Born in 1967, in Cameroon, Louisette-Renée Thobi Etame Ndedi was a top athlete. In 1992, she was at the start of the 100 meter hurdles event at the Barcelona Olympics.
In 2021, it takes another start: it becomes the 7th Secretary General of CONFEJES, and the first woman to hold this position in the history of the institution. An intergovernmental institution which works for the promotion of Youth, Sports and Leisure within the French-speaking world. Bringing together 43 Member States, it was created a little over fifty years ago.
Athlete and long-time committed woman
Louisette-Renée Thobi has long worked in several structures in her country of origin. In 1998, she coordinated sports and cultural activities at the level of the University Institute of Technology, the Faculties of Letters and Human Sciences, then of Economics and Applied Management (FSEGA). Head of the Information and Conferences Service for six years, in 2006 she took over the management of the National and Intra-African Cooperation Service on behalf of the University of Douala. A teacher of physical education and sports, she was coach of the national athletics team of Cameroon.
For three years, from 2017 to 2020, she was the deputy director of EPS/Sports programs within CONFEJES. Taking the cause of women and girls to heart, she works to promote women’s sport. Themes that she was able to defend during several international meetings.
Interview with Louisette-Renée Thobi in Djerba, on the occasion of the 18th Francophonie Summit:
Terriennes: If I tell you Francophonie, sport and women, does that speak to you?
Louisette-Renée Thobi:
Yes quite ! This falls within the missions of CONFEJES. This is really our core business: youth, the promotion of gender equality. We may not achieve it, but we try to be careful in all our activities to ensure that the consideration of young women and girls is absolute. Do you find that women’s sport is quite visible today in the French-speaking world?
Women’s sport, visible enough? Well, at least there are efforts being made. When we look at women’s competitions for example over the past two months, we see that women’s football is taking up more and more space. We also saw the enthusiasm generated by the Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Moreover, at the moment, the major international conference of the international “Women and sport” working group is continuing in this country, with nearly 4,000 women, and a few men, who have joined together to celebrate the efforts made for the place that should be given to women in sport in general, mass sport, school, high level, inclusive sport, etc…
You are campaigning for a strategy called “dual career”, in order to fight against early school leaving, this of course concerns girls?
Yes, but not only girls in the French-speaking world. I started from a simple observation. I had noticed, when I was still an athlete, that many sportsmen, when they went to international competitions, fled. Once the competition was over, they disappeared into the wild. In general, it was people who went to school, but did not finish their studies, and found themselves wandering in search of a better framework for the practice of their passion, the practice of sport. I said to myself that we had to create conditions so that young people do not drop out.
Second problem: conversion. Many athletes fail to ensure their retraining. Me, I was injured at the age of 25; I still resisted for a year, but then I had to stop. I am where I am today because I succeeded in my conversion.
When we thought about it, with my team, we said to ourselves that we had to find a way to explain to Member States and governments that we could avoid dropping out of school and avoid the bad retraining of top-level athletes. This is where the idea of the “dual career” program was born. We have anchored this in a project that allows us to prepare these young people for the Youth Olympic Games that Senegal will host in Dakar in 2026.
Tell us about yourself: how did you become a top athlete? What was the triggering factor? How did your parents, for example, view your commitment to this career? Did they encourage you?
The truth is that I come from an area where sports were encouraged. There was no difference. Little girls and little boys were playing together. I was lucky. The big barrier I encountered was on my parents’ side. They felt like the sport would hold me back. So, until I got my baccalaureate, I was not allowed to practice sports. Moreover, for the record, in second class, I was selected for the national school games. My father disagreed. With the complicity of my brothers, I jumped out of the window! They made my backpack. We had to go to the north of the country by plane. At four o’clock in the morning, I was at the airport because my father must not prevent me from going there. When I brought back the medals and my name was said on the radio, it lessened my parents’ anger. But until then, I didn’t have permission.
Yes, we can say that it was time that this glass ceiling could be broken and a woman could take the reins.
Louisette-Renée Thobi, CONFEJES General Secretary
CONFEJES was created more than fifty years ago. Out of 7 general secretaries, you are the first woman. It was time ?
Anyway, at some point, you have to move on. I am sure and certain that in the past, other women have tried. Me, I tried my luck and I succeeded. On December 5, the conference will be 53 years old, I’ve been here for just over a year. Yes, we can say that it was time that this glass ceiling could be broken and a woman could take the reins.
Nevertheless, do you have to face reluctance or even resistance?
Most of the beneficiary countries of our projects are countries where there are many cultural barriers with regard to the empowerment of women and their economic independence. We have the duty and the obligation to bring and to propose answers so that these problems are supported. Thus, we have set up with certain donor countries, the call for projects “Women, sport, health”.
Concerning women’s sport, we encourage the training of women coaches, to increase the number of technical officials in key disciplines of CONFEJES, such as athletics, judo, wrestling, volleyball. The goal is to ensure that there are more women entering these professions in order to witness an increase in women’s skills in the technical field of high-level sport.
This goes with the promotion of female entrepreneurship, an area that is also close to your heart…
Within the youth entrepreneurship program, more and more women are involved. This is an opportunity for me to salute the support of a donor country, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation which, in 2021, supported an exclusively female project. It’s encouraging and I say a big thank you to them. Moreover, as part of the promotion of youth entrepreneurship, we are going to set up a new agricultural and digital project dedicated to girls that we would like to start in 2024.
I would like us to be seen as human beings, capable of contributing a small stone to the building and the construction of a global, balanced and prosperous society.
Louisette-Renée Thobi, CONFEJES General Secretary
You yourself had to overcome many obstacles, literally and figuratively, was it harder as a woman?
Is there anything in life where there is no obstacle?! (smiles) The biggest thing today is the mobilization of financial resources. This is the hardest part, we have been in crisis since 2020 – financial crisis, crisis of values, inter-generational crisis. All this makes it necessary to multiply the subtertuges, the ideas to find funds for all these young girls! Moreover, despite my high level of responsibility, despite all the will of my collaborators, it remains difficult to accompany a woman. And I say it without jargon. The business environment is very very very difficult. Difficult not to be tempted by corruption, denunciation. We women don’t know how to cheat.
Once, during an event that I was organizing, a young person came to tell me “Big sister, you’re too hard. Once in a while, you have to give in!” When a woman goes to meet and negotiate for a grant, what the man sitting across from her first sees is a naked woman. What you say to him, he does not hear. Even my own son tells me, “a woman when we see her is a woman in her simplest form”. We women find ourselves reduced to objects that we try to manipulate. I would like us to be seen as human beings, capable of contributing a small stone to the building and the construction of a global, balanced and prosperous society and that is really valid in our French-speaking area.
If you had one message to send to the younger generations, what would it be?
If I had to send a message, it would first of all be to little boys: “Respect your fellow girls. They are not objects. Respect them because they can do the same thing as you”. To young girls, I say: “Stay worthy, be proud of yourself, don’t forget your principles, and be patient. Because as we say in our country, for a man, success is two times five, for a woman, it’s four times twenty !”