Ernestine Ouandié was born in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, on May 11, 1961. She was the daughter of Ernest Ouandié, vice-president of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, who was in exile in Nigeria, and a Ghanaian mother.[1] Ouandié had a difficult childhood, initially being raised by her maternal aunt in Ghana who physically and mentally abused her. She returned to her mother who abandoned her; after ending up homeless, she found refuge in Lomé where she was able to seek an education.[1][2]
Ouandié never met her father;[3] he was executed on January 15, 1971, in Bafoussam for his fight against colonialism and neocolonialism.[1][4] In 1986, Ouandié earned her degree in journalism and moved to Cameroon so that she could learn more about her father.[1]
In her forties, Ouandié worked as head of the news bureau for the Ministry of Communication in Bafoussam. She was the wife of Dr. Jacques Djoko Tamnou, a biologist pharmacist, and they lived in the commune of Foumbot with their three children.[5][6] She was a member of Cameroon's Commission Nationale des Droits de l'Homme et des Libertés (National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms).[6][7][8]
Ouandié disappeared on October 27, 2009.[5] On October 31, she was found dead near the Noun River between Bafoussam and Foumbot.[6] She is thought to have committed suicide.[2][1]
She is the subject of a 55-minute 2013 documentary directed by Jean-Marie Teno, Une feuille dans le vent (Leaf in the Wind).[1] In interviews with Teno she talks about the injustice and suspicious circumstances of her father's death; she describes herself as feeling like a leaf on a branch cut from the tree due to her separation from him.[2][9] She asks Teno, "How do you expect a leaf taken from a tree to survive?"[10] The interview footage was filmed in 2004 and Teno decided to make the film after learning of her death.[2] The African Studies Review describes it as providing "an informative and compelling snapshot of how decolonization was derailed in Cameroon".[1]
