Silicon Mountain

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Silicon Mountain is a nickname coined to represent the technology ecosystem ( cluster ) in the Mountain area of Cameroon with epicenter in Buea. It takes the Mountain acronym from Mount Fako and is currently home to Africa's youngest tech startups and a growing community of developers, designers, business professionals as well as Universities such as the University of Buea, Catholic University Institute of Buea, Saint Monica University and many others. This region occupies the entire Fako Division of the South West Region of Cameroon. The phrase originally was the de facto reference to the Buea Tech Community popularized during local tech community meetups such as BarCamp Cameroon 2013, Google I/O Extended Buea 2015 and the Kamer Design Meetups; but has eventually come to refer to the community of developers, creatives, organizers, business professionals, universities in the area.

Video Silicon Mountain

Origin of term

The Silicon Mountain is a term used to refer to the tech ecosystem (cluster) in Fako division of Cameroon with epicenter Buea. The term is a play ( phrasal portmanteau ) on Silicon Valley and Mount Fako (which is the most dominant feature of Cameroon's topography and the highest geographical point in West and Central Africa). It was first used publicly by Rebecca Enonchong at the BarCamp Cameroon conference which took place at Catholic University Institute Of Buea, Buea in 2013.

Maps Silicon Mountain

History

Silicon Mountain refers to the city of Buea according to social scientists was founded by a hunter in search of game. Eye Njie Tama Lifanje came from the Bomboko clan behind the Buea Mountain (Mount Cameroon or Mount Fako). On that fateful day he founded Buea, he had set out in search of animals but there were no game to be hunted only a vast peace of hospitable land that could harbor his family. Eyé Njie named it "Mwea", meaning, hospitable land for farming. The settlement soon grew into a clan but made tardy progress until the later part of the 19th century, when there was an influx of Europeans into Africa for exploration and colonialism purposes. Tea growing is an important local industry, especially in Tole. Buea was the colonial capital of the German Kamerun from 1901 to 1919, and the capital of the Southern Cameroons from 1949 until 1961. The German colonial administration in Buea was temporarily suspended during the eruption of Mount Cameroon from 28 April - June 1909. Originally, Buea's population consisted mainly of the Bakweri people. However, due to its position as the defunct capital of the Federated State Of West Cameroon, regional capital of the South West and university town, it has attracted a significant number of other ethnic groups.

The epicenter of the Silicon Mountain, Buea, hosts the University of Buea, the first Anglo-Saxon-styled university of Cameroon, alongside the Catholic University Institute Of Buea, the Pan African Institute Of Development, just to name a few. The city still has a handful of colonial era buildings, notably the palatial former residence of the German governor, Jesko von Puttkamer. Other German colonial buildings especially the Prime Minister's Lodge (Schloss) and the Bismarks' fountain are still standing, albeit some of them suffer from lack of maintenance and old age. As of 2010, a study showed that about 3000,000 people live in Buea ( including Bokwaongo, Muea, Bomaka, Tole, Mile 16 (Bolifamba), Mile 17, Mile 15, Mile 14 (Dibanda), Bova, Bonjongo, Likombe, Buasa, and surrounding villages). It also hosts the Nigerian Consulate in anglophone Cameroon and is the main operational hub of the Naigahelp medical aid organisation.

SILICON MOUNTAIN, BUEA-CAMEROON | Star Billang

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Silicon Mountain Annual Conference

The Buea Techosystem starting from 2015 organizes the annual Silicon Mountain conference popularly referred to as #smconfb which brings together over 500+ like-minded creatives and hackers from the Mountain Area and around Africa for two days of sessions, labs, speakers for inspiration and fun. Featuring Tech talks, design and code labs; everything required to inspire coders and designers in the Silicon Mountain area to code/create for the rest of the year. Silicon Mountain Geeks come to exhibit their skills at this Conference; from Iconic to inspirational, Silicon Mountaineers aim to push the boundaries and definitions of Technology in Africa. The Silicon Mountain Conference has the following;

SESSION Categories

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Universities, colleges, professional schools

Mac Alunge @ Silicon Mountain Conference 2017 Buea, Cameroon - YouTube

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Technology Startups

There is a growing number of high technology startups/companies headquartered in Silicon Mountain as is listed below;

California's Hydrogen Highway Runs Through My Backyard | Greentech ...

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Startup Incubators

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Tech Blogs

Todd Bodine - SILICON MOUNTAIN / MIRRORS - decks.de - Vinyl Shop

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Technology Communities

There exist local developer communities aimed at promoting Computer Science, programming, Startups and developer technologies. These local tech communities organize large gatherings with demos and tech talks, to events like code sprints and hackathons.