a popular fashion parade; music; the Ambassador’s speech; dining and dancing.  

The panel discussion opened with a definition of the theme and its contextualization by Martine-Cecile Wisman (researcher on women and development at l’Université catholique de Louvain). She was closely followed by Christine Bissou épouse Ngue (Educator and Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy) who highlighted some of the progress that has been made for and by women in Cameroon. Charlotte Latani (Social Worker and President of CSIOSP –Centre Social d’Information, d’Orientation Scolaire et Professionnelle) closed the discussions with a presentation of her NGO. Of course, the panelists also answered a series of questions from the floor.

Head of Mission Daniel Evina Abe’e equally offered a response to some of the questions, apart from his message of encouragement to women. He hailed them for their tenacity in caring for their respective families and in time-tested extraordinary endeavor of sticking close to their parents especially during their old age.

Thereafter, the Ambassador, his colleagues and the VIPs were first to officially visit the twin stands composed of a selection of some national dishes, on the one hand, and crafts by women, on the other. In the latter case, there were home-spun outfits and a dummy for demonstration of the Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation procedure.   

 Of the two hundred and fifty people who took part, guest diplomats included the Ambassadors of Congo Brazzaville, the Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau; an Assistant Secretary General of the ACP, and ACP Humanitarian Expert, Dr. Natalie who sang her version of Bob Marley’s Redemption song. Next to them were the wives of the Ambassadors cited above, as well as those of Equatorial Guinea and Benin sitting by their hostess Christine, Ambassador’s wife.  Equally  present, amidst her Belgian friends was Dr.Njomgang-Fonteu-Colette, Ophtamologist and the Echevine  of the town of Etterbeek.

The programme was coordinated and presented by Ms. Mary Ngu Ekukole and by assisted by Ms. Sarra Mouny in the bilingual presentation.

If the majority of the women claim not to have learned anything new or held onto their stance on women’s issue, at least, they unanimously agreed to have left behind something undesirable: accumulated work stress, thanks to the energetic dancing to familiar tunes from home.

 “The International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th March every year. It was instituted by the United Nations in 1977, two years after the United Nations very first Conference on Women held in Mexico (1975), and the proclamation of the International Women’s Year, just a year after the proclamation by the United Nations General Assembly of the United Nations Decade for women (1976-1985), and two years before the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Every edition carries a theme that calls for action in favour of the improvement of women’s status in all domains,” statement from Cameroon’s Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family (MINPROFF).