Palapala Magazine #9 is now available online. This first issue for 2010 opens with three tribute poems by Kenyan poet JKS Makokha dedicated to Haiti and to Mbella Sonne Dipoko and Dennis Brutus, two literary giants who passed away in 2009.
The issue also includes Rosemary Ekosso’s review of John Buchan’s Prester John and William Boyd's A Good Man in Africa, which serve as a backdrop for an in-depth discussion on European demeaning, paternalistic and racist discourse towards Africa; a discourse that is not just limited to colonial literature but also extends to other areas as well:
“These are old beefs I raise. Is this outdated criticism on my part? Should I “deal with it”? On the surface, yes, as we now have a part-black president in America and except in some Eastern European countries, lynching of black people is now rare. But the answer for me is no.
Buchan’s image of blacks persists either overtly, or subtly, so that even those who support us only either pity us or give in to sorrow and exasperation at our “childlike antics”...
That is why NGOs love those black poster mamas and their rousing stories of survival, women who convey the impression that African women are hardworking self-sacrificing goddesses and African men are lazy predators. This fills me with anger because when these people think they are empowering me as a woman and glorifying my mother, they are insulting my father. But who cares what I think?”
In “Becoming a Cameroonian writer”, novelist Patrice Nganang argues that contrary to what naysayers claim, Cameroonian literature is in full bloom. He nonetheless demonstrates throughout this piece that a lot still needs to be done before that literature can take its rightful place on the African and world podium, e.g., using literary agents as intermediaries with publishers, promoting creativity in our universities through creative writing programs, harnessing the power of the Internet and social media, etc. :
"All manner of things have already been said about the Internet, yet a lot still has to be said with respect to its role in recasting citizen journalism and hence of militant writing. Through blogs especially, writers have complete power to write, edit and publish their words, and with Twitter, they have been restored the fragment, the fleeting thought. Although more and more Cameroonians have cell phones which allow them to post videos on Youtube, or own a Facebook or Myspace page, very few of them are yet to use them for literary expression...The future of writing in these parts is bright but we still need to harness it."
In an article on what it means to be an Anglophone writer in Cameroon Wirndzerem Barfee concedes that being a writer in a bilingual/multicultural setting has its advantages, in spite of the obvious challenges that the Anglophone minority faces in that predominantly French speaking country:
"Personally, the plurality of my linguistic landscape has opened up my creative window to a spectrum that fans out to a wider consciousness. As an individual writer, my first-hand access to both English and French literatures and a closer contact with cultures that use these languages predominantly, have all introduced me to a wide range of influences that inform the eclectic cosmopolitanism of my tropes and topics."
Palapala IX also includes short stories, among them, two from aspiring Cameroonian writers, Akenji Ndumu and Valery Vivas. There is also the usual dose of excellent poetry from Kangsen Wakai, Belinda Otas and Wirndzerem G. Barfee.
This issue of Palapala rounds up with the announcement of a Festschrift for Professor Kashim Ibrahim Tala scheduled to take place at the University of Yaounde in June 2010.
Click here to go to the Palapala Magazine website.
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