Esther Endalé, Cameroun

Photo by Peter Hamblin

"The Association for the Struggle Against Violence Towards Women—ALVF—started out as the Women's Collective for Renewal. We wanted to show that Cameroun's women could move beyond the traditional roles imposed on them. But because the collective was also agitating for democracy, we were banned by the government. This repression felt like a physical attack, so we re-created ourselves as ALVF. Violence is both political and felt, and you can't split thinking from feeling—you can't separate la tête (the head) from le coeur (the heart). My vision for the Cameroun women's movement is that we stop separating the head from the heart and body. As we've become more involved in the global feminist movement, we've realized that sexuality is more essential than we had thought."

About Esther

Esther Endalé comes from a long line of women activists. Her mother (a politician) and her aunt (an international trade unionist) were instrumental in the struggle for Cameroun's independence, won in 1960. Esther carries on that legacy by fighting for women's emancipation. One of the first pharmacists to distribute emergency contraception in her country, she was an organizer for the first pharmacists' union and is cofounder of the CFR (Collectif des Femmes pour le Renouveau), the first feminist association in Cameroun. In 1991, she and five other feminists created ALVF, which provides public education, shelter, counseling, and legal and medical assistance to victims of violence through three regional centers, and recently launched a program for adolescents. Now the treasurer of ALVF, Esther is also an associate member of the Association of Camerounian Female Jurists and AMANITARE (African Partnership for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Girls). In 1995, she represented the interests of Camerounian women at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

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