Ijang told The Cameroon Journal, while getting ready to board another Bamenda bound 70 seater bus in Yaounde on March 30. She said she still lives with the fiancé who put her in the said emotional stress. She was traveling by a morning bus.
“I have never told him and will never tell him. But the guilt comes to mind each time I travel.” She says.
"It happened about a year ago when she was leaving home in the midst of a misunderstanding with the fiancé.“Before we left the park, one evangelist came in and prayed for journey mercies. The man sitting next to me took part in the prayers just like me. When we left Bamenda, the lights were on in the bus until we went far out of town. The muscular handsome young man sitting next to me had begun cracking jokes and everybody around us laughed. I think I must have been three or four years older than him.”
Then as the journey progressed, Marceline said, she asked if she could sleep on the man’s laps because she was feeling drowsy – the man agreed. “A few minutes later I felt the man aroused. I wanted to get up but I didn’t. He knew I had felt it and accommodated it, so he started caressing me; sending his hands wherever his sitting position could let him. I lifted my chest for him to gain access into my shirt, as he struggled, growing bigger and harder in his pants.” She revealed.
COMBATING SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN IN CAMEROON by Cameroon Rural A campaign against sexual harrassment in Cameroon launched by the Innovation and Sustainable Development Society.
COMBATING SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN IN CAMEROON by Cameroon Rural A campaign against sexual harrassment in Cameroon launched by the Innovation and Sustainable Development Society.
“Things got out of hand as we drove through dark bushes on the left and right sides of the roads with lights off in the 70 sitter bus; he and I being the only two occupants of the last row. I later on realized his fingers were moving inside my skirt. I urged him to stop. He did, but I thought I needed revenge against my fiancé who I suspected had cheated on me.” Ijang said, feeling remorseful.
She told The Cameroon Journal they both went as far as trying to have sex in the bus, but finally slept off as the stiff nature of the backseat couldn’t permit them. “I got to Yaounde with my underwear in my handbag. I was not remorseful at the time and followed him to an inn in the Bisquiterrie neighborhood in Obili where we finished the devilish act; No contacts exchanged and I have never met him again.” She explained.
Marceline’s experience is not an isolated case. Cho Macdomat, a seventy sitter bus driver for Amour Mezam Express bus service told The Cameroon Journal. He said he is aware of some of the shocking things that go on in his own bus when he drives at night.
“I will be traveling tonight. I know men will sexually harass women in my bus and vice versa. I have heard some women created scenes in my colleagues’ buses, screaming and requesting their seats be changed. But I have never received a complaint.”
A few meters away from Cho stood two men at the tickets counter. “We have never received complaints here regarding sexual harassment,” the two men on duty March 30, who should be in their late thirties, were agreed men could be tempted to start touching women depending on how the women dress.
“A man would hardly caress a girl dressed in trousers or Kaba, but if a woman wears a short skirt and a funny top with easy access to her private parts…if you make yourself banana, monkey them go follow you,” one of them said and they both laughed. “If you want to talk to someone who will give you his name, wait for the manager who will be here at night” they said, when requested to state their names.
Ngam Norbert, sitting in for the manager of Moghamo Express bus service agreed that such behavior takes place, but suggested that “these things happen with the consent of both parties. Once a man starts caressing a woman and she gives in, I’m not sure the man can be blamed for sexual harassment.”
Conversely, there are situations of true sexual harassment involving underage young girls who are afraid of accusing grown men or creating a scene, said Ngam who adds that “maybe they fear they would not be believed. But also note that some people meet their life partners in buses too.”
“What! Some men, in fact, most men are dogs.” retorted Clementine Njung, when we asked whether this phenomenon is not growing because women give in to sexual harassment in buses.
“I hear two people were abandoned during a stopover in Makene on their way to Bamenda from Yaounde simply because they were trying to make out after suffering too much ‘heat’ in the bus. Those are the kind of women who rubbish the pride of women. A man once tried to touch my breasts pretending he was asleep and I disgraced him in the bus. I don’t even allow a man to lean on me simply because he is sleeping. And I will not lean on a stranger,” she stated angrily.
To Njung, “what’s worse is that when you shout at a man trying to sexually harass you in a bus, some passengers look at you as if you are doing something wrong. Others just laugh and make fun of you. Even if you are kissing and touching each other’s private parts in the bus, nobody says anything. I must confess I have seen it and sat quiet, but I am not proud of it. Even if they are husband and wife, those things should be done in private.”
Justine Enanga, University of Yaounde II student says she was only 17 when she was sexually harassed in a bus. “I am surprised people only talk about teacher-student, boss-employee or subordinate sexual harassment and ignore this one. It is an old and common practice. I have been through this more than trice and friends have testified being victims too.”
She said a well dressed responsible-looking man will sit by a girl in a bus with a wedding ring on his finder and one would be surprised what he will do. “At times you will silently fuss and fight all through a six hour journey. You may even begin feeling the urge to have sex but when you get to your destination, you won’t stand the disgusting sight of the man”; she said.
“Men too are victims of sexual harassment, please. Last year I was traveling to bury a friend of mine. One of his girlfriends sat by me and kept trying to sexually arouse me with her mouth on my private part. I resisted to the point that I warned her sternly”, a passenger at Amour Mezam Express in Yaounde who elected anonymity claimed.
“Some women are just impossible. I had sheepishly accepted she lie on my laps thinking I was consoling her. She could not even respect the corpse of her boyfriend which was on top of the bus transporting us. I don’t know why many people only accuse men when sexual harassment is being discussed.”
Government effort to curb sexual harassment is apparently felt mostly in its empowering of security officers and municipal police in certain municipalities to check women’s dressing and bring them to book if they are not properly dressed.
The government has so far failed to define “proper dressing,” giving security officials a leeway to extort money from women, and themselves, harass women on the streets on grounds that they are poorly dressed.
The country’s penal code, however, prescribes punishment for rape and attempted rape cases. In a recent report on womensenews.org, the president of the Cameroon Association of Female Jurists, Esther Ngale, said convicted rapists rarely receive long prison terms. She said that, in general, those proven guilty of rape may receive sentences only ranging from six months to five years.
