By Innocent Chia

As Cameroon's veteran journalist, Henriette Ekwe Ebongo earned her time in the spotlight (March 8th) at the 2011 Women of Courage Awards ceremony at the US State Department - presided over by First lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - I could not help but think of it as a bitter sweet moment for her.

 
The award crowns her personal dedication, often at the risk of her life, to a profession that has given her license to stand up for the oppressed and stand up to the oppressor. Even while on US soil for the Awards, stories of threats to her life have been pervasive within the Cameroon online community...springing back memories of Pius Njawe, another Cameroonian voice for the disenfranchised, whose untimely death on a US highway nine months ago was anything but accidental.

Henriette Ekwe Ebongo's headscarf may have reminded First Lady Michelle Obama of another Cameroonian - First lady Chantal Biya. But other than their national origins and gender, the similarities probably stop there. Compared to the shouting colors and extravagantly large unbrella size mane of hair that Chantal Biya wore in her encounter with Michelle Obama, the colors of Henriette Ebongo were somber, simple and elegant. Her demeanor, subdued colors and moderate scarf size call for attention beyond the person to her substance; what she stands for, what she represents - a buouyant people that remain resilient in the face of half a century of suppression and marginalization.  

Publisher of the local weekly newspaper "Bebela" (a Beti interjection I loosely translate as "Pardon the interruption"), Henriette Ekwe Ebongo arguably joins a pantheon of Cameroonian trailblazing women who have saved their societies from the greed and inequities of its men. Only two weeks ago on the 23rd of February, it was another woman, Kah Walla who was leading a protest march on the streets of Douala against the 29-year-termless-regime of octogenerian Paul Biya. When Cameroon's erstwhile opposition leader, John Fru Ndi was under house arrest, it was an organization of naked women senior citizens who camped outside his residence to prevent his arrest and detention by the Biya regime. Known as Takeubeng, this organization of women was a facsimile of another resistance group formed by Kom women in the late seventies in protest of policies that they deemed repugnant to their way of life.

Even though women have always paid the heavy price for freedom from bondage, the injustices and discrimation against women in Cameroon persist. Token positions have been assigned to them since the days of Ahidjo - Minister of Women's Affairs - to Biya -  who recently sectioned-off the Ministry of Culture from the Ministry of Communication and Culture and appointed another woman to the cabinet. But these positions have been as marginal, uninspiring and inconsequential as those handed to the other marginal group - the Anglohones.  

Worse still, laws restricting a woman's right to travel in Cameroon remain primitive and parochial. Although much has improved within last 20 years, a wife still cannot obtain a Visa in Cameroon without showing proof of the husband's express approval. A married woman has, as a matter of law, to indicate on her passport that she is married. It is not sufficient to say you are Mrs. No! It has to be clearly written out in French, regardless that the applicant or holder is an English speaking Cameroonian, that it is the "epouse" (wife of) XXXXXX. It is a chauvinistic society that puts the onus of marital infidelity on the wife while husbands pursue their fantasies willy nilly. It is a society that pays little stock on the trade of little girls. In is a society that has failed to crackdown on ethnic groups that still practice early marriage, female genital mutilation and breast ironing... 

The seven other honorees at the 2011 batch included Roza Otunbayeva, President of the Kyrgyz Republic. She is the first woman head of state to receive the award. Maria Bashir, Prosecutor General in Afghanistan's Herat Province; Ghulam Sughra, head of the Mavi Rural Development Organization in Pakistan; and Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, who founded the Generacion Y blog were also among those honored.

Given to those who have "shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk," the prestigious award was also awarded to Nasta Palazhanka, Deputy Chairperson of Belarusian youth movement Malady Front; and Guo Jianmei, a lawyer in China and Director of the Beijing Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and Service Center; the Honorable Agnes Osztolykan, the only female elected to Hungary's Parliament in 2010 was also chosen for the honor, along with Eva Abu Halaweh, the Executive Director of the Mizan Law Group for Human Rights in Jordan and Marisela Morales Ibañez, the Deputy Attorney General for Special Investigations against Organized Crime in Mexico.

Said to have been recommended by the American Embassy in Yaounde Cameroon, it is not overstretching to see that Henriette Ekwe Ebongo's Award shines even more attention on Biya and his cronies who have been in power for several terms too long. If the Secretary of State has been too busy with the real hot spots of the world, pictures of Henriette Ekwe Ebongo will remind her about the Biya dynasty. By the same token, First Lady Michelle Obama will not forget to remind President Obama that now is the right time for Biya to go.