A Cameroonian TV channel has reportedly ignited controversy; one of its hosts instructed viewers on how to "calm down" a woman using physical force.
According to Reuters, the contentious advice came from Ernest Obama, a presenter on the privately-owned channel Vision 4.
"Grab her by the neck and press on it," Obama was quoted as saying while flexing his hand. "The more she talks the more you press."
His misogynist comments reportedly did not go over well with local activists. "We were extremely shocked by this programme, where Mr Obama and his colleagues talked about violence against women with such light-heartedness," a spokeswoman for RENATA, a group which works with victims of rape and violence and runs awareness programmes, said in a statement.
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Obama himself defended his programme, which he described as "educational", and indicated that he was defending painless ways of "solving" a conflict.
"It's a programme where we talk about social topics to educate people," he said in a telephone interview.
"We talked about the case of a fight between a husband and his wife. And the wife had caught the husband by the testicles," he added.
"My colleague talked about what one should do in case a woman grabs you by the balls, he suggested giving her a violent punch. I said… you should maybe rather hit her somewhere where it hurts less and which will not leave traces."
Cameroon has yet to eliminate the problem of domestic violence; it is also currently facing a worsening humanitarian crisis in the two restive Anglophone parts of the country.
Cameroon does not have a specific law banning domestic violence, although there is legislation in place that prohibits assaults and sexual harassment.
According to UN estimates dated 2015, 51 percent of women in this country have been the target of physical or sexual violence from their partners, while 33 percent have been subject to such violence in the past year.
As per a US 2017 report, rape cases against women are rarely investigated or prosecuted in Cameroon, given that victims often fail to report them to the police.
