Book Review - Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong
Joyce Ashuntantang & Dibussi Tande (eds). Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong. Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon, 2008. 76 pages. Paperback. Available from African Books Collective (UK) £12.95 and amazon.com and affiliates (international) $19.95
The celebration in verse of the life and works of Bate Besong, Cameroon's most influential and controversial poet, playwright and scholar. Published by Langaa RPCIG.
With Contributions from 27 poets from Cameroon and Africa and a forward by Ba'bila Mutia
Book Description
The poems in this collection are a snapshot of the mood that prevailed following the death, on March 8, 2007, of Bate Besong, Cameroon’s most vocal and controversial Poet, Playwright and scholar. Bate Besong ushered in a new kind of nationalist “fighting” literature in Cameroon which is unapologetic in its defense of Cameroon’s Anglophone minority and scathing in its denunciation of postcolonial African dictators and their western collaborators. These poems defy Bate Besong’s death by affirming that his impact as a writer lives on.
Commendations
“Moving and tellingly generous, these tributes attest to the value of Bate Besong as humanist, artist, and patriot; the ‘Inextinguishable Flame’ of his inspiration; the triumph of his life over the pain of his departure. Here is a resonant celebration not only of the brief but boisterously bright fire of one of our bravest writers, but also of the unbreakable chord of our common humanity. The refrains in these elegies are anthems of hope. The ink in their lines will for ever stay aglow.”
Niyi Osundare, former teacher of Bate Besong
“These poems put into perspective the essence of that Anglophone Cameroon literary icon, the fearless “Obasinjom warrior” with the bemused smile, who once upon a time, was called Bate Besong.”
Ba’bila Mutia, Cameroonian writer, Professor of Literature, ENS, University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon.
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If tears were enough and weeping so consoling enough, then we would have ceased pondering why it had to be Bate Besong AKA BB. Yes his pen might have being so boisterous and bitting but he remains the most outspoken writer with a lot of accomplishments. Bravo to BB for he lives on and his works keep shining like a bright ember that will never die. Our love for BB was total and his dreams were our dreams. Today we only can mourn and lament his so sudden departure. Their Chapagne Party will end is a boisterous and pulsating rhapsody thta flows like from BB's fountain. It is a good eulogy for a great mind like that Of our illustrous Bate Besong. So many thanks for this great accomplishments and bravo to Dr.Joyce Ashuntantang and Dibusi Tande. This great poetry collection portrays Bate Besong as a grea patriot, philosopher, accomplished writer and poet. I had learned a lot from him and will move on the path he path finded. Adieu Bate Besong. African Literature and Cameroonian lovers of your raw kind of poetry will forever miss you.
Posted by: Ndim Bernard Ngouche | June 20, 2008 at 08:42 AM