Lilian Ndangam Fokwang
Lilian grew up in the North West Region of Cameroon where her parents ensured she and her siblings spoke Mungaka (Mɨ̀ŋgâkà) at home even though their studies were in English. Despite being a native speaker of Mungaka (Mu/nga/ka), she never learned how to read or write the language. In 2018, she began learning to read and write Mungaka using the revised alphabet adopted in 2010. Inspired by her enhanced literacy in Mungaka and the paucity of written texts in Mungaka, she began developing a didactic resource to make Mungaka vocabulary building more practical and engaging for non-native speakers and native speakers alike. She is passionate about Bali Nyonga culture and promoting Mungaka literacy through language documentation and revitalization projects.
Lilian holds a PhD in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Sheffield, UK. She was a Chevening Scholar at Leeds University, UK and a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Rhodes University, South Africa. Her research on media ethics, gender and media has been published in international media and communication journals. In 2012, in celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Cameroon and Canada, she coedited a volume for Cameroon’s High Commission in Canada profiling Cameroonians in Canada. She served as a consultant to the largest and longest-running research on gender in the world’s news media, the Global Media Monitoring Project in 2010, 2015 and 2020. When she is not spending time with her family and friends, you can find her enjoying the colorful Colorado outdoors where she resides with her husband and children.
