Joy A. Alemazung

Joy Asongazoh Alemazung (born 18 December 1974) is a Cameroonian born politician and associate lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, School of International Business in Bremen. He is the first African born mayor of a German city, Heubach, and a member of the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU).
==Early life and education==
Joy Alemazung was born and raised in Victoria, currently known as Limbe, Cameroon. In 1997 he moved to Germany to pursue his studies and he obtained his MA in Sociology and Political Science in 2005 from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. His M.A. dissertation titled: The Struggle for Liberal Democracy in Sub-Sahara Africa earned him a first-class honors. At age 35, he earned his doctorate from the University of Kiel, Germany (2009), in Political Science on States’ Constitutions, Political Transformation and Governance in Sub-Sahara Africa.
==Religious views and engagements==
Alemazung was raised by a father who instilled in him the importance of leading by service and he was influenced by his local parish as a young man. He was raised a catholic Christian and his Christian faith impacts every aspect of his life. In a portrait of Alemazung by the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag, DEKT (German Protestant Church), he describes his father as the greatest pedagogist he ever knew.https://www.kirchentag.de/fileadmin/allgemein/was_ist_kirchentag/magazin_archiv/dekt_magazin_2018-04.pdf
While Alemazung was attending High School in Cameroon, the “winds of democratic change” struck Cameroon and Africa. Alemazung had observed the “disconnecting and disaffecting” lifestyle of youths in Cameroon, something which preoccupied him considerably. He started searching for solutions and ways to help alleviate what, to him, was the “collapse of the society in terms of social (taking note of the case of the youth), political (democratic transitions in conflict regions and ethnically diverse societies) and economic (poverty) sustainability." He is a member of the church committee (Catholic Parish in Erlangen, Catholic Parish in Bremen, Catholic Parish in Stuttgart), as soccer youth trainer with the Bundesliga Club Werder Bremen and as an executive member of NGOs (Afrika ist auch in Bremen, African Good Governance Network e.V.) active in the areas of development politics, international relations, migration as well as the civic and political education of the German Society.
In 2015, he served as a national board member and project manager for the German Protestant Church Congress (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag) in Stuttgart.https://www.kirchentag.de/ (www.kirchentag.de)] (www.kirchentag.org.uk)
==Professional life==
From March 2013 to December 2019, he was a project manager for the Federal States of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria at Engagement Global gGmbH, a service for the development initiative of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. Alemazung was seconded at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development in Berlin as a senior policy officer from January 2020 to December 2021. As part of his function as project manager for development-related education in Germany with Engagement Global GmbH, Alemazung supported organized civil society, municipalities as well as governmental and non-governmental institutions with federal funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. This included contributing to the United Nations Agenda 2030.
Alemazung works as a freelance consultant on projects focusing on development politics, African politics, international relations, organisation development and intercultural training and management.
==Politics==
Alemazung officially joined the CDU party in September 2020 in Schwäbisch Gmünd. In July 2021 he was elected member of the executive committee of the CDU Ostalbkreis (Kreisverband Ostalb/Regional Association). During the CDU district convention in May 2022 he was elected CDU party delegate to the State (Landesparteitag) and Federal Party Convention (Bundesparteitag) of the CDU.
On 25 August 2021, applied for the office of the mayor of the city of Heubach. On 31 August the local newspaper published his candidature and his first interview after his official application. His campaign slogan was: Gemeinsam Heubach Gestalten/Together we build Heubach and his motto was: Führung ist das Privileg Menschen zu dienen und nicht das Recht über sie zu herrschen / Leadership is the privilege to serve and not the right to rule over the people. After months of intensive campaigning, he won the elections with 66.24% of the votes in the first round. 
CDU Cabinet members of Angela Merkel's Grand Coalition government congratulated Alemazung on Twitter. At a time when the CDU suffered its worst election defeat since its creation, a black African CDU candidate was able to win an election against five other candidates with a landslide majority in the first round. Local newspapers reporting on the electoral campaign had all forecasted a tight election which would only be decided in a second round. Many of the newspapers concluded that there was no way one of the six candidates could win the elections in the first round. Following the announcement of the result, journalist David Wagner of the Gmünder Tagespost described Alemazung's victory as based on his charisma: “Such a sensational victory for Dr Joy Alemazung, particularly with such a clear margin, was not expected. Though many observers had given him a chance, it wasn’t a big one given the number of candidates in the race."
On 15 December 2021 Alemazung was officially sworn into office and he took up his seat at the City Hall as the highest administrator of the city on 1 January 2022. His mayoral campaign was based on the three dimensions of sustainable development: ecology, social and economy. He focused on all three dimensions of sustainability insisting in his campaign that no one of these three dimensions will be neglected in his policies in Heubach. 
==Voluntary commitments==
In 2015 he was voted the Most Influential African in Germany by African Heritage Magazine in Hamburg. According to the jury board, his ability to mobilise leaders and decision makers of all party lines for a common good was outstanding. He succeeded in bringing together elected counsellors and parliamentarians of African descent in state parliaments and in federal and EU Parliament to form the Association of Politically Elected Officials of African Descent (Vereinigung MandatsträgerInnen Afrikanischer Abstammung (VMA) e.V.)
From 2000 – 2005, he was founder and moderator of "Africa Panoroma” at Radio Z Nuremberg. In 2002 he founded “Panafrikanischer Verein für Information und Humanitäre Dienste e.V. (from 2019: International Network for Governance and Sustainability). From 2009 – 2012 he was Parent Representative of the Frei Evangelisch Bekenntnisschule reporting to the Zentral Eltern Beirat (Central Council of Parents Association) of Bremen and from 2012 – 2013 he was Chairman of African Good Governance Network, from 2011 – 2013 an Executive Member of “Africa ist auch in Bremen“.
==Awards==
Date 	Award
2015/2016 	Most Influential African in Germany 2015/16: African Heritage Magazine 100 Most influential Africans in Germany
2015 	SOBA Foundation Community Award of Excellence 2015
06.2006 - 01.2009	PhD Scholarship holder of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Deutschland
11.2004 	Award from the International Office Erlangen, to the Cameroonian Student Association Erlangen-Nürnberg for his contribution towards the integration and the initiation of the dialogue between immigration officers, police officers and migrants living in the vicinity of Erlangen-Nürnberg
04.2001 - 02.2004	Scholarship holder of the Kirchliche Entwicklungdienst (Church Development Services), Erlangen, Deutschland
Category:1974 births
Category:Cameroonian people
Category:Politicians
Category:Lecturers