Palapala Magazine

Palapala Magazine No 2 - East of Bakassi (Vibrant but Invisible)

 

Cameroon Literature in English – Vibrant But Invisible

A Guest Editorial by Dibussi Tande

Anglophone Cameroon writing... is too little known and much underrated... consequently, much that has been written in English in Cameroon and what has been written about writing in English in Cameroon must have the character of a first encounter with the unseen, a getting to know and shedding of light on a dark spot in the literary development of Africa. Ekhard Breitinger.

In 1978, Patrick Sam-Kubam published an article in Abbia (31/33, February 1978, 205-208) in which he lamented about “The paucity of literary creativity in Anglophone Cameroon". In 1997, Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi picked up on the same theme in her seminal book on gender when she also commented about “the paucity of Cameroonian Anglophone writing”. To a certain extent, these two statements, made some two decades apart, reflected and still reflect a reality on the ground. Literature in English speaking Cameroon has not developed at the same pace as other “national” African literatures.

Bole Butake - Home Or Exile: The African Writer’s Dilemma

Playwright Bole Butake contemplates home or exile, a not so unfamiliar dilemma in many an African writer’s reality. Achebe has written on the subject. He lives in the US. Butake lives in Cameroon.  Herewith are excerpts of a lecture he gave on the subject in 2005 at European Conference of African Studies organized by AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies).

An Interview with Rosemary E. Ekosso Author of House of Falling Women

Interviewed by Dibussi Tande

House of Falling Women. Cameroon, Langaa Publishers, May 2008. 328 pages. Available on Amazon.com, African Books Collective and Michigan State University Press.

A conversation with Cameroonian writer, Rosemary Ekosso about her first novel, House of Falling Women.

Niyi Osundare: A Toast To Bate Besong

Just days before it was announced that he had been awarded Africa's most prestigious award for poetry, the Tchicaya Utamsi award, Niyi Osundare was in Buea, Cameroon to take part in the inaugural EduArts Awards for Cameroonian Literature in English. In this excerpt, Osundare reminisces about the late Bate Besong, Anglophone Cameroon's most militant poet/playwright who was his student at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Beasts of Burden - A Poem by Lloney Monono

By Lloney E. Monono

it’s true
it was rape and pillage
wooden yokes embraced muscular necks
wrought iron shackled sturdy ankles
and manacled muscular wrists
of beings, bare bodied, bought and sold
to become beasts of burden

two centuries hence
the resource loot continues
so does the rape of manpower
yet restraints are redundant
as patient queues now adorn pavements
for an inky access to become beasts -
beasts to a burden

A Mother's Heart - A Short Story By Dipita Kwa

By Dipita Kwa

I slipped out of my canoe and into the cold water of the swamp to pin down the lower end of the net into the mud so that no fish would swim through it from beneath. The water was very dark this morning with all the tree branches forming a thick canopy above.

While climbing back into the canoe, I saw Tiako’s mother bent double under the weight of a full basket of cassava she was carrying on her head. She descended the steep slope that led to the huge log serving as a bridge across the swamp with her dog Lulu panting beside her. She held her load with one hand and with the other hand she held a long staff with which she felt her way down.

A Concoction of Paradoxes – A Review of "The Disillusioned African" by Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Francis B. Nyamnjoh, The Disillusioned African. Langaa Publishers, 2007.

By Kangsen Feka Wakai

Meet Charles, able-bodied African male of decent character with Herculean aspirations. Born sometime before independence swept through the continent; sometime before its echoing chants became the refrain of daily discourse; he is witness to the political and economic sameness of his world as it assumes different names but holds on to an ancient personality—tyranny.

Makuchi - Reclaiming Stories from her Native Land

Frank Stasio (National Public Radio) talks to Cameroonian storyteller Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi (Makuchi) about stories, storytelling and comparative literature.

Meet Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi - The State of Things

Makuchi is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

Kenjo Jumbam and the Unfulfilled Potential of Early Anglophone Cameroon Writers

In 2005, veteran Cameroonian writer, Kenjo Jumbam, author of The White Man Of God died in his native Nso, prematurely ending the career of one of Cameroon's finest writers who never lived up to his fullest potential because of the absence of viable publishing outlets. In this commemorative article, Joyce Ashutantang shows how Jumbam's literary career mirrored that of Cameroon literature in English:

To situate Kenjo wan Jumbam within the Cameroonian literary pantheon, one would have to go back to the literary history of Anglophone Cameroon.

While Chinua Achebe launched contemporary Nigerian literature in London in 1958, Sankie Maimo, Achebe's fellow schoolmate, launched Anglophone Cameroon literature in Nigeria in 1959. Taking advantage of the publishing structures and a shared colonial history, Maimo published I Am Vindicated, a drama, with Ibadan University Press.

The Bridge - A Poem by JK Bannavti in Memory of Kenjo Jumbam

By JK Bannavti

The skies are dark
The lights are out
And we are not fast
But we trot and shout
Sure of foot
Sure of road

Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom! Celebrating Diversity in Anglophone Cameroon Literature

By Shadrach A. Ambanasom (an excerpt of the keynote address delivered on the occasion of the 2008 EduArt Literary Awards Night)

"To prescribe only politics and proscribe any other subject matter would be to kill our creative spirit, to stultify our imaginative efforts and to truncate our literature"

Before we round up this address, we can say that, like all literary artists, the Anglophone Cameroon imaginative writers play all kinds of language games with the infinitely flexible syntax of their creative medium of expression. Working within their chosen literary forms, they creatively use English to achieve their various artistic intentions. With a world view of their own these writers have fantasies, dreams, and aspirations they would like to translate into reality; for, working on their basic subject matter, some would like to reinvent a Cameroon of their dream as opposed to the present Cameroon which, like many other African countries, is an imperfect society with its own share of socio-economic and socio-political problems and difficulties.

Chinua Achebe: Find the Story of Your Condition

Culled from Chinua Achebe's interview in Summit Magazine

Question: What kind of story does an Anglophone Cameroonian – who is still grappling with an identity crisis and is stuck between the majority francophone Cameroon and the populous Nigerian federation – write? Can his literature thrive?

Chinua Achebe: I went to school with a number of Cameroonians. At that time  a number of Cameroonians were students at Umuahia, for example Nkweta, Noto – a whole generation going back to Dr. EML Endeley who was the Leader of Government Business in Southern Cameroons. He in fact led your exit from Nigeria. We in Nigeria could be saying to you ‘serves you right!’. Next time, be careful of big neighbors. (Laughs).

My Mother's Daughter - A Poem by Bernice Angoh

I am my mother’s daughter
Born in the season of rain
On the night the stars went nova
Born to a woman of great strength
who was molded in the season of pain
On the night the stars moved west
Of her, I was made whole
Imprint by imprint we stand alike
Like Skyer and Tsy

Wanted! Anonymous Poet!

"Mad, Bad Cameroonian Poet" - A cyber-poetic Mercenary

Click here for bounty information.

Adieu Calabar - A Poem by Ba’bila Mutia

Calabar gave enterprising empires cheap labor and palm oil but gave us its legendary yams, a culinary treat in its own right within the annals of African cuisine especially to that motley of peoples who occupy the space that sits East of Bakassi and West of the River Mungo, uncomfortably wedged between the debris of history and the faults of tomorrow.   

Calabar was our home [away from home], its nectar drawing the likes of students, traders and adventurers of all inclinations. It became our first Diaspora, a gateway to adulthood where youth was extinguished and the possibilities of a colonial-free existence boundless. 

Thirty-years later, Poet Ba’bila Mutia’s adieu to Calabar gives us reason to examine and, if time permits, reexamine that magical city that today still resonates with the ironies that characterize its person:

Mosquito - A Poem in Pidgin English

By Peter Vakunta

Some day been be/
Mr Mimbo Eye/
Yi go sule yi mimbo/
Sotai yi crish/
Na yi wey he de waka/
Kunya kunya de turn back/
For yi long/

Rainy Season 2014 - A Short Story by Donna Forbin

By Donna Forbin

It was going to rain heavily this night. The wind was already howling furiously and it was not even six o’clock. The rain clouds had choked the setting sun out of view. The sky was covered in an angry grey black. Clouds of dust and dirt were flying, into my house and everywhere else that they could. I rushed around shutting the windows and drawing the curtains. Neighbors were doing the same everywhere. There were still some unfortunate ones outside; men, women carrying bags and baskets on their heads, babies on their backs, children all running, trying to make it indoors before the storm unleashed its full fury.

Langaa Publishers - A Key Player in the Literary Renaissance in Anglophone Cameroon

Langaa Publishers, the leading publisher of books from English-speaking Cameroon, is actively seeking for manuscripts from Cameroonian and African writers (fiction and non-fiction). Langaa, which has been a key player in the ongoing literary renaissance in Anglophone Cameroon, is part of the African Books Collective (ABC) publishing network. Its books are distributed in Europe by ABC and in the United States by Michigan State University Press. Langaa books are also available on major online bookstores such as amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Langaa is currently working out the details for printing Cameroonian editions of its books.

For additional information, contact Divine Fuh, Managing Editor, at langaagrp@gmail.com or  d_fuh@yahoo.com.

Click here for a list of books published by Langaa.

Entry for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is Now Open

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009 - Organised by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation across all four regions.

The 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the global prize for fiction for both established and new writers, has opened for entry. The two categories, for Best Book, worth £10,000 to the overall winner, and Best First Book, worth £5,000 to the overall winner, are open to published writers from across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

The Prize, now in its 23rd year, celebrates cutting-edge fiction across four regions of the Commonwealth: Africa; Canada and Caribbean; Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and the Pacific. Last year more than 300 entries were received with the regional winners emerging from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India and Nigeria.