Cameroon: Taku Catherine Bags PhD in African Literature

Taku Catherine A. Ogork talks to the press after PhD defense

 

By Christopher Ambe

Teacher and author of children’s books, Taku Catherine Arrey-Ngang epse Ogork , Saturday February 6, joined the prestigious club of PhD holders, after brilliantly defending a thesis, which reveals that, men just like women are victims of gender-based violence .

But these (African) men, the work points out, are reluctant to report or make public the violence against them by women.

The defense of the thesis, titled “Gender-based violence in Post-Colonial Africa: An Intermedia Perspective” took place in the Board Room of the Faculty of Arts, University of Buea.

Taku Catherine’s successful defense   qualified her for the   award of a PhD in African Literature.

The five- member defense jury that assessed and approved   the research work for the PhD award   was chaired by Professsor Emmanuel Yenshu of the University of Buea.

 Other members were: Professor Kashim I. Tala(as internal examiner),Professor Eunice Ngongkum  from Yaounde ( External Examiner),Professor Nol Alembong of University of Buea (as supervisor) and Associate Professor Charles Teke of University of Buea (co-supervisor).

The research work, which took the candidate close to five years to complete, portrays that both men and women suffer violence, contrary to the   belief that it is women who are victims of gender-based violence.

According to the work, quite a significant number of men are victims of gender-violence but their situations are rarely brought to the light (even by the men themselves).

Before recommending the candidate for the PHD award, the Prof Yenshu-led jury was unanimous that Taku Catherine’s work was quite interesting and a worthwhile contribution to science. The jury admitted that claims in the work were founded, her approach excellent, the thesis clearly focused and organized.

Taku Catherine, in her work, advised that men should report cases of violence against them.

 “It is only by reporting violence against them (men) by themselves that solutions can easily be found.

“We should start training males and females as early as when they are still toddlers to know that, no sex are greater than the other. If boys are trained to respect girls I think violence will greatly reduce,” Taku   Catherine noted.

She also advised that when victims of violence report cases to authorities for remedy the latter should take it seriously.

Taku Catherine   observed that, there is a lot of violence in society.

“But what actually pushed me to work on this topic was a scene that I witnessed in which a wife actually packed her husband’s things and threw them out of the house; and the man came around for two days consecutively begging his wife; but what touched me more was the fact that, no one in society talked about it-because it was a woman in this case.

“I realized that men are going through a lot of tough times and someone needs to talk about it”.

The work, the jury agreed, would also let the public know that men are victims of gender-based violence, most of who are suffering in silence.

Taku Catherine Arrey gang, who is the Chief of Center for Teachers’ Resource Center in Buea, is the wife   of Dr. Bessong Ntui Ogork, General Manager   of Southwest Development Authority (SOWEDA),Buea , who  among other dignitaries, witnessed her spouse’s defense. She is also president of Manyu Women’s Association (MOHWA),Buea

Taku Catherine has authored several Children’s books and plans to publish her research work so to reach a significant section of the public with it.