Claude Njiké-Bergeret

Claude Njiké-Bergeret (* June 1943 in Douala, Cameroon) is a development aid volunteer originate from French Protestant missionaries.

Life and work

Claude Njiké-Bergeret was born June 5, 1943, of French parents in Cameroun, Africa. Her parents, Charles and Yvette Bergeret, were Protestant missionaries from France working in Cameroun. She was raised in Cameroun until the age of thirteen. When she was three years old, her parents settled in Bangangté. There, they built the public school of Mfetom, where Njiké-Bergeret spent her first school years. She learned to live with the local people and built friendships with them. By associating with the local people, she also learned to speak the local language of the chefferie Bangangté. The Bangangté are a people belonging to the Bamileke. The fon is the formal head of around 60,000 adherents.

In 1956, when Claude was thirteen years old, her parents decided to move back to France, where Claude finished high school. She married a Frenchman and had two children, Serge in 1966 and Laurent in 1968. She studied Geography at the University of Aix-en-Provence. While in Aix she was involved in the student protest of 1968.

After her marriage failed in 1972, she decided to go back to Cameroun. In 1974 she signed a contract with the same missionary society her father worked for to go back as a teacher to Cameroun. There, she followed in the footsteps of her parents as director of the public girls' school of Mfetom. During this time, she became closely involved in the local social life. In 1978, she provoked a scandal when she married the local fon (chief) Njiké Pokam François, even though he lived with nearly 30 women in polygamy. She had two children with him, Sophia in 1978 and Rudolf in 1980. After the death of Njiké Pokam François (born July 13, 1946, died December 7, 1987) Claude acquired a small piece of land and lived a rural life.

She had become locally famous under the name "reine blanche" (white queen). By her own admission, the marriage of an educated, Protestant, white woman to a local chief was a unique position that attracted the attention of all of Cameroun.

Claude Njiké-Bergeret is a mediator between European and African values. She reformed education in Mfetom by including more local history in her lessons and acquiring a clearer understanding of the local customs. She has lobbied for a better image of Africa in France since the 1970s. In 1997, she published her autobiography, Ma Passion Africaine (My African Passion). In 2000, her second book, La Sagesse de Mon Village (The Wisdom of my Village) was published. Her books deliver rare insights into the rites and culture of the Bangangté. The books have been translated into German, but not into English.

References

• Ma passion africain, 1997
• La sagesse de mon village, 2000

External links

• French page with more links

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Name	Njike-Bergeret
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Date of birth	1943
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