The journalist, who worked for the Equinoxe group, died in the early hours of Thursday 1 August 2024 in Douala after an illness.

Suzanne Kala Lobe was born in Douala on January 16, 1953. She was the daughter of Sara Beboi Kutta Kala-Lobè and Iwiyè Kala-Lobè who had eight children. She received her primary education in Petit Joss in Akwa and lived in Cameroon until the age of 10 before continuing her studies in France, where she obtained a PhD in linguistics from the University of Paris III in 1976, followed by an MBA in cultural management in 1989. Her dissertation on the case of the UPC political party was followed by a DEA in political science from the University of Bordeaux in 1997.

She was a member of the Union Nationale des Étudiants du Kamerun and the UPC, leaving the latter in 1998. To honour her father, Iwiyè Kala-Lobè (1917-1991), a journalist and founder of Présence Africaine, she became a journalist herself in 1992, starting at La Nouvelle Expression, where she quickly made a name for herself with her column Ma candidate serait une femme, which appeared in the middle of the Cameroonian presidential elections.

In 2003, she hosted a series of programmes on Equinoxe radion, including Polémos, Livres noirs and Musiques d’Afrique, and later, in 2013, Vendredi soir on Équinoxe TV.

In October 2010, she published Les Chroniques sous le manguier, published by Jacques Marie Lafon, and in 2012, she co-wrote Supermarket, published by Le Bec en L’air.

On February 23, 2013, she was appointed by the head of State as one of the nine members of the National Communication Council, taking her oath of office on 6 March. At the same time, she was in charge of communications for the Hysacam General Management. She further more set up her own production company, EBK Productions, which owns the magazine Actu, broadcast on Canal 2 International.