Bate Besong

Fallen Man of Letters (A Poem for Bate Besong)

By Sarah Anyang

BB Obasinjom[1] Warrior! Ekinni Achwimgbe[2]!

Bombomkiri, Kiribombom!

The famished road gulp you and your cohorts

On that fateful women’s Day 07

And you became Beast of No Nation.

Aieee Obasinjom warrior! Yet you Say “I conquer fear to die”?

A Candle for Bate Besong - Five Years Ago Today

Today we remember Jacobs Bate Besong, the prolific writer, poet, playwright and literary scholar, who died exactly five years ago on March 8, 2007. Five years after his passing, the vacuum that his death created on the Cameroonian literary landscape is yet to be filled. RIP BB!

Homage to a Literary Colossus (Remembering Bate Besong Five Years After)

By Douglas Achingale

On this fifth anniversary of Bate Besong’s demise, it is worthwhile dedicating some lines to him in the following way:

On Thursday, 8 March 2007, I was steeped in some laborious but edifying work in the news room of The Herald newspaper, in my capacity then as desk editor and columnist of the now defunct tabloid, when my phone suddenly rang. It was my good old journalist chum, Sam Bokuba, then working for CRTV Buea, who was calling. I thought he wanted to recount to me one of those thrilling tales he and I are wont to share.

“Guess what!” he screeched.

“Which varsity damsel has stumbled in your snare again?” I questioned in utter excitement.