The woman you see in these 3 photographs is Marthe Moumie, the widow of Felix Moumie. She was born Ekemeyong Avebe Marthe on September 4th, 1931 at Ebom Essawo just outside Ebolowa.
She met her future husband, Felix Roland Moumie when she was 16 and he was 21. That happened in 1947 in Lolodorf. They got married three years later in 1950 and had two daughters, the first whom unfortunately died at just 18 months.
An educated woman and a UPC militant just like her husband, she became editor in chief, in 1952, of the newspaper “Femme Camerounaise.” The newspaper was formed specifically to inform women of the movement for independence and to rally them to join the cause.
30th May 1957, she was arrested by the British in British Southern Cameroons (where she was hiding) along with her husband, Ernest Ouandie and 10 others. They were deported first to Sudan and then to Egypt. In 1959, she went into exile in Guinea Conakry while her husband was poisoned the very next year in Geneva by a former French secret service agent in a restaurant.
For the following 9 years, she continued living in exile in many different African countries which gave her shelter right up until March 1969 when she was arrested in Bata, in Equatorial Guinea. She was extradited to Cameroon in May of the same year.
She remained imprisoned at the Brigade Mixte Mobile for the next 5 years until her liberation on July 14th, 1972.
She lived the rest of her life in Ebolowa where she sold ‘alaska’ for a living for some time to make ends meet.
She died 10 years ago exactly on January 9th, 2009 at the age of 74. Her death occurred under mysterious circumstance as some media outlets report she was attacked and strangled in her home.
May we never forget her sacrifice and her bravery. Her fight will not go in vain.
#PoiseHistory.
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