Morgantown Failed (For Bate Besong)

By Joyce Ashuntantang Abunaw, Ph.D. (University of Connecticut at Storrs)

BB, I had planned the celebration
I had  called all friends
BB, I had planned it all
The Banquet: a historical Drama
Obasijom warrior in town
The writer as tiger in glory.
I was ready for the story…
Once Upon Great Lepers...
Morgantown 2007

BB, I said "At last"
ALA will see your face
I said "At last"
The name behind the cryptic words revealed.
I said "At last"
we'll flaunt you in "our" world
Basking in delayed sunshine.
Morgantown 2007
Yes, was not to be
You turned it to a Requiem
A Requiem for the last Kaiser
Our literary Kaiser.

I still hold your other grain
“The grain of Bobe Jua”
Your second poetic foray
This was ‘86
I read your hand
“to a fine actress” you wrote
And the ink stayed wet
Drying up yesterday in Disgrace
But this exit BB, remains untimely
All the plans, all the hopes
We are left suddenly like Beasts of No Nation.

Like Change Waka and His man Sawa Boy
You dragged Ambe and Ni Tom for the ride
To The Most cruel Death…

BB, Up above Cameroon
You have gone but you remain our giant
One eye giant in the land of the blind
Seeing The polyphemus Detainee and other skulls
So we chant and continue to gnash our teeth
Yes, Morgantown failed
But I’ll be there BB
The party will hold, a teary banquet,
with swollen eyes and hushed voices.
For collective grief
Our catharsis.
Sleep well BB
Be well.

(BB and I were to meet next week at the African Literature Conference (ALA) to be held at the West Virginia University,  Morgantown from 14-18 March 2007. BB was on his way to get his visa at the American Embassy in Yaounde when he met his untimely death. This is in celebration of his life and creative works which appear in the poem in italics)

Comments

[Solomon Amabo A*]

I lack words.BB truely, you bow out.You left us , taking along your colleague Dr Hilarious Ambe, Your friend Kwasen Gwangwa'ah and Your driver Tabe Samson.This 8 March 2007 is one of my darkest days, as you give up in Missole II, 37km from Edea.

[Peter A. Kima.]

Bate Besong died doing what he loved best. My worry is not the act of dying, but how to categorised his dead. Can we say it was an act of God? BB would have given his friends and love ones an opportunity to care for him on his sick bed. Iam confused.This is impossible. Why are we here? He died with his closed associates and the driver. If God created everything good, then where cometh dead? BB, although your gone, your spirit lives on.You will attend the African Literature Conference(ALA) in Morgantown. You deserve recognition at all levels, dead or alive.May you have eternal rest.