When the Sun turns Red: Women’s Tears from a Land in Despair

Lilian Lem Atanga · Sally Maforchi Mboumien

Nov 2022 · Spears Books

About this ebook

When the Sun Turns Red is a cry from the heart of women residing in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon who have borne the physical and psychological pains of war. The poems in this volume express the women’s pain, their fortitude, hope, and call to an end of the armed conflict. The collection not only expresses women’s positionality as victims, but also as advocates of peace. In the once beloved land of perpetual sunlight, women cry out as the sun turns red. With over 50 poems authored by more than 30 poets, seasoned and emerging, young and old, the volume is a testimony of collective pain that captures the violence of this moment in their history.

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Conflict literature

About the author

Lilian Lem Atanga is an Associate Professor of Gender and Discourse Studies, formerly of the Department of African Studies of the University of Dschang, the University of Bamenda, and Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florida, USA. She is currently a senior research fellow at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, and a senior consultant with North Highland Consulting. Since obtaining her PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University, UK, she has researched on language, gender, politics and the media in African contexts. She has published books, chapters in edited volumes, and academic articles in high impact journals and encyclopedias. She’s co-editor of Gender and Language in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tradition, Struggle and Change (John Benjamins 2013).

Sally Maforchi Mboumien is women, peace and security advocate, concerned citizen, teacher and feminist from Bawock, Cameroon. Sally has been working to uphold Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) especially for adolescent girls and young women in ways that can grant them access to decision-making spaces. Sally envisages a society void of inequalities and social injustices, where the ideals of feminism, freedom of expression and social inclusion are valued.