Jean-Marc Ela

Jean-Marc Ela was born on September 27, 1936, in Ebolowa. Ordained a Catholic priest in 1964, Ela earned doctorates in theology from the University of Strasbourg and sociology from the Sorbonne, rejecting comfortable academic appointments to live and minister among the marginalized Kirdi pagan peasants in northern Cameroon.

Ela became the intellectual pioneer of African Liberation Theology, authoring landmark books such as Le cri de l'homme africain (African Cry, 1980) and My Faith as an African. He fiercely denounced political authoritarianism, poverty, and structural economic exploitation. Following the mysterious murder of his colleague Father Engelbert Mveng in 1995 and facing death threats, Ela lived in exile in Canada, teaching sociology at Laval University.