Bate Besong: Launched Into the Labyrinth of the Unknown

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By Sammy Oke Akombi

I sat in the crowd watching, tense
The performance of intellectuals
As they used words to polish words.
I simply moaned, at a point.
Thank God, all isn’t lost yet.
Our country’s still very hot.

Then I listened to the brevity of the one
Who had just given birth to “Disgrace”
I’d rather it was Grace.
Yet I yearned that his life won’t be as brief
As he had been brief.

But, but the very next day
It was all over. He’s gone away.
Away to encounter the labyrinth
No more tumultuous ululations of BB, BB.
Never again will BB launch a book
Thank God, he’s already got many on the hook.

BB’s so spectacular, he couldn’t do it alone.
How could he, such an artistic don
Hilarious, hilariously escorted him.
And Kwasen too, artfully did same.
They had their driver with them.
To drive them through, the labyrinth of the unknown.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sammy Oke Akombi is a writer from Cameroon, born in Tinto, Manyu Division. He is an alumnus of the 2004 International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa, USA. He won the 1990 Literary Prize of the National Association of Cameroonian Poets and Writers (APEC), Yaounde. His latest works include: Grandma’s Daughter, published in 2008, and The Woman who ate Python and other Stories, published in 2006. He is currently the Director of the Southwest Provincial Linguistic Centre, Buea. He also teaches English at the Faculty of Social Science and Management, Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaounde, Cameroon.

March 2008