WELCOME TO WUM By Stephen Ojang, Communication Officer
…I have worked my way across Wum municipality through writings.
And Atue.
And Menteng.
I have worked from palm-fronded bushess, owe inspiring lakes, unending mountaintops and tropical rainforests.
I swam with a lot of enthusiasm off the coast of River Menchum in Bangwe, got lost in the Kom-Bu forest reserve, fetched my own water and built my own cooking fire in the heart of Itiaku.
I have been privileged to see the world at my pace, combining my love of exploring with my passion of writing.
Now don’t get me wrong – it was a bit like roses: beautiful, but with a few thorns along the way. It’s not easy to get to all these places: it takes hard work, a reasonable command of your legs, and a helping hand from those who have done this before you.

Located between the hills and valleys, Wum municipality has a great climate. The countryside around Ngouh is dotted with farm plantations and is ideal for hiking.

The local inhabitants rely on farming for their existence and sometimes have to walk miles to get to their farms.
With a decent range of hotels and restaurants, Wum is a good jumping-off point for exploring the natural vegetation, waterfalls, hot springs, lakes and the Ring Road circuit.
As a divisional Head Quarter, Wum has ONLY one market, two financial institutions, and offices. The main industries are the processing of agricultural produce such as coffee. The local museum and shops display a wide variety of local baskets, beads, woodcarvings and bronze statues.
There has been a remarkable increase in visitor beds in the last 2 years. There are now over 15 hotels available within less than 2 km radius of the City Center. These range from 1 to 2 stars. Top on the list include Morning Star Hotel, Lake Nyos Hotel, Green Wood Motel, Eden Garden Motel and many more others. These unfortunately have neither conference rooms, bars nor restaurants.

Arts & Crafts Products

The Wum Municipality is especially known for its handicraft products. High quality souvenirs are made of leather, wood and cattle horns. The most important rule: If it’s possible haggle the prices. If you want to watch the craftsmen of her work, it is worth visiting the … Palace, or one of the crafts cooperatives. Arts & Crafts products can be found everywhere in this area. The visit to this municipality will be made pleasant by the discovery of the potters who will show their skills in pottery; weaves exhibiting their very beautiful fabric; blacksmiths will not fail to impress you despite the difficult and archaic working conditions in which they produce these tools, which are indispensable for the survival of the local population.

Wum Main Market

The Wum Main market is the most important market in the municipality. It contains stores that sell goods of any nature. If you are looking to discover Menchum Division as a whole and Wum municipality in particular, allocate plenty of time for sightseeing tours – you wouldn’t want to miss out on top attractions like Wum Main Market, and other natural endowment!

EDUCATION
Education in the Wum Council area includes basic (nursery, primary) and secondary education. There exist one professional institution owned by the government;Government Teachers Training College (G.T.T.C)

PECULIAR TOURIST ASPECT OF WUM

Wum by virtue of its geographical position in the North-West Region of Cameroon, disposes considerable tourist potentials, which make her Cameroon in miniature. Wum municipality possesses impressive tourist resources, her relief climate, fauna or flora as well as people and traditions. There are so many tourist sites in the municipality and its diverse ethnic groups offer equally as many traditions as cultural diversities.
Wum overflows with enormous tourist riches, various natural geographic curiosities, historic vestiges living testimonies of what had existed in the municipality, a cultural heritage, traditional characteristics of

every people that she represent, exhibitions and other folkloric events as varied as theses people of 3 ethnic groups and a lot of other attractions.

•The Menchum Falls at 65km from Bamenda

•The Kimbi Forest reserve with its fauna rich in several animal species (antelopes, chimpanzee,gorilla etc).

•Lake Nyos

•Lake Wum (the Silent Lake)

“Wum is a big city.” That’s a description. “Even though Wum isn’t the world’s biggest city, it looms large in the heart of hospitality everywhere.”

Let’s start with the famous Menchum fall which many tourists describe as picturesque spectacularly under appreciated gem and above all, majestic.This waterfall is quite impressive, one of the largest in West Africa. At the end of the rainy season there is a tremendous amount of water cascading down. The sheer walls are lined with greenery as a result of the constant mist.Menchum falls has a couple of benches, a viewing platform and a cement barrier to prevent falling the 100 metres. Just above the falls there’s an access road where trucks pick up sand. There are usually young boys and men poling boats , pulling up sand and shoveling it onto the bank. Not much room for parking at roadside, the narrow potholed and winding road is dusty, treacherous, often busy and not recommended in the rainy season. Takes about 3 hours of bone jarring constant driving to get there from Bamenda.
Even after several devious visits, I was still awestruck by the magnificence of this gem during my latest visit. Its power and beauty never fail to amaze and the ordinary slow moving waters of the river that suddenly turns into the spectacularly powerful Menchum Falls is a monumental testament to Nature’s omnipotence. I simply cannot understand why the location is so unkempt and the touristic potential so woefully unappreciated and undeveloped .

Wum’s Friendly Lakes

By Choves Loh 1st Published February 1 2017 http://www.cameroon-tribune.cm

Lakes Atwe, Illum, Oshien and Wum are water bodies to uncover. While Lake Wum is used to quench thirst, Lake Oshien’s water, it is believed, changes from clear, brown to green colours

The beauty and touristic characteristics of Wum are also expressed in the four lakes- Atwe, Illum, Oshien and Wum in the neighbourhoods. Lake Wum stands out as the friendliest of the lakes. It is conspicuous around the SDO’s residence with no inlet, but carries an outlet. It is said that virtually everybody in Wum drinks clean water from the Lake. It is the most exploited lake in Wum since the time of the Germans. From the corridors of the local administration, there are intentions to build a traditional hotel and fish farm around the lake for greater attraction. Elsewhere, swimming in the lake is now subject to approval from the Chief of Waindo. Meanwhile, on the way to Wum (around Mile 37), a 45-minute walk up hill takes you to Lake Oshien, which looks quite active. It is said that Lake Oshien makes declarations. It is the smallest of Wum’s lakes and its water often changes from clear, brown to green colours. Lake Atwe is the largest and the most ecologically-friendly of all the lakes with white-nose and black skin monkeys and chimpanzees. It is located a few kilometres from the Wum Council Office. Lake Atwe has an inlet and an outlet, which produces a water fall at least 50m high. Lake Illum, on the other hand, is found some 5km from Befang, east of the Wum forest. A regular stream flows into the lake with no outlet or drainage. Lake Illum, it is said, is responsible for all the regular landslides on the Bamenda-Befang-Wum road.

The touristic attraction, which is yet to be exploited, is full of myths.

The story on most lips as travelers cover the over three-hour-long journey between Bamenda and Wum is the numerous landslides conspicuous on the highway. Most prominent among the discussions was equally the attraction offered by the legendary Menchum waterfalls. With a height of about 80metres, Menchum Falls is a wonderful attraction as passers-by rush to watch from the western angle. The touristic potential is an inspiration for hydroelectric power. Passers-by believe that a better viewing of the site will be possible through the building of a hanging bridge. Menchum Waterfalls is responsible for the name of Menchum division and it is a reconciliation of the flow of streams and rivers from Mezam, Boyo and Menchum divisions. Above all, MenchumWaterfalls serve as a spiritual shrine for the Bangwe people on the way to Wum. It is believed that Befang people used the falls to perform traditional rites. A story is told that a year could hardly run out without a person disappearing in the waterfall. Fed up with such a tradition, the then D.O of Wum, Enow Enow Samuel, moved people to their present settlement in Befang in an attempt to better monitor them. Along the line, we are told that such rites have not been heard since 1973. In effect, there are many mystical stories about Menchum falls. Common stories in Wum reveal that the corpse of anybody who drowns in Boyo division or Wum must be found in a pool located some 20 to 30 metres above the falls. If the corpse is not found before Menchum falls, it is believed that ancestors must have rejected it. Other mystical stories are told of a French lady who went to take pictures of Menchum falls in January 1988. She stood on some stones above the lake for a better view when an alleged current swept her away. The intervention of marines did not help as she has never been traced. Then came a South African/Italian girl who in an attempt to snap pictures from the banks of the Menchum falls, tumbled and has never been found as well. Cheng Edward Muwah, the former Mayor of Wum Rural Council, cannot confirm nor debunk the stories, but says it orchestrated the building of a wall to protect visitors.

ITIAKU HOT SPRINGS

A hot spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater that rises from the Earth’s crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth. While some of these springs contain water that is a safe temperature for bathing, others are so hot that immersion can result in injury or death.

Therapeutic uses

Because heated water can hold more dissolved solids than cold water, warm and especially hot springs often have very high mineral content, containing everything from simple calcium to lithium, and even radium. Because of both the folklore and the claimed medical value some of these springs have, they are often popular tourist destinations, and locations for rehabilitation clinics for those with disabilities^.