Julienne Niat

Julienne Niat Ngoumou (1927 in Bana, West Region, Cameroon – 2009) was a Cameroonian politician. She was the president of the first national movement of Cameroonian women (Assofecam) in 1950 and the first woman to run for legislative elections in Cameroon in November 1951.

Biography

Childhood and beginnings Julienne Niat was born in 1927 in Bana. She belonged to the royal court of Bana and was involved in the management of the kingdom at a very young age, where she gained great experience in political life. She was a teacher by training, graduating from the first class of the Yaoundé higher school.

Political career In the early 1950s, she was the president of Assofecam, the first national movement of Cameroonian women and president of the Youth Council of Cameroon, a movement affiliated with the World Assembly of Youth. She was single and several months pregnant when she began her electoral campaign. When the baby was born, she placed her baby's cradle in her country van and took it everywhere with her. Through this feminist movement, the women of the UFC demanded "the right to vote, improvement in the social, health and economic conditions of women, gender equality, but also equality between white women living in Cameroon and black women".