Bate Besong: Jeremiah In Cameroon (A Review of BB's "Disgrace")

Reviewed by Innocent Futcha

Indeed the poems in this book individually and collectively, are loaded with tons of emotions, crafted in a rich array of stylistic devices and heavily charged with enough semantic venom to have the impact of a plastic bomb". Beban Sammy Chumbow

Disgrace Emanya - Nkpe, Bate Besong's latest collection of poems, displays the following assertion as a kind of frontispiece:  "These people leave nothing but deceit and disgrace as an inheritance for future generations" The letter of Jeremiah, 47. This seeming quote from the Bible is nowhere to be found in the book of Jeremiah. It is made up by the poet who, by so doing, indicates that he should be looked upon as Jeremiah in Cameroon.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah is known as a very sensitive person who deeply loved his people, to whom he spoke with deep emotion to warn them of the disaster that was to fall upon them as a result of their misconduct. Some of the most remarkable passages in the book point to the day when there would be a new covenant.

Part of the Book of Jeremiah is made up of messages from the Lord about various foreign nations.In the same vein, Bate Besong, in his collection of poems, writes about his professional environment which is the University and the University system in Cameroon, his country at large and such other African countries as Burkina Faso, South Africa and Nigeria.

Apart from seeing himself as a Jeremiah of the 21st century, Bate Besong provides the reader with his own idea of poetry in a poem which may be regarded as his manifesto.

Poetry is - he writes
All vines and multi-tangerines

--------------
Nectar, baked pheasants
Epicurean manners for the masses
Poetry is
Hear my prayer
--------------
Cycles of redemption
Love-potions amber, wines
--------------
Soyinka, not Hitler
Peace now, not Hiroshima
Nyerere, not Marshall Amin
Poetry is not the Gulag
---------------
The poet is
Solemn like Spartan fakirs
---------------
In vision, more erratic - if tuned so
Than, Aro inmate

Some key words and their meaning in the excerpt above must be borne in mind to understand the poet's intention in Disgrace Emanya - Nkpe. As a Spartan, the poet cares little for the ordinary comforts of life. He is afraid neither of pain, nor of hardship. A fakir, as we know, is a Muslim or Hindu beggar who is regarded as a holy man.

As an erratic person, the poet is expected to do unexpected things because as a creator par excellence, he enjoys liberation of the mind or the imagination that makes him the freest man in the world.

It is for this reason that in the introduction to their collection of Modern Poetry from Africa, Ulli Beier and Gerald Moore point to the fact that it is always dangerous to try and establish a literary orthodoxy. Yet, they also remark that the process of poetry is "essentially one of verbal magic: the poet makes by naming. It (the process) undoubtedly lies at the root of all poetry."

Bate Besong has this verbal magic. For the reader, and especially the Cameroonian readership, he makes by naming familiar areas of experience which provide the shock of recognition that caused Beban Sammy Chumbow, in his foreword to the collection, to describe it as a "bombshell".

"Indeed" - he writes, "the poems in this book individually and collectively, are loaded with tons of emotions, crafted in a rich array of stylistic devices and heavily charged with enough semantic venom to have the impact of a plastic bomb".

For Bate Besong, as I mentioned earlier, "Poetry is Peace now, not Hiroshima". He writes as if God had asked him as he asked Jeremiah "What do you see Bate Besong?" And he answers I see,

"autocratic leaders, collaborators, corruption, murders, character assassination, liars, post mortem intellectuals, comatose professors, dead lecturers who organise the ignorance of the Faculty and pervert and muzzle discourse" and worse still, who "boast of [their] Evil".

He writes as if God had asked him as he asked Jeremiah: "And what else do you see? And he answers: I see "bureaucratic obfuscators, necromancers, materialistic pursuits, racketeers of power, silence, submission" and so on and so forth.

More often than not, the description of what he sees is made in the form of a plea for the culprit to "hear his prayer and heed. The poem "Post-mortem intellectual" is a case in point.
'Your itinerary does not show that you work night and day…

We thought you would always soar into the sky like a  Mandelan meteor, exalt yourluminosity unto the Spartans risking their lives on a daily basis to give voice to those on the margin Bloot founts of injustice can be vanquished only by the Lantern of fearlessness and torrential downpour of outspokenness.

But you have allowed yourself to become as useless as a crow flyingacross the Cameroonian sky You have succumbed to blackmail.Still in answer to God's questions, the poet also sees "Makers of a new society," as the title of one of the poems reads. And he names them, Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, Wole Soyinka, Alexandre Biyidi, Bole Butake, Babila Mutia to name just a few. But before the new society is built, it is important to know what is wrong with the old one.

The second section of the collection, Emanya - NKPE, just as the first section, opens with a quote. This time, it is from Vaclav-Havel: "Whosoever fears to look his own past in the face, must necessarily fear what is to come. Lies cannot save us from lies".

At the national and international level, the past and even the present are made up of "a culture of terror profiteering, decreed savagery, crooked business associates, coups d'etat. South West treasuries looted with fake bills, election fraud."To put an end to these ills, the example set by the builders of a new society is of paramount importance.

The hallmark of poetry as a literary genre is density in content and form. This, sometimes lead to obscurity especially when imagery, diction and other poetic devices become too dependent on particular history and culture. Research and some intellectual effort then become necessary to enter the poet's world and imagination.

In some instances, the reader finds himself in such a situation with Disgrace. But when the difficulties are finally overcome, reading the whole collection becomes an intellectual feast.

Part of the Book of Jeremiah is made up of messages from the Lord about various foreign nations.In the same vein, Bate Besong, in his collection of poems, writes about his professional environment which is the University and the University system in Cameroon, his country at large and such other African countries as Burkina Faso, South Africa and Nigeria.

Apart from seeing himself as a Jeremiah of the 21st century, Bate Besong provides the reader with his own idea of poetry in a poem which may be regarded as his manifesto.

Poetry is - he writes
All vines and multi-tangerines

--------------
Nectar, baked pheasants
Epicurean manners for the masses
Poetry is
Hear my prayer
--------------
Cycles of redemption
Love-potions amber, wines
--------------
Soyinka, not Hitler
Peace now, not Hiroshima
Nyerere, not Marshall Amin
Poetry is not the Gulag
---------------
The poet is
Solemn like Spartan fakirs
---------------
In vision, more erratic - if tuned so
Than, Aro inmate

Some key words and their meaning in the excerpt above must be borne in mind to understand the poet's intention in Disgrace Emanya - Nkpe. As a Spartan, the poet cares little for the ordinary comforts of life. He is afraid neither of pain, nor of hardship. A fakir, as we know, is a Muslim or Hindu beggar who is regarded as a holy man.

As an erratic person, the poet is expected to do unexpected things because as a creator par excellence, he enjoys liberation of the mind or the imagination that makes him the freest man in the world.

It is for this reason that in the introduction to their collection of Modern Poetry from Africa, Ulli Beier and Gerald Moore point to the fact that it is always dangerous to try and establish a literary orthodoxy. Yet, they also remark that the process of poetry is "essentially one of verbal magic: the poet makes by naming. It (the process) undoubtedly lies at the root of all poetry."

Bate Besong has this verbal magic. For the reader, and especially the Cameroonian readership, he makes by naming familiar areas of experience which provide the shock of recognition that caused Beban Sammy Chumbow, in his foreword to the collection, to describe it as a "bombshell".

"Indeed" - he writes, "the poems in this book individually and collectively, are loaded with tons of emotions, crafted in a rich array of stylistic devices and heavily charged with enough semantic venom to have the impact of a plastic bomb".

For Bate Besong, as I mentioned earlier, "Poetry is Peace now, not Hiroshima". He writes as if God had asked him as he asked Jeremiah "What do you see Bate Besong?" And he answers I see,

"autocratic leaders, collaborators, corruption, murders, character assassination, liars, post mortem intellectuals, comatose professors, dead lecturers who organise the ignorance of the Faculty and pervert and muzzle discourse" and worse still, who "boast of [their] Evil".

He writes as if God had asked him as he asked Jeremiah: "And what else do you see? And he answers: I see "bureaucratic obfuscators, necromancers, materialistic pursuits, racketeers of power, silence, submission" and so on and so forth.

More often than not, the description of what he sees is made in the form of a plea for the culprit to "hear his prayer and heed. The poem "Post-mortem intellectual" is a case in point.
'Your itinerary does not show that you work night and day…

We thought you would always soar into the sky like a  Mandelan meteor, exalt yourluminosity unto the Spartans risking their lives on a daily basis to give voice to those on the margin Bloot founts of injustice can be vanquished only by the Lantern of fearlessness and torrential downpour of outspokenness.

But you have allowed yourself to become as useless as a crow flyingacross the Cameroonian sky You have succumbed to blackmail.Still in answer to God's questions, the poet also sees "Makers of a new society," as the title of one of the poems reads. And he names them, Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, Wole Soyinka, Alexandre Biyidi, Bole Butake, Babila Mutia to name just a few. But before the new society is built, it is important to know what is wrong with the old one.

The second section of the collection, Emanya - NKPE, just as the first section, opens with a quote. This time, it is from Vaclav-Havel: "Whosoever fears to look his own past in the face, must necessarily fear what is to come. Lies cannot save us from lies".

At the national and international level, the past and even the present are made up of "a culture of terror profiteering, decreed savagery, crooked business associates, coups d'etat. South West treasuries looted with fake bills, election fraud."To put an end to these ills, the example set by the builders of a new society is of paramount importance.

The hallmark of poetry as a literary genre is density in content and form. This, sometimes lead to obscurity especially when imagery, diction and other poetic devices become too dependent on particular history and culture. Research and some intellectual effort then become necessary to enter the poet's world and imagination.

In some instances, the reader finds himself in such a situation with Disgrace. But when the difficulties are finally overcome, reading the whole collection becomes an intellectual feast.

Comments

[Kongnso Cyrille]

ADIEU BATE BESONG "BB" AND COMPANIONS

And yet departs another,
not alone but with some others.
The cold hands of death again,
with that dreadful sting without bargain.

The warrior amidst the warlords
singled and crushed as though were nothing.
What a shame that man as great,
nothing of him but wit beleft.

Wisdon and strength, power and reason,
all in him befound,
yet death his soul spareth n'er, tho his
earthly tast be-endeth nay.

Gone where so much they cherished be,
amongst the scholars their wit to share,
where politics and drama no more from their tongue doth sprout,
but thoughts of peace in the land beyond.

His epitles in us memory of him,
never from us shall depart, as all around centers
of learning thoughts of him shall relay.

Death so cruel took them both,
mentor and heir in literary milieu,
where no heir as great as Dr. Gwanga'a Kwansen
his master ever could replace.

Yet tho, the night by us so long shall remain
as we with them from this earthly world doth path.

Adieu BB and Co, Requiescat in Pace.

Cyrille Kongnso
Nicosia, Cyprus

23th march 2007

[MICHEAL UJUH BUK]

FOR BB TO HAVE BEEN CRUSHED TO DEAD ALONG SIDE DR HILARIOUS AMBE, THEN WE SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL.
BB WAS ONE OF THOSE INDEPENDENT MINDS THAT WE LEAST EXPECTED TO GO THROUGH THIS AND MORE ESPECIALLY AT THIS TIME WHEN UB IS IN A LOOP.
BB, MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN GOD'S BOSSOM.