H.E Ama Tutu Muna: The Woman Emancipator
If there is any area in Cameroon where the African woman can be assessed after 50 years, it is the Ministry of Culture headed by Mafor
Ama Tutu Muna. This woman has shown that women in leadership could mean
a lot to Cameroon.
Ever since this daughter of the great statesman, late Solomon Tandeng
Muna became the Minister of Culture, the ever first woman to lead that
Ministry, she ignited the hope that women in leadership position
could mean a lot to Cameroon.
Hitherto considered a no go zone for women, Ama Tutu has not only
dismantled the male barriers constructed round that Ministry but has
more importantly handed some key positions to women. Another key
innovation has been the transfer of authority from the tortuous and
rugged CMC to SOCAM with a woman at the head. Since her appointment, Ama
Tutu Muna had helped a great deal in transforming President Biya’s
policy of greater ambitions to greater achievements. Even though a
cabinet minister, Ama Tutu remains approachable. She talks and acts with
untiring sociability.
Yet, it is this quality which immensely complements her multifarious
roles. That she now occupies that seat of culture Minister is not
fortuitous. Before her appointment as Minister of Culture, she had
already learned to cope with the cultural demands of such positions.
Hard work and efficiency have continued to be the qualities that define
her. When you call at her office, you are taken to a waiting room where
you need to be patient as she is on an important or some of those
critical files that demands a lot of concentration. Take it as arrogance
and you are right for this is positive arrogance that enables that job
for which she was appointed to be done effectively. It is this positive
arrogance that always determines the quality of ideas and projects that
comes out of that ministry and which tells you that she is not a woman
who takes task lightly.
Notwithstanding, she has the drive and dedication that defies any facile
explanations. Born into a politician’s family, Mafor Ama Tutu Muna was
brought up in close knit family where as the only girl she was never
allowed to idle while others work. In later life she could not escape to
be a workaholic or become a politician par excellence reasons why she
formed the Abi Fall Sub Section of the CPDM and is continuing from where
the father left with a lot of dexterity. Mafor Ama Tutu is also on
record to have initiated the Mbengwi Women Cooperative to combat the
plight of the rural woman and besides, she is also the brain behind the
creation North West Women’s Forum.
Hon. Esther Ngala Ntala: Self Motivated Sparkling Politician
To be a female political giant in Cameroon is just like driving along the Bamenda
Ring Road where you need to withstand all the odds against you. And
trying to change the mentality of a society that was purely male
dominated is also an up hill task that only dynamic women can overcome.
Yet, Hon. Esther Ngala Ntala, SDF Member of Parliament for Ndu in Donga
Mantung Division of the Northwest region is one of those exemplary
female politicians who has dismantled these barriers. Before becoming a
career politician, her hard work, determination and involvement in
community work and sound education shaped and influenced her life to
where she is today.
This good nature, self-motivated and sparkling political icon has had a
distinguished career as a teacher before a jump-start in politics where
she is going into records in great names. Conscientiously speaking she
has been rated as the agrarian political messiah who continues to
stimulate the woman that “what a man can do in politics, a woman can
likely do it twice”. This is great motivation because she is and
continues to make a difference in the lives of the rural woman. From
Taku to Ntundip through Ndu, Ntumbaw, right down to Luh, Ngarum, Talla,
Mbipgo, she moves from women of little and no education to learned ones.
Her success story as a politician is the beginning of a new page for
women. Skilled with political strategies, Hon. Esther Ngala Ntala
remains a force to reckon with in Mbumland. Despite her prestigious
position as MP, Hon. Esther Ngala still believes in the African root
concept because she remains a mother and a home maker. As an
educationist, she has a soft spot for the education of the girl child.
Before going to Parliament, she was the President of the (Wimbum) Mbum
Women in Bamenda with a membership of over 7.000. She helped set up a
micro credit for woen in Ndu where more than 500 women have changed
their lives. She recently embarked in a giant tree planting programme with women in Ndu.
Besides, she was also a member of the Steering Committee of the
Grassfeild Participatory and Decentralized Rural Development Project-GP
DERUDEP. All these positions were not handed to her on a platter of gold
but were as a result of hard work and merit. At the National Assembly,
she is the Chairperson of the Social Committee. Yet, Hon. Esther Ngala
moves along with innovation, meet her on her political trips and you
would have met a politician of great magnitude. Furthermore, she is also
one of those MPs that have continued to caution farmers and grazers on
the phenomenon of climate change.
Prof. Uphie Melo Chinje: The Role Model
Prof. Uphie Melo Chinje is a frontline researcher, like other result
oriented researchers, she is transforming theory into practice. Moving
research results from the laboratory into the field of production has
been one of her major achievements. In the past, accusations have been
more compounded by the fact that research results never go beyond the
laboratory. Reasons being that majority of the research results never
tie with local realities because most of the researchers prefer to think
globally and act globally. Welcome Prof. Uphie Melo Chinje who is a
mark departure from the madding crowd because she thinks globally and
act locally. As a woman she has shown proof of being a systematically
thought out of the box. As a researcher and a woman for that matter, she
has always been worried why there are practical problems to be solved
in society and researchers spend time in abstract things. She is one of
those rare researchers who believe in the value of work. Far from being
an academic exercise, she is of the school of thought of Beacon who saw
research and the acquisition of knowledge as planned work. Knowing that
everything in the world is purchased by labour, Prof. Uphie Melo Chinje
put herself to education and learning that would make her useful in the
field of work. And being a God fearing person, her inspiration has often
come from Genesis 1:28 which states that: “replenish and subdue it”. It is therefore a noble sentiment that she has not only replenished the earth but has been subduing it.
As General Manager of the Local Material Production Authority-MIPROMALO,
she has been redefining the use of the earth especially it soil.
Through her meritorious research work, she demonstrated that local
materials are more resistant and she succeeded in putting local
construction materials at the front stage in Cameron. That is how she is
transforming President Biya’s greater ambition program.
While
others in her position will certainly wear arrogance and snobbishness,
she remains down to earth and accommodative. Back in her Constituency,
Prof. Uphie Melo initiated and established the Creative Women Center,
which is a model in empowering the rural woman. Yet Prof. Melo still
goes beyond that to make work the divine with humanity as she believes
God makes Himself in all the things. Her successes in politics,
development work, research and empowerment has earned her countless
awards and merits. She is therefore one of those celebrities that
Cameroonians continue to admire during the Month of the woman and look
up to as a role model. Meet her in the field discussing politics and you
understand she is perfect.Hon. Rose Abunaw: Symbol of Hard Work
Hon. Rose Abunaw is CPDM Member of Parliament for Manyu in the Southwest
region. Her rise to fame in the field of politics can easily be
justified by the statement that life is a journey. In fact, John
Bungam’s pilgrim progress is a classical expression of this truth that
clearly portrays her as a political genius. To start with, she is a
multi talented woman and describing her as a genius is to use one of the
weakest dictions to illustrate a genius. She is smart and has the
thoroughness that is hard to come by. Anyone who comes across her for the first time is attracted by her cultured manners which have made her a career politician.
She is always exceptional everywhere she goes. She started her political
progress in the UNDP party where she got her first ticket to
Parliament. Pregnant with political maturity and strategies, her desire
to express her political ideas freely and pragmatically made her to move
to the CPDM party from the UNDP. Prophets of doom who were quick to
predict her down-fall but were shocked when she trashed canned her
opponents’ majority of them men to emerge victorious in her new garment.
It is that mastery in grassroot politics and doing little things that
matter in a common way that has raised her to be cherished by all and
sundry in Manyu. She later became the 3rd Vice President at the National
Assembly and a pragmatic climate change campaigner. To understand that
she has the God given magnet that attracts people and that she is a
career politician, meet her in the field and you would agree with me
that she is a celebrity.
While she has been transforming lives through micro projects, and doing
the same like Mother Teresa, Hon. Mafor Rose Abunaw is also an advocate
against female genital mutilation. She has always been apt to stand up
against people in society that keep others in abject poverty for the
sake of a few who have wealth and power. To her, the door of success
only opens those who value hard work. Hon. Rose Abunaw is on record for
having opened the road that links Batibo to Manyu, reasons why where she
is succeeding some men have tried and failed woefully.
Madame Achidi Achu Judith Yaah Sunde: Pictogram of Fame
Madame Achidi Achu Judith Yaah Sunde is a woman of additional qualities.
Voted Woman of The Year 2011 by readers of The Eye Newspaper, this is a woman who unlike others is busy round the clock. As a
seasoned administrator, she believes like Immanuel Kant that “the more
we are busy, the more we feel we are alive and contributing for the
welfare of others”. Her educational background coupled with her devotion
to be perfect has made her to transform the principle of education for
work into the principle of education through work. Reasons why she puts
youths ahead in all her actions and also believes that by empowering the
rural women and youths she would be an avenue par excellence to change
lives through work. As a Christian, she believes like Martin Luther King
that “working is praying”. One prelate once said that every human
natured person is made up of the human and the divine and that when the
divine overrides, the human one becomes closer to God. Yet, Madame
Achidi Achu Judith goes beyond that by making work the divine with the
human as a pairs.
Last year, she donated a football trophy worth a million FCFA for youths
in Donga Mantung Division to celebrate the 50 Anniversary of Cameroon’s
independence in grand style with over 20.000 man crowds in attendance
during the finals reasons why couple with all what had done for the
welfare of rural women, Donga Mantung Fons honoured and coroneted her
Senior Ma-Yaah of Donga Mantung division.
Accompanying rural women through support has been her line of action in
fostering women empowerment. What makes her dissimilar from others is
that she does uncommon things in a very common manner.
In the Littoral and South West regions where she served as Regional
Director of CAMTEL, she left an indelible mark of greatness that speaks
positively and confirms the aptitude of women in leadership positions.
In the Southwest Region she succeeded in putting in place the optic
fiber. In the North West,
she is also noted to have transformed the entire service into a bee
hive of activities. Notwithstanding, Madame Achidi Achu Judith Yaah
Sunde is also a great supporter of the CPDM. In the political arena her
presence in Donga Mantung Division is often described as a booster to
youths and the woman folk. If you have never met a cheese full of
prominence, get closer to Sr Ma Yaah Achidi Achu Judith to rediscover
her role as a woman emancipator.
Kah Walla: The Woman with Presidential Ambitions
The most comfortable act on earth they say is to fulfill ones dream. Mss
Kah Walla, the Coordinator of Cameroon O’Bosso and founder of a not for profit making known as Strategy is not a woman to pigeon hole with. Even though some people are of
the opinion that far away hills always look very green, female
Presidential candidate for 2011, Kah Walla when looked
closer she is as green as green pepper. To begin with, Kah Walla is a
very brilliant woman. The chair lady of CCP is not someone to
pigeon-hole with.
With Strategy, a not for profit organization she was able to move
mountains reasons why the World Bank selected her among the most
brilliant enterprising African women. In fact, Kah Walla has an
International reputation that makes a great difference with her peers.
The truth about Kah Walla is that she is first of all very courageous
and result-oriented. While in the Social Democratic Front where she
occupied the privileged position of head of the Strategic Committee she
was as excellent and accurate as a mathematics teacher. Being a woman did
not hinder her from performing the most demanding and strategic role
for the SDF party. Yet, Kah Walla decided to quit the SDF to be record
holder as the ever first Cameroonian woman to declare her ambitions to
rule Cameroon.
Waoo, a woman with Presidential ambitions is not just any Jack, Dick or
Harry but someone who knows she has the potentials. However, Kah has
become a force to reckon with in Cameroon and one of the few politicians that creates panic when she addresses burning issues.
Kah Walla is a good orator and a perfect public speaker from the
agglomeration of her education. As a graduate from Howard, she is not
just a product of fineness but also she is smart and proactive. She
has the God-given knack that she is clicked by the charm that easily
convinces people. When she launched her Presidential race to the Unity Palace,
the Kahwallamania syndrome took Cameroonians like the hike in the
prices of coffee and cocoa took farmers unaware last February.
As a trainer, Kah Walla holds record for setting up a structure that is recognized worldwide. In Cameroon, she has empowered hundreds of youths. From Europe to America,
she has left a mark of greatness as a leader. Get her from sleep and
challenge her to a debate and you would realize that she is all Cameroon
need to effect change. To any body who wants to enjoy Kah Walla do not
go to challenge her, go to discuss with her and you will not regret for
having met such a super intelligent woman. She is of the school of
thought that holds the conviction that Africa
is rich but the problem is with it leadership. The range of her level hardheadedness has attracted the world not just because she is a woman for
that matter rather because she appears to come from a rare breed of
woman
