Preserving cultural heritage and treasures

US gov’t sponsors
rehabilitation of Bafut Palace
By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

Partial view of the Bafut Palace

The Achum House at the Bafut Palace promises to be a touristic jewel when the FCFA 30 million cultural preservation project sponsored by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs will be completed.
    The project will employ local artisans to restore and reinforce the palace’s structure, as well as collect, catalogue, and display relics of the 600 year-old Bafut Kingdom.  The artisans have been trained to maintain and rehabilitate other buildings in the palace complex.
    According to Matthew McKeever, Chargé d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Yaoundé, “This program, funded through the Ambassadors’ Fund for Cultural Preservation like others before it, demonstrates our respect for Cameroon’s unique national heritage treasures.”

    In addition, the project will fund the publication of a royal book to document the history of the palace.  The work is expected to be completed in nine months, following an official launch planned for September 2014.
Historically, the palace compound was the site of violent resistance to German colonization.  During the last war in 1907, the entire compound, including The Achum House, was burned.  An architectural masterpiece constructed entirely of local materials, the present Achum House was built in 1910 and is the oldest structure of traditional origin in Cameroon.  It has been restored several times since and remains today the crown jewel of the palace complex. 
    The restoration of The Achum House is one of the nine projects in Sub Saharan Africa selected for funding through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation in 2014.  Since its inception in 2001, the Ambassadors’ Fund for Cultural Preservation has supported more than 640 projects to preserve cultural heritage in 100 countries.  In Cameroon, the Fund has contributed more than $140,000 since 2005 to preserve three cultural sites.