Cameroon’s ‘auntie army’ battles sex abuse of girls
May 26, 2017
With its sunset-like colours, Charnelle Lumière’s painting would seem warm and happy, were it not for the limp body of a young girl hanging from a tree, suspended by a rope around her neck.
“This was me,” the 27-year-old says in a voice barely louder than a whisper, staring at the painting, oblivious to the rumble of traffic outside the window in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé.
Having been raped at the age of 6 by a 23-year-old friend of her brother, Lumière recalls how she kept crying, blood trickling down her legs, as her mother recoiled in shock.
FEMALE FORCE: Cameroonian women march in Douala, Cameroon, on International Women’s Day. Women’s Day is an official day off for women and they wear traditional clothing for the day. Picture: AFP
Seven years later, Lumière finally mustered up the courage to run away when her uncle, too, began to sexually abuse her.
But when the then 13-year-old sought shelter with a neighbour she was allowed to stay only one night.
“What happens in the family should stay in the family, one should never interfere,” the neighbour said, and sent her home.
At the age of 17, out of school and having fallen pregnant after a classmate harassed her into having sex with him, she decided to take her own life by hanging herself.
Luckily, her brother found her and cut her down from the tree with just seconds to spare.
