbia”. Since then, some 150 DNA certified Americans have visited the site having traced their routes to Cameroon.

Minister Tutu Muna’s visit to Bimbia was preceded by her stop over at the 50th anniversaries of independence and reunification monument unveiled on 19 February this year by President Paul Biya a day before he officiated at the anniversary celebration in Buea. The Minister observed that there were some crucial maintenance works to be carried out around the monument, which is a national patrimony.

The monument, reliably said to have cost some CFA 700 million and representing the consented efforts of Cameroonians to live in peace and prosperity requires continual touches as well as a recreational area for visitors who already flood the place daily.

Equally visiting the unfinished amphitheatre opposite the official tribune at the ceremonial ground in Buea, Minister Tutu Muna assured that work will continue till the end despite the contractor’s complaints of budgetary constraints.