Félicienne Lusamba Villoz-Muamba

Félicienne Lusamba Villoz-Muamba (13 May 1956 – 2 December 2019) was a Congolese-Swiss politician and human rights activist.

Early life Villoz-Muamba was born Félicienne Lusamba Muamba in 1956 in Lusambo, then part of the Belgian Congo. She was the eldest of eighteen children born to her parents, who were schoolteachers and followers of Catholicism.

In 1962, at the age of six, Villoz-Muamba moved to Brussels to receive a primary education and live with her aunt. She completed her secondary education in the Congo, then returned to Belgium to study law in Brussels and Paris.

Career Villoz-Muamba moved to Switzerland in 1984, after she was hired by the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) in Bern. Outside of her work in municipal government, she co-founded Carrefour de Réflexion et d'Action contre le Racisme Anti-Noir (CRAN; "Crossroads for Reflection and Action against anti-Black racism") in 2002, based in Geneva. During her term, she co-authored a review of the progression of pay for teachers in Bern.

While serving in the legislature, she continued to run integration workshops at a local adult education and vocational training institute. In 2009, she contributed to the founding of l’Université Populaire Africaine (UPAF; "the Popular African University"), an anti-racism and cultural exchange organisation.

Although Villoz-Muamba won re-election in 2010, she was ultimately forced to decline the seat on health grounds.

Other work Around the time of her resignation from politics, Villoz-Muamba became involved with Caritas Internationalis. In June that year, she and CRAN released a statement criticising instances of police brutality against black men in Basel. Between 2013 and 2019, she also worked as a sexual health counsellor at a family planning centre in Delémont.

Death Villoz-Muamba died on 2 December 2019 after a long illness. A statue memorialising Villoz-Muamba was erected in Bienne's Robert Walser Square in 2021, as part of Switzerland celebrating the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage in the country. In 2024, Bienne's council named a street in the city after Villoz-Muamba.