The Anglophone Cameroonian Writer Comes Of Age Under The Biya Sky (I)

BY BATE BESONG

When I … used to write plays and novels that were only critical of the racism in the colonial system, I was praised. I was awarded prizes and my novels were in the syllabus. But when … I started … questioning the very foundations of imperialism and of foreign domination of Kenyan economy and culture, I was sent to Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. Ngugi Wa Thingo’O (Barrel Of A Pen, 1985:65)

Beyond Narcissism
David Mandessi Diop was born in Bordeaux, France, on July 9, 1927 of a Senegalese medical officer father and a Cameroonian mother. He went to the University of Montpellier to study medicine, but he had to change to liberal arts because of ill-health. Creativity served as a liberating force that provided both the artist and his constituency, the need for each other’s vitality and vision. He left behind one slim volume of poetry Hammer Blows (AWS: 1973), which has been described, by the English literary critic, Gerald Moore, in the following glowing but prophetic terms:

In him we hear the voice of a new generation, a
generation determined to rebuild Africa by its own
efforts, unencumbered by constant demands for
internal payment on loans, spiritual and cultural
as well as financial. It is a voice, which is beginning
to make itself heard in the councils of the nations
to the bewilderment of those who stand waiting to
collect the alms of gratitude. (Seven African Writers. Evans: 1962

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Comments

[ebai-mah]

IDENTITY,NATIONALITY, HERITAGE,LIBERTY, AND LFE
IN FRENCH-AFRICAN RULE CAMEROON.

I HAVE THOUGHT MINDFUL OF ALL THESE ATROCITIES
AND DELIBERATE ACTS SUCH AS, THE WIPING OF OUR
HISTORICAL PRIDE OF RE NAMIMG VICTORIA TO LIMBE,
THE SIPHONING OF ALL TAX ASSETS THAT ARE SUPPOSE TO GO TO THE LOCAL CITIES AND TOWN FOR THEIR
MODERNISING, THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR INHERITAGE FROM
THE BRITISH BY FRANCOPHONE ENEMIES,THE REAL CAUSE
FOR ALL THESE NOT FORGOING THE COMPLETE ABANDONMENT OF OUR BEAYTIFUL LAND WITH INFRASTURES, ONLY EXPOLITATION, AND PILLAGE OF OUR FOREST, NATURAL RESOURCE, THE WAISTE OF OUR YOUTH WITHOUT HIGHER EDUCATION IN OUR OWN ANGLOSAXON SYSTEM, NOT TO MENTION OUR OWN EXAMINING BOARD, AND ELECTING OUR OWN GOVERNORS, PRESIDENTS, COLLEGE PRINCIPALS, LOCAL CITY OFFICIALS, MAYORS ETC THAT ALL SOUTHERN CAMEROON ARE EITHER CORRUPT TOO. OR BLIND, DEAF.
BUT WHEN WE ENVISAGE LIFE WITHOUT ALL LIBERTY TO
BUILD OUR CULTURE AND SOUTHERN CAMEROON AS WE WISH.

BUT TO SUCCUM TO HATRED MONGERING FOREIGNERS WHO ONLY CAME TO STEAL ,KILL AND DESTROY OUR PEOPLE . TO TOTAL MAKE THEM SUB HUMAN ON THEIR OWN LAND.
AND NO SOUTHERN CAMEROON PEOPLE CAN STANDUP TO GATHER TO DETER AND WRITE OUR OWN LAWS IN THE BOOK FOR THEY THE BULUS, BASSA, BAMELIKI ETC FOREIGNERS TO FOLLOWS AS THEY MAKE THEIR CRUSADE OF DESTRUCTION.