Vincent Ganty (1881–1957) was a political activist born in Cayenne,

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

Life

He became an orphan at the age of thirteen. This forced him to leave school and to start working as a sailor. During the first forty years of his life he had a number of jobs. He served in the army in the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

and was sent overseas to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. He was also a

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

teacher and worked for the Douala customs, in Cameroon, of which he became a spokesperson. After some conflicts he was fired but in 1911 he was reinstated to his function.

Cameroon

In 1922, Ganty moved to

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

where he continued to have a series of odd jobs, as a masseur, amulet seller, magician and teacher of hypno-magnetism. In 1927 he set up the church ''La Science Chrétienne du Cameroun'', associated with the Christian Science, which provided a shelter for black empowerment activities.' This resulted in the formation of a series of groups like ''Comité de Défense de la Race Nègre'' and ''Group Ganty de Défense des Citoyens Nègres Camerounais et Amis des Nègres''. In 1930 Ganty moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and became the self-proclaimed spokesperson for the Cameroonians there. He provided in his living by selling subscriptions of the newspaper, ′Cameroon Republic′ of which he was also the editor.

Politics

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

''Front inter-coloniale'', ''Comité philanthrope supérieur d’émancipation intégrale et d’initiative générale de la délégation en Europe des Camerounais'', ''Comité philanthrope supérieur pour la défense du Cameroun'' were set up and sometimes disappeared soon after their foundation. He started sending many letters and petitions to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

, the precursor the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. His correspondence, which was sometimes hard to follow, was never taken really seriously. But even if his role in independence was ambiguous, nowadays he is remembered as an important figure that paved the road to independence for Cameroon. Ganty died in 1957, three years before Cameroon became independent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ganty, Vincent Cameroonian Christians 1881 births 1957 deaths