To empower or to oppress

I write as a woman, a mother, a former Miss Campus (University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, 1991), a Cameroonian patriot residing in the US (still proudly carry my green passport), an advocate for justice, a volunteer for the Patcha Foundation who has made two trips to Cameroon with a team of Medical professionals from the US to provide free healthcare to the people but most of all, I am a humanitarian.

And that I am well informed and aware of the fact that women being considered as inferior is not a new thing. Statistics have proven that, women worldwide are always discriminated in different ways and the battle for equality is a lifelong one and I urge women to keep fighting until the world understand that, we are also human and we matter.

In this age when yet another major atrocity has been committed against young women as in the case of the over 270 missing girls in Nigeria. It would be very irresponsible on my part to not straighten gross unjust treatment to fellow women as happened with this year's Miss Cameroon contest. I feel its very unfair to look on unconcerned to such DISCRIMINATION against young women.

I am referring to the recent crowning of Miss Larissa Ngangoum as the New Miss Cameroon 2014 who left the States to take part in the contest. Let me make it clear that I have had the opportunity to meet Miss Larissa and I must say that, her mere presence exudes grace, humility, peace, elegance and all other beautiful attributes and being intelligent only adds another red feather to her many amazing qualities.

I graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes College Mankon Bamenda 26 years ago so all things being equal, I can comfortably refer to Larissa as my daughter.

To the best of my knowledge, while pageants unearth very good qualities in our young girls who eventually are supposed to take part in the main events as ambassadors/delegates of their various countries, I feel that its right to think that the main objective is to empower the girl child and give them an opportunity to give back to their various communities.

Larissa has a lot to offer and I simply love her courage to return to her place of birth to take part in the Miss Cameroon contest but I also understand that each contestant in the recent pageant represented their various provinces and had gone through a process to qualify for the final Miss Cameroon Contest. Without much ado, let me use this opportunity to ask the Pageant organizers the following questions;

-What Province did Larissa represent? -Did she meet the criteria for selection before taking part in the final contest? -Were our home based contestants informed that there was a NEW province that was going to be created to accommodate Miss Larissa? -Or Was Larissa an Independent Contestant and does the rule permit this? I will tender by Apology using this same Medium if Larissa met the full requirements SET by COMICA.

If she only took part in the final contest as I understand, then Cameroon truly does not DESERVE to use her qualities and all the attributes she carries so ELEGANTLY to represent her in the upcoming Miss WORLD contest which will be taking place in the UK.

Additionally, if she failed to meet the proper criteria, she does not also DESERVE to represent Cameroon because she is doing so under false grounds and it is WRONG by all standards.

Why would the pageant Organizers rally young girls, take them away from their families and friends and give them an opportunity to take part in a contest and yet don’t even have faith in their ability to represent the Country that they live in? Is this not another form of Oppression of woman by another woman? If there is one thing the Pageant has effectively done, they have helped to promote LOW SELF ESTEEM in OUR GIRLS… Period.

I have read many comments surrounding her elevation as Miss Cameroon and how some intellectuals dared to laugh at our girls back home calling them unintelligent and the more I read the comments, the more I get irritated and decided to applaud our young girls and encourage them to BELIEVE in themselves even IF the SYSTEM DOES not BELIEVE IN THEM.

Cameroon is a Nation of VERY INTELLIGENT people and just like any country in the world, PERFECTION is ALMOST NOT OUR portion and that is okay. In every situation, I always try to do a SWOT analysis and all I can say is, the Time has come for us as Diasporans, Cameroonians back home, people of goodwill to help our Young people build skills that are necessary for them to be more marketable in the Global world.

We live in a Society overseas where an 8 year old and pick up the Microphone and address a crowd while a typical University graduate in Cameroon/Africa might have a hard time expressing himself/Herself even in front of their peers. Public speaking does not come natural in our society except for those have gone through school of journalism, teachers training, exposed to parents who might be public figures, Etc.

I have personally reached out to the Host of Cameroon Celebrities elegant Miss Maybelle Boma to use her influence and her charming nature to create a platform for our girls in Cameroon who harbor interest in acting, pageants etc so that they can acquire the necessary skills. The need for fluency and confidence goes beyond just partaking in a pageant. Our film industry is still crawling because getting actresses and actors with the right skill is rare and that is why Camroonians buy more Nigerian and Ghanaian movies. We as a Nation must not keep waiting for a Messiah to help build our Nation. We can UNITE and help give back in our own little way one at a time.

I equally want to applaud LadyKate Atabong Ndi who has continued to empower women through her Organization Miss AfricaUSA. While congratulating Larissa for her outstanding performance, I will personally URGE her to first of all use her skills to empower her fellow sisters and condemn subsequent occurrences of what has happened. There is always something good in every bad situation and she can be a new face of Justice for Young girls and NOT oppression.

If the organizers are NOT proud enough to crown our young girls who worked hard to prepare because they don’t believe in them, they should NOT SUBJECT them to this SORT of National DISGRACE. I applaud all our young girls who took part in the contest, I applaud their parents and families for supporting them and encourage them NOT to give up. I encourage more young girls to come out and showcase themselves. Pageants are good and our girls should not shy away.

As for the Organizers of the Contest, they should EITHER choose to EMPOWER or OPPRESS the girls but I pray they will rather Chose to EMPOWER. In the spirit of the Je Suis Le Cameroon Initiated by Barrister Arrey L. Obenson, I will end by saying,

Je suis Le Cameroon. I am Cameroon. Me neh Cameroon (In Akum). I am Cameroon enough to fight injustice against young women. Thanks. Sincerely; Rosemary N. Atanga, MBA