"It is said, that although the black continent doesn't have all the wealth of the world, it has the biggest heart." "A story of one man, who is not careless to the faith of his country and the future of people from his Kedjom-Keku tribe, will convince you about this African kindheartedness." "First mention about this tribe, also called 'People of the forest', comes from the far north of Cameroon, from the area of lake Chad." "Our story begins there, too." "Tribes not only from Cameroon, but also from Nigeria and Chad, live by the shores of this lake." "It is a place, which despite its modest conditions teems with life." "Fast drying lake Chad is the main source of livelihood in the dry inhospitable country." "The People of the forest left this area once and went to find a new home in the south through desolate and parched Sahel." "Getting close to the south, the inhospitable country is replaced by grassy savannah." "Massive green baobabs grow up from the ground and the water in rivers is finally flowing." "Local people can fish here even in extreme conditions." "Cameroon is often called 'the little Africa' because many visitors are surprised by its diversity." "With every valley and every hill the country changes a bit and with it the people, who live there." "Savannah is adorned by traditional earthen houses that differ through tribes in their shape and architecture." "Families have to get by with very little, but that creates even stronger bonds within families." "They can use everything, what the surrounding country offers them." "Another thing we can envy Cameroonian people is their colourful clothing." "Women wear beautiful dresses of various colours and patterns." "One of the African symbols are these women dressed in colourful fabrics carrying their children on their backs and heavy load on their heads." "Our journey continues with tracing the footsteps of the People of the forest further to the south." "We enter into the area of dense forests and high mountains that offers many breathtaking natural views." "The surface of Cameroon was considerably affected by volcanic activity." "Many odd rock formations and table mountains were created here." "They stand out high above surrounding landscape." "The highest active volcano of west Africa, Mt." "Cameroon, is also found here." "Its slopes are richly covered by rainforests." "One might feel like he is wandering back to the prehistoric era." "At higher altitudes, off-white clouds pervade the forest and create mist that makes it difficult to see the lands around." "Rays of the Sun sometimes break the fog and cover the ground with golden colour." "The nature changes again above the clouds." "The hill turns into a desolate moonly landscape and all around you can see black lava, extinct craters and finally the wind-weathered top of the volcano." "It is possible to go down to the coast of the Atlantic ocean directly from the Mt." "Cameroon summit." "Along the coast, further to the south, we can find many beautiful and deserted beaches." "Sand beaches are intersected by unique waterfalls on the Lobe river." "Their water falls straight down to the open ocean." "The very south of Cameroon is almost completely covered by virgin rainforests." "Many people therefore settled down by the coast, where they fish for a living." "Impervious rainforests have also found their inhabitants." "These are Pygmies, great hunters from the Baka tribe." "They live deep in the forests and they know the forest's secrets better than anybody else." "The People of the forest wandered throughout the entire Cameroon, they passed the dry Sahel, vast grassy savannah, until they found the place where they finally settled down." "That place was the Bamenda highlands, fertile area veiled in the mist and green mountain forest." "People from the Kedjom-Keku tribe remained high in the mountains, although some of them moved down to the valley and founded the Big Babanki village." "Having enough water and fertile ground created the right conditions for the life of locals." "People from the Kedjom-Keku tribe remained here permanently and the forest became their inseperable part." "Life in these green mountains is beautiful, but, on the other hand, it is also rough." "The valleys are decorated by transparent mountain streams with their flow being accelerated by many waterfalls." "Rivers are lined by the remains of a unique eco-system - the mountain misty forest." "For people to live here, they have to spend their days working hard on their farms." "They cultivate their fields or graze cows on extensive mountain grasslands." "Here, one man comes into our story." "He understands, as one of the very few, the value of the forest for the people of the Kedjom-Keku tribe." "His name is Ernest Vunan." "Spontaneity, openness and a sense for fun is typical for the people of Kedjom-Keku." "Every cultural event is accompanied by singing and dancing." "This is palm wine, a magical white drink which cannot be missing at any cultural event." "Traditional food in this area of Cameroon is N'Jamajama and Foufou." "Foufou is made of corn flour, which is cooked first with water on fire and then wrapped into banana leaves." "As a side dish, we serve stewed leaves of the N'Jamajama plant, which is cultivated here on every farm." "It's an early morning and the village Big Babanki is prepared to start a new day." "Roads are getting filled with people." "Today, we have an important event here – regular market day." "One of the most interesting traditions of Kedjom-Keku people is the death celebration." "On this occasion, they commemorate their deceased friends and family members and celebrate their lives." "Traditional women dances cannot be missing either." "More distinctive are however the dancers, that communicate directly with the spirit of the deceased during the ceremony." "They're called the Dju-Dju dancers." "In the mountains around the Big Babanki village lives a small group of chimpanzees." "Chimpanzees regularly migrate among individual forest fragments." "With Mr.Moses, we embarked on a journey to set a phototrap and we hope that we will be the first to make an image of this group of chimpanzees and to count its members." "We will leave virgin mountains and People of the forest for a moment to embark on a journey throughout Cameroon, in which we will explore the rich biodiversity of this country." "The Sun has just risen in the savannah in the north of Cameroon and we are welcomed by a small rock animal called the hyrax." "A bit further, a group of patas monkeys is resting." "To get closer to them is almost impossible as they are the fastest primates of our planet." "When going through the savannah, we observe from afar how several tall heads observe us back from behind the grass." "It is a herd of giraffes." "The dominant male signals very clearly that we are in his territory and at the same time he is protecting his females that are running very fast to get out of our sight." "Today, we are lucky." "Our journey was crossed by an approximately fifty-member herd of elephants and we are observing the largest terrestrial animals living on the Earth with pounding hearts." "In the town of Garoua, we meet a man, who is called 'the hippo man'." "As a little boy, he used to go to the river nearby to feed hippos and he built a strong relationship with them." "The hippos belong to the most dangerous animals in Africa." "After the hippo man assured us that we are not in danger, we enter the water and we find ourselves in the immediate presence of this massive creature." "Both African apes live in Cameroon – chimpanzees and gorillas." "Our first contact with them was in the primate rescue centre, in the town of Limbe." "In addition to chimpanzees and gorillas, we can also find here the gaily coloured mandrill or its relative – the endangered drill." "The centre is important also because of this gorilla grandma that lives here." "Her name is Nyango and she is the only lowland gorilla from the cross-river subspecies that is bred in captivity in the whole world." "At the very south of Cameroon, the rainforests begin." "These fill in the entire Congolese lowland." "Here, we were able to see both apes together on a grassy meadow." "We even witnessed how one chimpanzee was using a tool – a twig, with which it was gathering food." "We had a beautiful view on the forest elephant in the near lake." "He was clearly enjoying the water bath." "After a month of waiting we return to the rainforest to check on our phototrap." "We browse through the images with bated breath in hopes of discovering a unique shot that captures the most powerful primate that lives in this area." "Unfortunately, we did not succeed in documenting chimpanzees from this mountain forest." "They continue to live in secret and nobody knows their exact number." "The painful truth remains, that this small chimpanzee group has only little hope for a long-term survival." "The diverse art belongs inherently to Cameroon." "Some of the wooden statues and masks were preserved from the era of former kings and they still hold magical significance." "In addition to the carving art, a strong relationship to music is typical for Cameroon." "You can hear music from every corner." "In the Big Babanki village, children go to school regularly." "Families that live high in the mountains don't have access to education." "That's why a group of young people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia decided to help educate the farmers and their children in the mountains and that way support Ernest's effort to rescue the mountain misty forest." "The Bamenda highlands is one of the most beautiful places in the world." "I had the opportunity to come here a couple years ago as a part of a scientific expedition." "I lived with local farmers and I promised them one evening that I will build a school for them." "When I returned to the Czech Republic after a couple of weeks, I decided to keep that promise." "As a result, we founded the Kedjom-Keku non-profit organization." "Now, we are about 20 great young people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and more people are still joining." "They volunteered not only to build the school, but also to help with the teaching." "We teach small children as well as adults to read, to write and to build a relationship with local nature." "We want to teach them how to effectively use the farm land so they won't have to cut more fragments of the mountain misty forest." "Our goal is to save this forest." "I, personally, admire Ernest a lot for what he is doing, what he has done and mainly, for his willingness to continue what he is doing and do anything for saving these mountain forest fragments." "Ernest is not only planting trees, but he is also a positive role model for the entire village and he managed to motivate a bunch of people to think about environmental issues." "This is very important, in my opinion, especially today, when nature is disappearing in front of our own eyes;" "it is necessary to support these people and appreciate their work." "That's why, we, as a non-profit organization, don't want to intervene into the lives of local people but we want to support their own ideas and try to collectivelly save the fragments of this precious mountain forest." "I had this amazing opportunity to teach these children from the very beginning and it was great to see them come to school for the first time." "When they were seven years old, they were not able to hold a pen in their hands, they couldn't speak English, they didn't know almost anything." "And now, after a few months, they can almost read, write and speak English." "We had a lot of fun." "Working with them was great and it will be extremely hard for me to leave them." "It sometimes happens, that our hasty world makes us forget about the values that are truly important." "We need somebody to remind us of them." "People of the forest convinced us with their kindheartedness, modesty and appreciation of life that we still have something to learn from Africa despite our apparent development." "Our strength lies in the strength of the individuals." "Determination and motivation of one man can change the way a country, in which our children will grow up, will look like."