in Cameroon, the voices of victims of sexual violence are freed

The testimonies of multiple victims of a Cameroonian businessman on social networks have triggered a free speech and a wave of indignation throughout the country.

As with all MeToo waves, at the beginning, there is a big affair and cascading revelations. In Cameroon, it is a rich heir, Hervé Bopda, who is accused of rape by several dozen men and women. This businessman, who likes to appear in videos where he looks smug and smokes large cigars, was arrested on Wednesday February 13 in Douala.

The affair sparked a wave of indignation throughout the country and even throughout French-speaking Africa. Consequence: an explosion in free speech on violence against women, in a country where part of society continues to trivialize it. The hashtag #StopBopda flooded social networks in Cameroon, French-speaking Africa and France, where rapper Booba relayed it.

The power of social networks

Since then, the Sourires de femmes association, based in Yaoundé, has received numerous calls. Sorelle opened the door to this organization which supports women victims of violence. She was raped from the age of 12 to 16 years old by his stepfather, more than 10 years ago years. “I wanted to talk like that all my life, I didn’t know how to express myselfsays the young woman. Today with social networks and everything that is happening, when I saw the people who had the courage to denounce the rape, it gave me the strength and the courage to be able to speak.”she continues.

“When we talk more, when we put pressure, things change and if today two or three stand up, I think it will motivate others to speak.”

Sorelle, young Cameroonian

at franceinfo

Stéphanie also decided to denounce the violence. Barely a week ago, this young woman found in the palm grove near their house, in Yaoundé, the body of her sister Hulda, 21, killed by her ex-partner and perhaps also by an accomplice. “When I saw my sister, she was unrecognizable, she had been hitshe remembers. After beating her up, they strangled her.”

Her ex-partner then committed suicide. The accomplice was arrested, then quickly released by the police. He fled the city. “It’s unacceptable because every day in Cameroon we find the bodies of women left and right”, says Thierry, Stéphanie and Hulda’s father, indignantly. However, he had filed a complaint several times in recent months about the domestic violence his daughter was suffering. “It’s always violence committed against women, the government does nothing”laments the grieving father.

The attackers “never questioned”

There is no official count of feminicides in Cameroon yet. For Winnie Eyono, coordinator of the Sourires de femmes association, whose premises, coincidentally, are located just opposite the morgue of the gynecological hospital, Cameroonian society has long trivialized violence against women and has even integrated it. “One in three women are victims of violence, indicates the coordinator. Generally the fault always lies with the woman, either because she has not respected her husband, or because she is an autonomous woman, who must always keep her mouth shut, who must never complain, who must endure all abuse to the point of death”she explains, recalling that“we never questioned the behavior of the executioner”.

This movement to free speech is an opportunity to be seized for Viviane Tathi, president of Sourires de femmes. “Society is moving, as feminists we can only look at this with a lot of emotion. You know, when we do this work we sometimes have the impression that we are preaching in the desert.”

So, is this Bopda affair the MeToo of Cameroon? ? “It’s the awakening of consciousness, and we must maintain it, because it’s now or neverbelieves Viviane Tathi. The moment is coming and we have to keep the pressure on, because years ago we wouldn’t have had this.” A breath to maintain, she assures, adding that it “Our judicial system must also now follow suit”.