The Bum of Cameroon

The Bum of Cameroon, numbering approximately 43,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Grassfields fondom of Cameroon's Northwest Region tracing descent, like many neighboring chiefdoms, to Tikar migrants said to have moved from the Nile Valley into the Bamenda highlands, ruled by a fon through patrilineal succession. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Bum is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Bum

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Cameroon
People Cluster: Bantu, Cameroon-Bamileke
Primary Language(s): Bum (bmv)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 43,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG012559
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Bum of Cameroon

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

—
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bum
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Bum Speakers

Media Resources in Bum:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Bum:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2014 CABTAL, In cooperation with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc.✓✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Bum bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Bum are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Bum:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Bum of Cameroon

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
readRomans 10:14

Pray that those who haven't heard will hear the Word of Christ and believe in Him, calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
readPsalm 67:5

While there are many who do not yet praise God, pray that He will work in their lives, advance the gospel among them, and bring many to saving faith in Christ.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
readPsalm 121:1-2

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ and experience hardship, God will remind them that their help comes from the One who made heaven and earth and that He is powerful to meet their needs.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe."
readJohn 6:35-36

Praise God for the things such as bread that He has provided as natural conversation bridges to the gospel. Pray that believers will use any bridges He provides to share the gospel with those who do not yet know the good news.

Bum Across Countries (ROP3 - 101734) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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