Bamenda
— — the green that climbs the escarpment after rain.
Not only on a wall.
“The city sits at the foot of a long volcanic escarpment, the Bamenda Highlands rising green and terraced above the old town. It is the cultural heart of anglophone Cameroon and of the Grassfields kingdoms, with the Mankon Palace and the Bamenda Ring Road tracing its outer edge. The air carries the cool of the highland savanna. From above, the corrugated roofs read as a single slow wash of colour against the hills.
Bamenda, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Bamenda is the capital of the Northwest Region of Cameroon and the principal city of the country's anglophone west, with an urban population of roughly 500,000. It sits on the southern edge of the Bamenda Highlands, a volcanic plateau that drops sharply at the Sabga Escarpment into the lowlands toward Bafoussam. The city centre, around Commercial Avenue and the old Mankon district, lies near 1,600 metres, cool enough that mornings hold a low mist along the hillsides. It is the historical heart of the Grassfields kingdoms and one terminus of the Bamenda Ring Road that loops the region's chiefdoms.
The highland setting gives Bamenda a climate distinct from coastal Cameroon. At an elevation near 1,600 metres the city sees average temperatures in the low 20s Celsius year-round, with a long rainy season from March through October that drapes the escarpment in cloud. Above the town the road climbs to Sabga at about 2,100 metres, where the wind comes off the grass plateau cool and steady. Local farmers grow Arabica coffee, Irish potatoes, and the leafy greens that fill the markets along Commercial Avenue.
The seat of the Mankon Fondom predates the colonial city by centuries; the Mankon Palace remains one of the most intact Grassfields royal compounds, with its carved entrance and clay-walled assembly hall. German administrators laid out the upper station above the old town in 1903, and the British later governed the area as part of Southern Cameroons. The Bamenda Ring Road, roughly 367 kilometres, connects the city to the smaller fondoms of Bali, Bafut, Kom, and Nso, each with its own palace and royal regalia.