Silicon Mountain
Silicon Mountain is a nickname coined to represent the Buea techosystem. It takes the Mountain acronym from Mount Fako which is highest point Mountain in West Africa. It currently incubates Africa's youngest tech startups and a growing community of developers and designers as well as the Universities such as the University of Buea, Catholic University Institute of Buea, Saint Monica University and many others. This region occupies the entire Fako(Victoria) Division of the South West Region in Cameroon. It is centred in Buea together with nearby cities like Limbe, Mutengene, Kumba and others. The term originally was de facto referring to the Buea tech community popularized during local tech community meetups like the BarCamp Cameroon, Google Developer Groups (GDG Buea) and the Kamer Design Meetups; but has eventually come to refer to all tech startups, Tech communities, Universities, and the local hacker and creative community.
Origin of term
The Silicon Mountain is a term used to refer to the technology ecosystem in Fako division of Cameroon. The term is a play on Silicon Valley and Fako Mountain ecosystem that is a dominant feature of Cameroon's topography. It was first used publicly by Rebecca Enonchong at the BarCamp Cameroon conference which took place in Buea in 2013.
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.[1] 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 a university town and the regional capital, there are a significant number of other ethnic groups.
The city hosts the University of Buea, the first Anglophone university of Cameroon. The city also hosts one of the three Catholic Universities of Cameroon among several other Higher Institutes of learning. 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, but some of them suffer from lack of maintenance and old age. About 150,000 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 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
TOPIC Categories:
- Development(Hackers)
- Design(Creatives)
- Sandbox Talks(Companies/Startups)
SESSION Categories
- Creativity workshops
- Community Pavillion
- MeeTheTeam Booth
Universities, colleges, professional schools
- University of Buea
- Catholic University Institute of Buea
- Saint Monica University
- University College of Technology
- Trustech Institute of Technology
- Buea Institute of Technology
- PanAfrican University Institute Buea.
- Higher Institute of Management Sciences
- St. Joseph's College, Sasse
- Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko
- Baptist High School, Buea
- Bishop Rogan College, Soppo
Technology Startups
There is a growing number of high technology companies headquartered in Silicon Mountain. Among those, the following are creating vibe:
Startup Incubators and Accelerators
Looking for an accelerator in Silicon Mountain, here is the one you should check out
Tech Blogs
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.
- Google Developer Group Buea
- Google Developer Group Limbe
- Women Techmakers Buea
- Buea WAAW Stem Cell
- Play With Python Community
- Cameroon Programming Contest
- Elite Programmers Club
- Buea Docker Hub[2]
- Buea Mozilla Community
- Buea Java Script Meetup
- WordPress4 Startups
See also
- List of places with "Silicon" names around the world
- List of research parks around the world
- List of technology centers around the world
- Silicon Valley
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Silicon Savannah
- Konza Technology City
- Yabacon Valley
Further reading
- MSN News Africa's next Tech Hub Derek, Thompson
- Kinnaka's Blog - The Silicon Mountain Conference
- The Drop News Mag South Africa
The Standard Tribune [3] The Observers France 24 [4] The Guardian Newspaper [5]
E-Kwat News Mag [6] Africa News Hub [7] Disrupt Africa 2016 - Silicon Mountain Conference[8] The Afro Hustler Magazine [9] BBC Africa Business Report 2016 [10] Made In Buea Blog[11] Daily News Cameroon [12] Mifos Initiative Blog [13] Disrupt Africa News 2015 [14] TechCabal News 2015 [15] VC4Africa on Cameroon [16]
References
- ↑ "History of Buea - Buea.cm". 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-09-28.
- ↑ http://www.meetup.com/Docker-Buea/
- ↑ http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/09/20/silicon-mountain-has-silicon-valley-ambitions/
- ↑ http://observers.france24.com/en/20160909-welcome-silicon-mountain-africa-next-tech-hub
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/self-taught-coder-churchill-nanje-building-careers-cameroons-tech-hub
- ↑ http://e-kwat.com/silicon-mountain-buea/
- ↑ https://www.africanewshub.com/news/5089438-2nd-annual-silicon-mountain-conference-set-for-cameroon
- ↑ http://disrupt-africa.com/2016/05/2nd-annual-silicon-mountain-conference-set-for-cameroon/
- ↑ https://afrohustler.com/cameroon-silicon-mountain-startups-bbc-world-news-mustwatch/
- ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36054263
- ↑ https://madeinbuea.com/
- ↑ http://www.dailynewscameroon.com/en/silicon-mountain-conference-2016/8741
- ↑ http://mifos.org/2016/07/09/summiting-the-silicon-mountain-in-cameroon/
- ↑ http://disrupt-africa.com/2015/06/cameroon-to-host-1st-silicon-mountain-conference-for-startups/
- ↑ http://techcabal.com/2015/06/25/cameroons-silicon-mountain-community-holds-its-first-technology-conference/
- ↑ https://vc4a.com/blog/2011/09/13/vc4africa-and-cameroons-startup-entrepreneurs-video/
Saint Monica University Website [1]
External links
Ranking of Tech startups in Cameroon [2]