Fatimé Dordji, also Fatimé N'Dordji (14 July 1949 - 30 November 2016) was a businesswoman and journalist from

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

. She was the first woman from the country to be employed as a

radio announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...

Biography

Dordji was born on 14 July 1949 in

Ati, Chad Ati ( ar, أتي) is a city in Chad, the capital of the region of Batha. It lies by road east of the capital N'Djamena N'Djamena ( ) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ' ...

. She was brought up in the town of

Sarh Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive det ...

by her mother, who was an Arab, and her step-father, who worked as a soldier. At the age of fourteen she moved to

N’Djamena N'Djamena ( ) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements''. The city serves as the centre of economic activity in Chad. Meat, fish and cotton processing are th ...

, where she was employed as a radio announcer, due to her knowledge of both French and Arabic. She was the first woman to be employed in such a role. By 1965 she was a well-known radio personality on Radiodiffusion Tchadienne. The same year she married a policeman, and future politician, named Senoussi Khater, with whom she went on to have seven children. In 1973 Dordji became considered as an enemy of the state, as she had named one of her daughters after the politician

Kalthouma Nguembang Kalthouma Nguembang was a Chadian politician, who was an early member of the Chadian Progressive Party (PPT). She was elected to the National Assembly of Chad in 1968, but was later imprisoned by François Tombalbaye who accused her of plotting ...

, who President

François Tombalbaye François Tombalbaye ( ar, فرنسوا تومبالباي '; 15 June 1918 – 13 April 1975), also known as N'Garta Tombalbaye, was a Chadian politician who served as the first President of Chad from the country's independence in 1960 until ...

had accused of trying to use witchcraft against him. She was imprisoned and then subsequently detained by police for over twenty-one months, although she was never formally charged with criminal activities. In 1975

Félix Malloum Félix Malloum or Félix Malloum Ngakoutou Bey-Ndi ( ar, فليكس معلوم '; 10 September 1932 – 12 June 2009) was a Chadian military officer and politician who served as the second President of Chad from 1975 to 1978. A native of s ...

overthrew Tombalbaye, and Dordji's husband was appointed Ambassador to Libya in the new government. from 1978 to 1981 the family lived in Belgium. However during this period she and her husband divorced: he returned to Chad as Minister of Education in the new government, she moved to Libya. In the 1990s, under the new government of

Idriss Déby Idriss Déby Itno ' (18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the president of Chad from 1990 until his death in 2021. Déby was a member of the Bidayat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. A high-ranki ...

, Dordji returned to Chad - working first as a radio presenter, then subsequently as a businesswoman. She died on 30 November 2016.

Biography

References

Further reading