Cameroon: Our Future is Anglophone

By Patrice Nganang (Translated from French by Dibussi Tande)

Confronted with such a flurry of Cameroonian talent in English, how can we not breathe a sigh of relief? If our country's macabre present has become an unending one, we can at least proclaim today that Cameroon has a future, and it is Anglophone.

Our future is Anglophone. This should be obvious to anyone who is closely observing the evolution of Cameroonian intellectual output in the last few years. The reasons for this are not even linked to the fact that apart from their language of expression, Cameroonian writers in English have, without doubt, pulled the last chestnuts out of the fire that was colonization, with the language of Shakespeare giving them right away a global platform, with all the benefit that this has with regards to the dissemination of knowledge. No, there are other reasons, and here are five of them. 

First, if intellectual activity is an expression of a society's breathing, then the Anglophone question is the heart of our country. The political future of Cameroon will be linked to the resolution of this question. Since the scuttling of the UPC during the smoldering years of the 1990s, it is the Anglophone question which holds the promise of a future liberty for us all. Whether this liberty is expressed in an associative and institutional form through a parliamentary opposition or in an insurrectional or even secessionist form as is the case with the "Southern Cameroonians", it remains the only real political locomotive of our contemporary history. It is obvious to any keen observer of the geopolitics of power in Cameroon that the longevity of the dictatorship in Cameroon has been possible only because the two dictators who have succeeded each other in Yaounde in the last 50 years have, at the minimum, always been sufficiently intelligent not to quarrel for too long with the numerous regimes, including the military, that have ruled Nigeria. Our potentates have thus always snatched from the forces of change the gigantic natural sanctuary that Nigeria would have offered them. The recent arrest of Liman Oumate in Maiduguri, Nigeria, is the ultimate proof of this fact. Yet on the other hand, the Francophone ring of infamy made up of Chad, the Central African Republic, Congo and Gabon can only help to strangle our future because it is ruled by Africa’s longest serving Neros.

But our future is Anglophone not just because Nigeria is the only neighboring country which does not take orders from Paris - a paradigm which in itself will instantly give us a better future. Secondly, our future is Anglophone because it is the intellectual vivacity of a people which creates a better tomorrow. The future is invented, with literature serving as its furnace. Now, Anglophone writers who have taken Nigeria seriously, for example Bate Besong who died too soon, are also those who in their works have been the most intractable, that is, the most impatient with the duration of the status quo. But the flaring up of literature around Bate Besong's still warm grave is immense, and it is expressed in the work of writers with the talents of an orchestra conductor such as Francis Nyamnjoh whose novels, Souls Forgotten and Married but Available, are an appraisal of our time, from the point of view of sex and violence; like Peter Vakunta who combines his talent of a story teller (Grassfield stories from Cameroon) with that of a poet (Majunga Tok : Poems in Pidgin English) and an essayist (Cry My Beloved Africa).

Rebuffed for too long by Yaounde and its Edition Clé, a generation of Anglophone writers has meanwhile emerged which could care less, and which has chosen Bamenda as its literature capital. That is our third reason for hope. Do we have here a repeat of the dissidence of the 1990s which also began in Bamenda? Who knows? Nevertheless, our literature will do well not to repeat the bloody idiocies of politics, and should celebrate those authors published by Langaa: Ntemfac Ofege, writer journalist (Namondo, The Return of Omar, Children of Bethel Street, Hot Water for the Famous seven); Dibussi Tande (No Turning back: Poems of Freedom 1990-1993), Rosemary Ekosso (The House of Falling Women), Joyce Ashutantang, Tikum Mbah Azonga, Sammy Oke Akombi, Emmanuel Fru Doh, and all the others. Here, we are far removed from the serialized typewritten books, inspired by Onitsha market literature, which are still being hawked in the Bamenda market. These include books such as Kemonde Wangmonde’s The Challenge of young girls or Ngwa Neba’s Manka’a whose format éditions Clé tried to imitate in 1999 with Ngoh Agnes Nzuh's Tales from the Grassland and the Forest, one of the rare English texts that this publishing outfit deigned to publish. Here, a partnership (not  co-publishing, please!) with Michigan State University Press (MSUP) allows the works of writers to penetrate the American market, and through it, the world market. We should note that that this is done under the banner of a publisher based in Mankon, Bamenda. The vehicle? The Internet. Please tell me if this is not a literary revolution.

I have already emphasized that our future is Anglophone. A forward looking intelligence is busy developing it own communication tools. This is my fourth reason. Thus, Kangsen Wakai's Palapala Magazine serves as a relay for a generation of writers based in the United States, Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria, when it isn't blogs such as Dibussi Tande's Scribbles from the Den which are doing the same. The Buea EduArt literary festival has Chinua Achebe and Niyi Osundare as its patrons. We should at this juncture mention the work being done from Cape Town, South Africa, by the Post Modernist DJ, Ntone Edjabe, with his Chimurenga, the only African magazine to have been mentioned in the New York Times, and in a laudatory manner. Chimurenga is a space which covers exhibitions (on topics such as sex), posters (football), participation in artistic events such as Documenta in Germany, and most recently, the establishment of a virtual library containing the most influential African journals and magazines. How can we not celebrate this Anglophone dynamism? It all makes sense: Forced out of our country by the tumult of the smoldering years, Ntone Edjabe's extraordinary journey first took him to Nigeria.

The fifth and final reason for our hope is that this intellectual effervescence has caught up with the general language of critical thought especially since it is now possible to talk of a Cameroonian school of criticism in the field of African esthetic philosophy. And this has been possible thanks to the publication of numerous articles in English by Achille Mbembe, particularly his On the Post Colony, a book, which if ever there was ever one, has given renewed vigor to postcolonial studies spurred at home by the demands of Bernard Fonlon, and above all, a book which uses Cameroon as a metonymy. Mbembe’s influence is steadily growing on American college campuses where he is a regular visitor. It is worth noting that he too resides in the English space of South Africa. Confronted with such a flurry of Cameroonian talent in English, how can we not breathe a sigh of relief? If our Country's macabre present has become an unending one, we can at least proclaim today that Cameroon has a future, and it is Anglophone.

Click here for the French version of this article.

About Patrice Nganang

Born in Yaoundé (Cameroon) in 1970, Patrice Nganang is currently Assistant Professor of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook (USA). Patrice studied Comparative Literature at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (Frankfurt / Main, Germany), from which he also holds a PhD.

Most of his fiction is written in French and published by French publishers. He first published a collection of poems, Elobi, in 1995, and is the author of several novels: La promesse des fleurs, Temps de chien, La joie de vivre, L'invention du beau regard, among others.

His most acclaimed novel, Temps de Chien, was awarded the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar (for Francophone writers living in the USA) in 2001 and the Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Afrique Noire (leading literary award for African Francophone writers) in 2002. This novel has been translated into German in 2003 under the title Hundezeiten and released in English under the title Dog Days in 2006 (Dog days, University of Virginia Press).

Source: University of Kwazulu Natal website

Comments

[Ma Mary]

Dr Nganang, only a revolutionary attitude like yours, generally adopted and vigorously pursued could revive the dying union between Republic of Cameroon and the Southern Cameroons, and for goodness sake stop putting "Southern Cameroons" in quotes. Respect! Do you want to reverse history or pretend it does not exist like the others? Accepting the truth is the first step to creating a new dispensation, and in that wise, you are the most advanced Camerounese.

[Ma Mary]

BTW, another Nero died, Bongo. The others cannot be too far behind.

[dango tumma]

southern cameroonian must be the right identity, i reerung to the people rom thr geography of west of the mungo river
to bakassi and nigeria.
why soo,? because every one who speaks and write english is qualify as an anglophone

[Nikky]

Nganang asks: "Do we have here a repeat of the dissidence of the 1990s which also began in Bamenda?" It seems Nganang has clearly understood the power of literature in any political/nationalist struggle - something which Southern Cameroons nationalists seemed to have missed and have therefore failed to channel all of this literary activity towards their goals and use it as a tool for reinforcing that "Southern Cameroons Identity"...

[The Southwesterner]

You just hit the right nail buddy.
As a federalist with a soft spot for a divorce of The Cameroons ,i hope there are many of you guys out there East of the Mungo who are fast realising time to re-invent that sick union of ours is fast running out.

Camerounaise frogs , oooouch , i mean the majority are IGNORANT. Oh ya!.

For progressive Anglophones who still hope the union could be repaired , i just want to urge them , the time to LEAD is now. More than ever before Union Nationalist East of the mungo are still hoping we join forces again to realise The Cameroons dream.

[aton]

there is no hope for anglophone cameroonians in this god-forsaken union.that is why we have to educate as many as possible of our children. only in education will a turning point take place.we anglophones can rebuild our future.and only we can take that decision.only a split will save anglophone posterity.