Thérèse Sita-Bella, born Thérèse Bella-Mbida in 1933 and died on 27 February 2006 in Yaoundé, was a Cameroonian journalist and film-maker. She is considered to be the first woman in sub-Saharan Africa to have worked as a film-maker.

In 1963, she made the documentary Tam-Tam à Paris, a 30-minute report on traditional dances, which also followed a tour of the French capital by Cameroon's national dance company. In 1969, Tam Tam à Paris was shown at the first African Film Week, a festival that later became FESPACO.

Thérèse Sita-Bella was a feminist activist who paved the way for many other Cameroonian and African women of her generation. However, she does not advocate a radical feminism, but ‘female emancipation based on access to the same opportunities as men, but also on the institutions of marriage and motherhood', notes Le Monde. In her articles, she also highlights prominent African women (‘architects, MPs, actresses'), so that they can serve as role models. Thérèse Sita-Bella was one of her country's first female journalists, and the first to fly a plane. She was considered a phenomenon, working in fields previously reserved for men.

Film by Eugenie Metala,
*Selected for the Festival des Lumières d'Afrique 2024