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| Photo credit: Nalevel Empire |
Abunaw Olive Arrey-Nchung is a Cameroonian actress, spoken word poet and an advocate for women’s rights, women’s entrepreneurship and development. She was born on the 3rd of May 1989 in Mamfe, a town in the South West Region of Cameroon.
She reveals that she has always been drawn to the arts despite doing science right up to high school.
“I started reading novels at the age of 4 and was already writing poetry by the time I was 8 years old. My father wanted me to be a medical doctor, so I studied sciences right up to high school but I have always had a deep passion for Literature and poetry in particular”. Words have always fascinated me. The way they can be woven together to form simple yet mind-boggling stories that are beautiful and unique to each writer is simply amazing”.
Olive attended primary school in Government School Group 2 in her native Mamfe, obtained her ordinary levels at St Augustine’s College Nso before moving to Buea where she attended the famous Baptist High School Buea, where she had her Advanced Level Certificate.
Abunaw olive is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Special Education at the University of Buea, but admits that she almost dropped out and abandoned it all in her early years of tertiary education. She first attended the Government Teacher’s Training College (GTTC) Buea from where she obtained her certification but discovered that she didn’t really have a passion for teaching. She worked for a short while at Express Exchange- a money transfer company- in her hometown before returning to Buea to study Psychology. “It’s truly a miracle that I am currently at this level in my education because my years as an undergraduate student were incredibly difficult due the fact I had no financial assistance and had to sponsor myself through school. I did all kinds of things just to get by. I ran a restaurant and worked at Njorku during my second year just so I could make ends meet”.
It is during this period of struggle and hardship that she was inspired to create her NGO, NGORE Africa in 2016 after her encounter with a lady in Buea who suffered abuse and neglect from her husband and had almost no means to feed her children.
“When I met this lady, her story moved me to tears. I realised that even when you think you are facing the most gruesome hardship in your life, there is always someone who is worse off than you. No matter how dire your situation is, there is always the possibility to help someone who is in more need than you. I was able to mobilise a group of friends with whom I took clothes, food and a little money to assist the lady in taking care of her children. After that experience, I thought that if Cameroonian women are empowered with opportunities to ameliorate their lot, the country as a whole will improve significantly. When you empower women, you empower a nation because women are the backbone of society”. NGORE Africa seeks to empower women in the domain of entrepreneurship as well as sensitize them about female reproductive health and related issues.
Olive has received an award for her role in the movie ‘The Return’. She won the Best Actress award at the Festival International du Cinema Independent de Bafoussam (FICIB). She has starred in several other movies including: ‘Against my will’ and ‘Bad Angel’, a TV series which currently airs weekly on Cameroon’s national television CRTV.
“I think the Cameroon film industry’s best days are ahead of it. Increasingly we are seeing more and more high-quality productions and the international community is starting to take an interest in what we are doing. I’m excited about the future of our film industry and eager to play my part in making it a force to be reckoned with in Africa”.
The poetry bug bit Olive Abunaw at a very young age when she would write and perform poems for her family, at school and in church. Her poem “Knowing God” was selected as the best poem for the Cameroon Baptist Convention Youth Camp (2014-2015). She started performing as a spoken word artist in 2016 and believes that it is a very powerful and potent art form that can contribute to change the Cameroonian society and make it better.
“We do not have enough Spoken Word events in our country and many people are yet to discover what Spoken Word is. It has the power to transform minds and impact change and I would like to see more of it not only in Buea but in other regions as well. I want to help create a Spoken Word poetry movement in Cameroon and make it really popular among youths”.
Her first official performance was at the Cameroon International Film Festival (CAMIFF) in April 2018.
The rising star has recently been on a couple of TV and radio shows to talk about herself and her upcoming projects, including “Inside Out” a talk show on Canal 2 English, hosted by Solange Tanjong
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| Abunaw Olive on “Inside Out”, Canal 2 English |
and on Douala-based Nabstar Radio with well-known radio personality, Nabil “Nabstar” Fongod, where she performed one of her poems.
Olive is not only an actress and Spoken Word poet but also a TV presenter and co-host of a youth empowerment programme on the Buea-based HI TV channel.
She is an avid reader and writer and enjoys swimming and dancing.
