I Am A Female In A Male Suit

I am Keghah Roger Nuah born in Banso- Kumbo of Bui Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. My father was from Balikumbat and my mother from Kumbo. I grew up in an unbearable environment that was characterized by domestic violence on daily basis. I live the experience of a monogamous marriage that later turned a polygamous marriage with all its consequences. My mother gave birth to five kids 4boys and a girl. After she had her last son, she proposed to my father that the five kids were okay and requested they spend the little income they have to educate us. My father received her proposal with a lot of mix feelings. Since my father came from a polygamous family and polygamy was a lifestyle amongst his brothers, he rejected my mother’s proposal of limiting the number of children to five. As a result my mother suffered all forms of abuse including beating, rape, assault, humiliation, restriction of social contacts and mobility, harassment and you can name the rest. My father went on to married another woman from his home village and brought her into our house. The abuse my mother suffered was unbearable and she had to leave our house and go back to see her parents. She died few years later because of depression. My father never came to bury his wife. After my mother’s burial I decided to fight for her rights since me and my siblings had to survive by the grace of God after our mother left. When I came back to our family house after my mother’s burial and requested to know why my father didn’t participate in his late wife’s burial? His response was, there was no need for that. I became so bitter that I had a lot of issues with my father and he later reported me to the police that I am after his life. I was arrested and sent to the Bamenda Central prison where I spent a month. While at the prison I wrote to the presiding Judge explaining why I was incarcerated. The Judge summoned my father and requested I be release and I was release. After my release from incarceration I vowed never to see any women suffer what my mother went through. I took a decision by myself to stand with any woman or girls that are being abused. Till today that is what made me join CAEPA and for 10years today I have been working to advance women’s rights in Cameroon