updated: June 15, 2001

Felicite Monkam

by Anne-Carine Hyousseu-Djofang

This oral history was prepared by Anne-Carine Hyousseu-Djofang, a Bladensburg High School for her World History Class.

I interviewed was a close of mine, Mrs. Felicite Monkam, about her life and her moving to the United States of America. Mrs. Monkam is 49 years old; she is from Cameroon, Africa. She is a teacher, married, and has five children. From what I individually know about her is that she is a lovely person, with noticeable and interesting characteristics of integrity, loyalty, decisiveness, energy, responsibility, diligent ness, and respect, just as an amiable person. I would like to invite you to learn more about her.

What are your earliest memories of your childhood?

Mrs. Felicite Monkam remembers having an ecstatic childhood. She had a large family, her parents and thirteen brothers and sisters, and enjoyed the family environment. Also she used to vacation in her native village, Bafang, in Cameroon. “I would describe my childhood as a great one,” she said.

Felicite lived in Cameroon for sixteen years before she traveled to France to go to high school. She lived with a French family, who welcomed her nicely and took care of her, too. After graduating from high school, she continued to further her education in college, and even obtained a Master's Degree in social studies. Since she knew she could do something important with her education, for the next eighteen years (1980-1998), Mrs. Monkam worked with great enthusiasm as an adult and human rights educator in most of the countries of Africa. She then returned to Cameroon, where she had a happy life until some of her human rights work placed her in a dangerous situation and she had to emigrate urgently from Cameroon,

How did you decide to come to the United States?

Mrs. Monkam came to the US for political reasons as a result of her serious opposition to the Cameroonian government. She had often come to the US before for political conferences and for all the risks, such as being threatened, she feels she did the right thing for her country and got proposed by the Americans to come to the US as a political refugee..

What were your first impressions of the United States?

“Well, when I was little, I always thought that the US was a great country. Next, as I first thought about coming into the US, my primary impressions were that this land is fulfilled of a lot of opportunities," she remembered. "I can briefly describe the US as a welcoming country, opened to all kind of people from the whole wide world. I said to myself: 'This is the right way for me' . And even today, I’m such grateful to God who showed it to me.”

What have you lost and what have your gained from your immigration to the United States?

From what Mrs. Monkam told me, she lost and gained several or uncountable things by immigrating to the United States. First of all, she has lost the career she had back in Cameroon. She was an African population counselor. “I was very happy doing my job,” she said. She also missed being physically, but not mentally close to her family in Cameroon. But Mrs. Monkam didn’t loose everything, she also benefited from the migration as well. For example, as she’s starting a new life in the US, she’s experiencing a lot of new things, which will help her advise other people.

What was the happiest and saddest time of your life?

Mrs. Felicite Monkam told me that she has a lot of joyful and sorrowful times in her life. The happiest and paramount moment in her heart--which she will never forget about--is the day her children arrived in the US to live with her. “I love my children so much, and I’m so grateful to God because he sent me my family to be next to me. They can have the chances to prepare a brightl future here in the US.” Moreover, the most despondent memory in her mind is the day she had to leave Cameroon.