Palapala Magazine

Palapala Magazine # 7: cEaven

Abuja: The City of Poets

Denja Abdullahi

The dream of the City called Abuja started with the foresighted decision of the short-lived General Murtala Mohammed’s regime in 1976 to move the capital of Nigeria from the congested port-city of Lagos to a place in the geographical centre of Nigeria, amenable and conducive for the development of a brand-new capital city.

Dearth and Death: The Growing Lacuna in Cameroon Anglophone Literary Criticism and Debate

Wirndzerem G. Barfee

"It is to subsume and transcend the instant;  to open vast horizons of the not-yet, [to me that is] the function of cultural criticism and of critical theory because art cannot thrive in the absence of a strong critical theory tradition" Achille Mbembe

Of late there has been increasing reason to fear that the aberrant is happening in present Anglophone Cameroon literary landscape. This pathology finds unsettling symptoms in the expanding lacuna of silence that is settling our critical space. There is a growing apathy towards our own literary productions, and it is characterized by a shouting and disturbing absence of criticism, reviews and debate on the recent works by new and old authors.

Travel Diary: A Journey into the Heart of South Africa’s Frontier Country

By Dibussi Tande

“The Route will remind you that you are travelling through an extraordinary country, chiselled out of the horrors of racial and social dispossession to become a dynamic monument to human dignity.” Makana Pocket Guide.

After a grueling 18 hour journey from Chicago to Johannesburg where I spent the night, I boarded a South African Airways flight bound for the Indian Ocean port city of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province.

Port Elizabeth was founded in 1820 as a gateway for the 4000 British settlers, the so-called 1820 settlers, who were brought in by the British government in a bid to strengthen the crown’s grip on the Cape Colony’s strife-torn eastern frontier – the Frontier Country – where the Xhosas were violently resisting British occupation of their lands – In 1996, Nelson Mandela described the settlers as "Pawns in a larger game" who "were nevertheless caught up on the wrong side of history, unable or unwilling to acknowledge as equals those into whose homeland they had been implanted." From 1779 to 1879, the British and the Xhosa’s fought nine Frontier Wars which left an indelible mark on modern South Africa.

The Ramifications of Linguistic Innovation in African Literature: An Interview with Patrice Nganang

Peter Wuteh Vakunta, PhD.

A versatile  award-winning novelist, Patrice Nganang has written works that have left  an indelible mark on the international literary landscape. With the publication of Temps de chien (2001), a novel that was recognized with two noteworthy awards—the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize and the Grand Prix de la  littérature de l’Afrique Noire—he emerged as a writer noted for his innovative use of the French language.  In the interview that follows Nganang sheds light on some of the  attributes that make him tick as a creative writer.

Help Wanted for the Awesome Task of Bringing Smiles

Kangsen Feka Wakai

 We are a global multi-service agency seeking highly skilled, motivated—with emphasis on ‘motivated’— and peripatetic individuals who can embark on the comfort induced, guilt cleansing, feel-good, but nevertheless pompous task of saving and illuminating a massive chunk of real estate with excess resources and not enough commonsense for its own good.

 We are an equal opportunity employer and will not hire individuals based on a candidate's race, age, sexual orientation, profession, gender, hair length or national origins: so it makes little difference if you are from Leopold's Belgium, Biya's Cameroon, Obama's America or Delamare's Kenya.  Charitable people of the world, you are encouraged to apply.

We the People [an excerpt]

Joyce Ashuntantang

INT. TIKU’S COUSIN’S HOUSE – “DIE HOUSE” SCENE - NIGHT

PEOPLE are singing from printed song books, WOMEN/GIRLS come in with food and MEN/BOYS come in with drinks.

An elderly person, PA JOE, stands up to talk.

Henry's Hypothesis

Dami Ajayi

Before the unfortunate event of my death, I was a mathematician, so you can figure out my love for symbols, formulas, and numbers. But before I came to love symbols, I loved life. And before I loved life, I loved God.

I was even convinced back then, that Adam couldn’t match me when it came to communing with God. But that was once; a long time ago. Before I became deaf to God, or God became silent. Anyways, you never can really tell with just one perspective of any account. Objectivity is not mans’ greatest forte.

The Poems of Koonta Kyntee

Robben Island little Lecture

In the of eye-numbing darkness
He did not curse the obscurity;
Lit a flame and fanned it,
To warm the disabling cold despair
Of the ever growing destitutes.
Countless winds failed to blow out that flame
So we ask
" What in the world gives a man
The right to subject life to subjugation?”
You are the Piet Botha of aspiration in a generation of forward-thinking,
Trouble-shunning Nkosi Sikeleli Africa."
He is the reason Soweto kept hope.
He is the thought that kept faith alive.

Robben Island little Lecture

In the of eye-numbing darkness
He did not curse the obscurity;
Lit a flame and fanned it,
To warm the disabling cold despair
Of the ever growing destitutes.
Countless winds failed to blow out that flame
So we ask
" What in the world gives a man
The right to subject life to subjugation?”
You are the Piet Botha of aspiration in a generation of forward-thinking,
Trouble-shunning Nkosi Sikeleli Africa."
He is the reason Soweto kept hope.
He is the thought that kept faith alive.

Sonnets from Maroua

By Oscar C. Labang

“God Fatherism”

II
Let they that know not
Confess their emptiness
And seek the reticent god
The rapture comes with bitterness.

Let they that have roots
(The dry season will be long)
Prepare for the time - new moods
Know you have to survive to belong.

Abuja: Phase 1 and 2

Denja Abdullahi

Phase One

Abuja was a land of promise
A virgin with variants of delights
She whispered sitting a top rocky plains
And called on far-flung pilgrims
To come

worship the new totem of power.
They came with tall dreams and hopes
Melting into corridors in grand edifices
Pushing without care into nature and nurture
While the natives moved further into the bush.

Abuja became a city of dreams
Of skyscrapers, long winding roads and flyovers,
Of bureaucrats and contractors.
Abuja became the Geneva of Africa
A city of endless talk shops and conventions
Where people brainstorm over insoluble problems,
Yet the bliss must go on.

Dante's Corner: Ali Ben Bongo Meets Paul Biya

Announcement: Seminar on Sankie Maimo - 11th and 12th of December 2009

Venue: Department of African Literature and Civilisations, University of Yaounde 1

That Anglophone Cameroonian literature is gradually and forcefully putting its name in the African literary landscape is indisputable. This can be seen in the critical and creative attention that has been given to this literature by both home and foreign critics. However, we notice that the pioneers of this literature, like Sankie Maimo, seem to go unnoticed by critics.

Sankie Maimo’s work happens to be among the first that could be read as Cameroonian literature in English at the time when flourishing Nigerian writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka were also making their debut. His return to Cameroon as a Civil Servant at the Ministry of External Relations did not stop him from continuing in creative writing. What can then be the reason for the lack of critical interest in Maimo’s works? We seek to answer this question on the days of the seminar on Sankie Miamo.

(Announcement) Introducing the 1st Annual MyAfricanDiaspora.com SHORT STORY COMPETITION

In our ongoing effort to promote positive images that reflect people of African descent, the website that connects that African Diaspora is pleased to announce our first annual Short Story contest.

We're looking for fiction that is unique, stories with characters we'll remember, plots that leave us thinking. The contest is open to anyone, any race, any country, any continent. The only caveat? The main character must be of African descent.