Marianne Gisele Bema

Marianne Bema, descendant of the prestigious Batoufam and Batoum Royalty, was born and raised in Cameroon, Central Africa. After the birth of her twins, Marianne was given the special and highly respected name of Magnie as required by the Bantu-Bamileke culture (which means the Mother of Twins). It is to notice that some worldwide celebrated Artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and most recently La Maison Hermes, got their inspiration from the Bantu people outstanding handmade arts pieces. Magnie is fluent in 10 languages. Over the years she has had the privilege of living in various countries of the world where she experienced diverse cultures from Belgium to France, Gabon, Germany and now the United States of America.

Marianne, a philanthropist, has always believed in giving back to the community. She found a way to propagate this through artifacts, arts, songs, dances, messages of unity, cultural diversity and awareness in children and communities. She set aside her Interior Design and Special Event Coordinator to expand her knowledge on working with children. She did this by successfully completing a Curriculum Development, Classroom Management and How to Teach Young Children Program at the University of California Los Angeles. After which, Marianne developed a curriculum to teach Bantu arts under her non-profit Bantu Arts Atelier For Kids, located in Calabasas.

Her love for fostering cultural diversity awareness and promoting Global Citizenship within children and communities, lead her to write a multicultural children’s book “Nguni Stands Up To Gure the Bully: Finding strength in one voice.”

In this book, Marnie is not only addressing the Bullying issue, that is a major scourge existing at every level in our society, she also raises awareness about children with albinism who are subject to multiple forms of discrimination, persecution, seclusion, mutilation and bullying worldwide. Sadly, the believe of some ethnic groups is that the body parts of children with albinism have magical powers for providing wealth and good luck.