Life Has Become Unbearable - A Conversation with Caryn Dasah by Amy Madsen

"Life has become unbearable and we are looking for any opportunity to tell the world what we are going through," so wrote Caryn Dasah in an e-mail to me. Caryn, founder of Hope Advocates Africa and the General Coordinator of the Cameroon Women's Peace Movement, is in one word, incredible.

Soon after Caryn reached out to Undivided, we spoke on the phone. With patience and passion, she gave me a brief history lesson of Cameroon. I did not realize that Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between France and Britain after World War l, with the larger portion going to France. When the colonies regained their independence, French Cameroon and English Cameroon decided to unite under a federal system of government. The federal system was later discarded and a unitary system was adopted. This process of moving from a federal system of government to a unitary state, left the minority English Cameroon feeling suppressed, marginalized and seriously disgruntled.

As often seems to be the unfortunate case, the many years of colonialism, followed by neo-colonialism, post-colonial marginalization, segregation, and alienation (whether imagined or real) laid the foundation for the ongoing 5-years of civil unrest. What started in 2016 as protests and civil disobedience by lawyers and teachers demanding reforms in the anglophone judiciary and educational subsystems, degenerated into a full-blown armed conflict between the state of Cameroon and non-state armed groups and their sponsors. These non-state groups are now demanding outright separation from La Republique du Cameroon. They wish to regain their independence and form a new state called Ambazonia.

The armed conflict, which worsens by the day, has come with unspeakable consequences for the people of Cameroon, especially women and children.

I held back tears as Caryn described public shootings and beheadings, horrific killings of school children, kidnappings for ransom, rape, sex slavery, and a lack of health and hygiene options for women whose villages have been burned to the ground, forcing them to reside in the bush. The brutal devastation and trauma she described, was for me, unimaginable.

In the coming months, with the help of Caryn, we hope to amplify the voices of the fearless women of Cameroon, who despite the dangers to themselves, are continuing to advocate for peace and for the rights and well-being of women throughout the country. We hope you will join us on this journey and share the women's stories among your own networks.