The river is navigable south of Mundame for about 100 kilometres (62 mi) as it flows through the coastal plain before entering mangrove swamps, where it splits into numerous small channels that empty into the Cameroon estuary complex.

[1] In the early colonial era, Mundame was seen as having potential as a station for collecting trade goods such as rubber, palm oil and ivory for transport by river to the coast.

[3] The German firm of Jantzen und Thormählen established a factory at Mundame in 1889, intending to use it as a stage for expansion into the northwest.

[4] In 1900 the Gesellschaft Nord-West Kamerun (GNK) sent an expedition led by Hptm von Ramsay from Douala via Mundame to the Cross River.

[6] By 1970, the community was described as a "forest village", with a relatively high level of infection by the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness.