Lydie Dooh Bunya (born 1933), also known by her married name Quan-Samé, is a Paris-based Cameroonian journalist, writer, and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

Life

Lydie Sophie Dooh Ebenye Bunya was born in 1933 in

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Ai ...

, Cameroon. Her father was a customs official, and her mother was a seamstress. After beginning her education in Cameroon, Dooh Bunya completed her secondary education in France, at an all-girls high school in Saint-Gaultier. As a university student in Paris, she first studied nursing and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

before settling on a literature degree, having first become interested in writing at age 17. She subsequently began her career as a journalist, contributing to the French public broadcaster

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française L'Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF; ) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under strict control ...

and working as an editor for various journals and for the Nouvelle Agence de Presse. In 1977 she published her first novel, ''La Brise du jour'', for which she drew upon her memories of her childhood in Cameroon. The book also served as a testimony on the feminine condition. With this literary work, she joined the first generation of women writers in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

, alongside the likes of Marie-Claire Matip. Dooh Bunya did not hesitate to apply a critical lens to social issues in her work, for example equating marriage with the selling of a

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

. Dooh Bunya was an activist in the French

feminist movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...

, but she felt there was not enough emphasis on solving the specific problems of

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

women in France, and in 1981 she created the Movement for the Defense of the Rights of Black Women (MODEFEN). The movement fought against both inherited customs from some African immigrants' countries of origin, including

Forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

, and

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

, as well as discrimination against black women in their new country.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dooh Bunya, Lydie Cameroonian writers Cameroonian women writers Cameroonian journalists Cameroonian women journalists Cameroonian activists Cameroonian women activists French feminists Cameroonian feminists African feminists Cameroonian emigrants to France