"Exile": A Poem By Mbella Sonne Dipoko

Originally published in Ronald Segal, ed., Modern Poetry from Africa. Penguin Books, 1968, p. 164

In silence
The overloaded canoe leaves our shores

But who are these soldiers in camouflage,
These clouds going to rain in foreign lands?

The night is losing its treasures
The future seems a myth
Warped on a loom worked by lazy hands.

But perhaps all is not without some good for us
As from the door of a shack a thousand miles away

The scaly hand of a child takes in greeting
The long and skinny fingers of the rain.

Comments

[Okori]

Virtually 40 decades before the massive exodus of African migrants across the Sahara and the Mediterranean for Europe, Dipoko had already seen the future of "overloaded canoes" and "clouds going to rain on foreign lands"..

"The night is losing its treasures
The future seems a myth"

How apt!!!

Does anyone know where or how we can get Mbella's out of print books today?

[unitedstatesofafrica]

Mbella Sone Dipoko's art to me lacks credebility because he is a hypocrite. This is a man who built a life in france by criticizing the Biya regime. When the going became tough, he ran to Cameroon and begged Biya for a job. The immortal beast made him a mayor and then paid him back for all the criticism by sacking his ass just months into his mayoral reign. How humiliating. Now he parades the streets of tiko in rags and massive dreadlocks singing the disillusionment song.

[Esimo]

I personally do not see any hypocrisy in Mbella Dipoko's actions. He lived in France from 160 to the mid eighties, so he couldn't possibly have built his life in France by criticizing the Biya regime. Mbella was a pan Africanist who condemned Africa's autocracies without specifically condemning either Ahidjo or Biya, and he has clearly explained this stance in numeorus articles.

With the return of multiparty politics, Mbella Dipoko took his stance which he clearly explained in a series of articles in Cameroon Life Magazine. We might disagree with his choices but the progression was clear and logical.

We all change our philosophies as we grow older - for better or for worse; a unitarist today, an "Anglophone sessionist tomorrow, A secessionist today, a unitarist tomorrow, in the opposition today, tomorrow...

That's all right as long as we can explain our choices and are making these choices based on our conscience. The young Mbella Sonne Dipoko of 1968 cannot possibly be the same Mbella Dipoko in 2008!!!!

[Nabi]

Hi, Thanks for all the work. I think poetry happens to be one of the best genres of literatue for me.Whether or not Dipoko spend a thousand Years in France all is he has an insight of Cameroon.He depicts colonialism and slavery in his poetry.Therefore he ought to be given a red feather.

[UnitedStatesofAfrica]

the life of Sone Dipoko is a warning to so-called intellecutuals. These are people who spend day and night writng monologues and criticizing politics in Cameroon and in Africa. But when they have a chance to jump into the corrupt government and reap profits, they will jump in. This guy was notorious for blasting politics in Cameroon and Africa as a whole. He even condemned apartheid during the ANC uprising days. Ironically, he came to Cameroon and was bribed into the corrupt government he always criticizes with a mayoral position. Biya is a smart man. He bribes his critics with positions and then humiliates them by dismissing them abruptly. Dipoko learned the hard way and I hope all political critics would learn from what happened to him.

[Kila]

What exactly is the "warning" in Dipoko's life. He came he joined the CPDM, became a mayor of his hometown Tiko, and was replaced. Was he supposed to be a mayor for life?????

Whatever the case, given how prolific you are in the criticism of the Biya regime on different internet fora, I imagine that you also place yourself within that category of "so-called intellectuals"... who spend day and night writng monologues and criticizing politics in Cameroon and in Africa" ...

[UnitedStatesofAfrica]

Correction kila, he wasn't "replcaed" as you claim, he was SACKED. Second correction, I am not an intellectual, I never was and I will never claim to be one. I do admit that intellectuals exist. They are people with unfliching courage and wisdom. They stand by their word and they are not persuaded by bribes from the government. Intellectuals become "so-called" bu they don't practice what they preach, when they join parties they know are dictatorial, when they accept posts in parties they know are corrupt to the core.