Reviewed by Dibussi Tande
Enoh Meyomesse. (November 2012). Poème Carcérale… Poésie du pénitencier de Kondengui. Yaounde : Les editions du Kamerun. 56 pages. [e-book version]
"Prison is a place, but it is also an idea, an idea that has engaged writers and thinkers ... because it offers a way of expressing the helplessness we all feel at some point in our lives... The idea of prison gives us a setting in which to imagine our relationship to the world when we are feeling frustrated, limited, hedged in, stymied. We can then go on to identify the forces that have landed us in this situation... and those that can release us." The Kingis Quair and Other Prison Poems
Nearly one year after he was imprisoned in the Kondengui prison in Yaounde on charges of “aggravated theft”, Cameroonian writer and political activist Enoh Meyomesse has just published a poetry collection detailing his arrest and life behind bars. In this moving collection, Meyomesse bares it all, vividly describing his moments of hope and despair, his anger and anguish at the fate that has befallen him.
Continue reading "Rising from the Depths of Despair - A Review of Enoh Meyomesse’s Prison Poetry" »










By rights I should be talking to Chinua Achebe in Ogidi, his home town in Nigeria. He should be telling me about his efforts as chairman of the village council to build schools, improve the water and bring health to the people. We should be talking about whether and when the rains will come, and how the yam harvest is doing this year.


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