By Bansi Daniel Song in Bamenda
Published in The Herald No. 1618, Moday, 14-15 March 2005
Cameroonian-born US-based writer says, only writers like Bate Besong, Bole Butake whose books he said reflected the opinions of Cameroonians were worth reading.
Patrice Nganang, a literary scholar who teaches in the USA and publisher of seven books has said critical writing would fill the gap left by opposition parties that have joined the ruling party, CPDM. Speaking at the presentation of his books at Alliance Franco Cameroonaise, Bamenda on 11 March, Patrice Nganang said Cameroonian writers should emulate Bate Besong, and Bole Butake in critical writing, adding that it was the only way the opinions of Cameroonian abandoned by greedy parties like UNDP, UPC could be expressed.
The writer warned that these groups of militants finding no way to express their opinions, they would likely pick up arms to be heard.
The writer said the inability of the parties even to express their opinions because they were allied to CPDM was a total betrayal of those supporting them. Nganang regretted that the political class has left out the common Cameroonian whose opinion is not represented in any structure.
To the writer, only writes like Bate Besong, Bole Butake whose books he said reflected the opinions of Cameroonians were worth reading. He recommended their books because the authors have expressed the opinions of Cameroonians fearlessly.
Speaking to The Herald, Nganang said his recent publication, "l’invention du beau regard," expressed all shades of opinions. The writer said he has brought in characters in the work that speak for the common man in the streets. He said politicians can express partial opinions but good literature has every opinion expressed.
Patrice Nganang in Brief
Patrice Nganang is one of the most promising young francophone authors of African origin today. He has published three novels with French publishing houses as well as a collection of poems and a number of short stories. A fourth novel will be published by Gallimard in 2005. The author has received several awards for his works, such as the Prix CREPLA (1986) for the story “Histoire d’un enfant Quatr Z’yeux”, the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar for francophone writers living in the USA, and the Grand prix littéraire de l’Afrique noire for his second novel, Temps de Chien.
Nganang was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on March 17, 1970. After an M.A. in German (Major) and Sciences of Education (Minor) at the University of Yaoundé, he continued his studies at the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, where he obtained a PhD in 1998 with a thesis on Bertold Brecht and Wole Soyinka. He has been an assistant professor of French and German at Shippensburg University since 2000. Apart from his literary works, he has published Interkulturalität und Bearbeitung. Untersuchung zu Soyinka und Brecht (1998) as well as a series of essays and scholarly articles on African literature and film. In his trilogy composed of La Promesse des Fleurs (1997), Temps de Chien (2001), and La Joie de Vivre (2003), the author depicts the poverty-stricken “sous-quartiers,” or “under-quarters,” of Yaoundé and Douala.
Comments