Gwendoline Etonde Burnley, bornMartin (1932-2020) was a Cameroonian politician and development consultant. [1] She was the first woman Cameroonian from West of the Mungo to become a Member of Parliament in the Cameroon National Assembly, and was MP from 1969 to 1988. [2]
Gwendoline Burnley was born in Buea on February 29, 1932, the daughter of Ernest Kofele Martin and Hannah Nene Enanga Martin, née Steane. [1] She attended primary school at the Basel Mission School in Buea, before going to the CMS Girls' School, Lagos. After university she completed a postgraduate diploma in Social Welfare at The Hague. [2] In 1960 she married R. E. G. Burnley. [1]
Burnley was nominated as the women's representative in the West Cameroon House of Assembly:
I was teaching, then, in Kumba, I think. And I was not even among the women in the party who were helping to see that people were fed and all the things which had to be done were done. I just heard my name that I had been selected to represent the women. I think that, after they had gone through the elections process and found out that there were no women among themselves, they decided to put in a woman. And that’s how I entered politics. [2]
After one term in the West Cameroon House, that assembly was dissolved. Burnley returned to the Ministry where she was working until the new National Assembly was formed. Drafted to the new assembly as the only woman in 1969, she spent four terms there and left in 1988, by which time the number of women parliamentarians had risen to 17. In 2012 she criticized the lack of continued progress in increasing female representation in Cameroon's National Assembly. [2]
She died on March 7, 2020.
The Bakweri are a Bantu ethnic group of the Republic of Cameroon. They are closely related to Cameroon's coastal peoples, particularly the Duala and Isubu.
Bamenda, also known as Abakwa and Mankon Town, is a city in northwestern Cameroon and capital of the Northwest Region. The city has a population of about six hundred thousand people and is located 366 km (227 mi) north-west of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé. Bamenda is known for its cool climate and scenic hilly location.
Cameroon is a Central African nation on the Gulf of Guinea. Bantu speakers were among the first groups to settle Cameroon, followed by the Muslim Fulani until German domination in 1884. After World War I, the French took over 80% of the area, and the British 20%. After World War II, self-government was granted, and in 1972, a unitary republic was formed out of East and West Cameroon. Until 1976 there were two separate education systems, French and English, which did not merge seamlessly. English and French are now considered the primary languages of instruction with English being more preferred. Local languages are generally not taught as there are too many, and choosing between them would raise further issues.
The Subu are a Bantu ethnic group who inhabit part of the coast of Cameroon. Along with other coastal peoples, they belong to Cameroon's Sawa ethnic groups. They were one of the earliest Cameroonian peoples to make contact with Europeans, and over two centuries, they became influential traders and middlemen. Under the kings William I of Bimbia and Young King William, the Isubu formed a state called Bimbia.
The Southern Cameroons was the southern part of the British League of Nations mandate territory of the British Cameroons in West Africa. Since 1961, it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Region and Southwest Region. Since 1994, pressure groups in the territory claim there was no legal document in accordance to UNGA RES 1608(XV) paragraph 5, and are seeking to restore statehood and independence from the Republic. They renamed the British Southern Cameroons as Ambazonia.
Thérèse Sita-Bella, born Thérèse Bella Mbida, was a Cameroonian film director who became the first woman filmmaker of Africa and Cameroon.
Emmanuel Mbela Lifafa Endeley, OBE was a Cameroonian politician who led Southern Cameroonian representatives out of the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu and negotiated the creation of the autonomous region of Southern Cameroons in 1954.
The Baháʼí Faith in Cameroon was established when the country was separated into two colonies - British and French Cameroon. The first Baháʼí in Cameroon was Enoch Olinga, who had left his homeland of Uganda to bring the religion to British Cameroon in 1953. Meherangiz Munsiff, a young Indian woman who had moved from Britain, arrived in French Cameroon April 1954 - both Olinga and Munsiff were honoured with the title Knight of Baháʼu'lláh. In 2003 Baháʼís estimated there were 40,000 adherents of the religion in the country. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated about 50800 Baháʼís in 2005.
The mass media in Cameroon includes independent outlets. The nation has only one national newspaper, which is state owned.
Sahndra Fon Dufe is a Cameroonian actress, author, screenwriter, film producer, and CEO of the Indie production house African Pictures International. She has appeared in several international movies, including One Night in Vegas and Black November. Cameroonian singer Said Barah has referred to her as "Young Oprah" in one of his songs called Sahndra Fon Dufe, in admiration for her creative ingenuity and inspirational influence for young women all over Africa.
Dorothy L. Njeuma is a Cameroonian academic and politician.
The Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Ambazonia War or the Cameroonian Civil War, is an ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon between the Cameroonian government and Ambazonian separatist groups, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem. Following the suppression of 2016–17 protests by Cameroonian authorities, separatists in the Anglophone regions launched a guerrilla campaign and later proclaimed independence. Within two months, the government of Cameroon declared war on the separatists and sent its army into the Anglophone regions.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2018.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2019.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2020.
Dorcas Ewokolo Idowu was a Cameroonian politician. She was the first woman to sit in the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly, and the first female parliamentarian in what is now Cameroon.
Lilian Dibo Eyong is a Cameroonian wheelchair model, polio survivor, and activist.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon during 2023.
Martin Zachary Mondinde Njeuma (1940–2010) was a Cameroonian historian in the field of African history, and one of the first formally trained historians from Cameroon. After over a decade studying abroad, he returned to Cameroon in 1970 to work as the Director of the National Archives in Buea and later as a professor at the University of Yaoundé. He was also the Head of the History Department and the Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences. He later became the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Buea.
Mary Asombang Asaba,, known professionally as Asaba is a Cameroonian singer, songwriter, vocalist and a professional nurse. She was born in Muea, Buea.