The Enchantments of Kangsen Feka Wakai’s Poetic Pantheon

By Bate Besong (Published in The Herald, No. 1784, Wednesday, 26-27 April, 2006)

“The poet speaks not for himself only but for his fellowmen. His cry is their cry, which only he can utter. That is what gives it its depth. But if he is to speak for them, he must suffer with them, rejoice with them, work with them, fight with them.” George Thomson (Marxism and Poetry. New York: International Publishers, 1946, p.65)

It was the Hungarian theoretician, Georg Lukacs, who, in the previous century, revived the full thrust of the Aristotelian concept of mimesis according to which the literary artifact is regarded as pushing beyond the world of surface appearances to capture, crystallize and reflect “the essence of things.”