Notre-Dame de Koutaba, Trappist monastery in Koutaba, Cameroon.
Notre-Dame de Koutaba is a Trappist monastery built with local materials like laterite stone, nestled among coffee plantations in the mountains of western Cameroon. The structures blend European monastic design with regional building traditions.
The monastery was founded in 1968 by French monks from Aiguebelle Abbey, who had previously settled in the Minlaba and Obout regions. This relocation established a new chapter for the Trappist community in Cameroon.
African musical instruments and local languages like Bamileke are woven into the monastery's daily worship and community life. This blending of traditions gives the monastic practice a distinctly local character.
The community maintains coffee plantations that provide regular work and shape the local economy of the surrounding region. Visiting allows you to see how monastic life and agricultural work are integrated.
The monastic community brings together monks from Cameroon, France, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Central African Republic. This mix of origins creates a distinctly international character within the African context.
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