Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 53
Chapter 1.1
The Gwoza hills between 1994 and 2009
Indroduction
The Gwoza hills along the Cameroon border form a part of the larger granite chain of the
Mandara Mountains, stretching like a peninsular beyond the eleventh latitude northwards,
deep into the dry savannah of the Sudano-Sahelian transition zone, with Lake Chad only
about 150km away. They are about 25km long and between 5 and 10km wide, narrowing
towards the north, from where they appear far on the horizon (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). A
mountain saddle only about 700m high divides the Gwoza hills in the middle. The narrow
northern massif, the Zelidva spur, at 1345m forms the highest elevation of the Gwoza hills,
though the peak of the southern massif at 1250m is almost equally high. The wider southern
section is referred to here as the Dghweɗe massif, which leads across a deep valley to Ngoshe
Sama on the Gvoko massif. The latter belongs topographically to the heights of Tur, leading
at about 1000m to the Sukur massif and the central plateau of the Mandara Mountains. The
international boundary runs along the heights of Tur, and on the Cameroonian side, Mount
Oupay can be seen residing at 1494m as the highest elevation in its immediate
neighbourhood. When the weather is clear the volcanic plugs of Roumsiki are visible from as
far as Dghweɗe. Because Ngoshe Sama belongs to the Gwoza LGA, it is considered to be part
of the Gwoza hills (see Figure 3).
Going around the foothills
At the northern foot of the Gwoza hills is Pulka, a little market place and crossroads from
where passengers often change taxi if they are coming from the eastern side of the hills. Here
we do not turn east but continue our imaginary journey along the main road southwards,
leading along the western side of the chain, and we can see the steepness of the Zelidva
massif. After Pulka we arrive at Warabe and Wala, where the majority of the Zelidva people
live today after they descended from the fertile valleys high up on top of the spur. Only Divili,
at about 1000m, has a few inhabitants left, forming a very small remote community. The
attraction of Divili is a little lake which never dries out, but this is no longer what attracts
people, especially considering the long climb of several hours which starts in Wala.
Plate 5a: View from Fachekwe in Wala, with hillside and valley leading up to Divili.
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