Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury (born 7 February 1938) is a prominent

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

ian

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and author. Kuoh-Moukoury was born in 1938 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. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...

. Her father was Jacques Kuoh-Moukouri, a prominent Cameroonian writer and diplomat. After

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in Cameroon, she attended

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. She served as President of the Union of African and Malagasy Women (Union des Femmes Africaines et Malgaches). Kuoh-Moukoury is best known for her novel ''

Rencontres essentielles ''Rencontres'' (English title: ''Meetings'') is a 1962 French language motion picture drama directed by Philippe Agostini who co-wrote screenplay with Odette Joyeux and Bertram L. Lonsdale. Synopsis The film depicts the holiday love affair in whi ...

'' (''Essential Encounters'' 1969) which is the first novel written by a woman in

francophone Africa African French () is the umbrella grouping of varieties of the French language spoken throughout Francophone Africa. Used mainly as a secondary language or ''lingua franca'', it is spoken by an estimated 320 million people across 34 coun ...

. It relates the story of Flo, a troubled woman, and her struggles to keep her husband after she is found to be

infertile In biology, infertility is the inability of a male and female organism to reproduce. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy organism that has reached sexual maturity, so children who have not undergone puberty, which is the body's sta ...

. Her second novel is awaiting publication and is "based on the life of political martyr

Alexandre Douala Manga Bell Alexandre Douala Manga Bell (3 December 1897 – 19 September 1966 in Douala) was head of the Duala people in Cameroon, German officer and French politician. Biography Youth in Germany Alexandre Douala Manga Bell - then named Alexander Duala M ...

." Her 1973 essay "Les couples dominos" ("Domino Couples") tackles the topic of the dynamics of interracial couples. She is also the author of many articles on political activism and feminism in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

References

1938 births French feminist writers Living people Writers from Yaoundé French women novelists 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French women writers Cameroonian women novelists Cameroonian novelists {{France-nonfiction-writer-stub