| Gembu | |
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| — city — | |
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Gembu
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Nigeria |
| State | Taraba State |
| LGA | Sardauna |
| Elevation | 1,348 m (4,423 ft) |
| Time zone | WAT (UTC+1) |
Gembu is a town found on the mambilla plateau in Taraba State of Nigeria. It is the headquarters of Sardauna Local Government Area in Taraba state.
Sitting at an average elevation of about 1,348 meters (4,423 ft) above sealevel,[1] it is among the high elevated towns in Nigeria.
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Gembu, the name of the town of Bommi, was taken from the name of a monarch of the town known as 'Gelmvu'. The town is found on the Mambilla Plateau,in the south eastern part of Taraba state, close to the border separating Nigeria and Cameroon. This Mambilla region is famous in African history and a new book by Bami-Yuno (soon to be in circulation) details the discovery that the people inhabiting the Mambilla Region do represent the Bantu who remained after the great split and Bantu expansion across Africa which began c. 1500 BC. The following is an excerpt from chapter one of the book, The Bantu Who stayed Home: The Mambilla Region in African History.
By far the most significant factor in African history is the ethnogenesis and spread of the Bantu-speaking peoples associated with the Mambilla Region of the Nigeria-Cameroon borderlands (the Mambillobantu Region) in West Africa. The Bantu expansion, which many authorities believe to have begun from this region between 2000 and 1500 B.C, led to the ramification of over one-third of Africa by the same category of Africans, the Bantus, covering some twenty-eight African countries today. Most of the people existing in the central and southern Nigeria-Cameroon border, southern Cameroon, central, eastern and southern Africa today are a result of the Bantu expansion from the Mambilla Region or the result of a fusion between the Bantu migrants and Nilo-Saharans (as in a few communities in East Africa) or Bantu and Pygmies (as in some communities in central Africa). One in every three Africans today is Bantoid. The Mambilla Region itself was not totally evacuated and the area is still occupied by the Macro-Bantu-speaking Mambilloid peoples who represent the remnants of that great African expansion. [2] It is about 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) away/close to the Donga River valley.[3]
Gembu town has a comparatively cold climate. The recorded mean air temperature for the town stands at 21.1 °C (70 °F).[4]Daytime temperatures hardly exceed 25 °C (77.0 °F)[5] and a temperature minimum of 11 °C (51.8 °F) is recorded during the mid- rainy season in August .
The rainy season in Gembu town is associated with frequent and heavy rainfall. The Mambilla Plateau receives over 1850 millimetres of rainfall annually.[6]
Gembu town being the headquarters of a Local Government area has attracted a population diverse in ethnic makeup, which has resulted in the town taking a cosmopolitan shape. People coming from different parts of Nigeria have made the town their home.
The Mambila people make up the highest single ethnic group population in the town,[7]followed by the Fulanis.They are the cattle rearers of the plateau[8][9]
Roads leading to Gembu town on the Mambilla Plateau are poorly maintained which makes travelling to the town from other parts of Nigeria difficult.. The Mambilla Plateau is the generally accepted Bantu Homeland (Zeitlyn and Connell, 2003; Bami-Yuno, 2011)