GEF's Outlook

The Woes of a People Enslaved by Alcohol: A review of Francis Nyamnjoh’s: the Travail of Dieudonné

By George Esunge Fominyen

When a social science researcher takes to fictional literature, it is hard to draw the line between reality and imagination. It is the case with Cameroon’s Francis Nyamnjoh; a sound academic  who knows how to tell a story simply and vividly. Apart from deliberate exaggerations by the author, any Cameroonian who has lived in the country for the past quarter of a century reading The Travail of Dieudonné, could easily find their space or that of a person they know in the colourful characters in the novel’s setting of Mimboland.

What’s in a name? Mimbo in Cameroonian pidgin means a drink (from palm wine to champagne). So doped of this potent nectar, are the characters of The Travail of Dieudonné that, they readily accept their unfortunate fate. Theirs is a world of misery in which insultingly rich and corrupt officials reap of an undemocratic government in which poor governance thrives, while the masses abandon themselves to sexual perversity and self-pity with the help of alcohol. In many ways, it is Cameroon seen through a glass of beer and Cameroonians locked inside a bottle of lager.

Poetry: Lines of Broken Contact

By George Esunge Fominyen
 
I thought I could move you
Until I discovered something new
You do not give a damn
Between You and I now is a dam
Whose construction order I still can't construe.

My Reading of Fritz Ilongo's: Lost Heritage

By George Esunge Fominyen

Recently, an Eden newspaper report that "about 300 inhabitants of Esele in the Limbe III subdivision have been asked to quit their village and cede land for the construction of a military barrack" stirred virulent reactions among members of the Fako (South West, Cameroon) diaspora. They mostly worried about how vulnerable their kinsmen had become in terms of losing their ancestral lands. As I followed the heated debates on the issue, I reflected on my interpretation of "The Lost Heritage", a story by Cameroonian writer, Fritz Ilongo.   

This is a short story. True. With a very catchy theme - if (like Fritz Ilongo) you hail from the land that spans the slopes of great Fako Mountain to the "Mwaanja" (ocean). It is a depiction of an intense reality that has political and social ramifications which may supersede comprehension.Bakweris have a problem about their ancestral land. Sold privately or at a state level (i.e CDC)...

 

Poetry: All because Gwangwa’a is dead ?

By George Esunge Fominyen

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So English-speaking cultural programmes are dead?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So no more English-speaking drama on TV?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead?

So no more English language poetry on TV?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So Focus on Art will remain dead?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So City Masks is dead?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead?

So Creative English-language television on CRTV is dead? 

Because Gwangwa’a is dead?

So Anglophone television is dead!

All because Gwangwa’a is dead?

No, is it because this anglo-franco union is dead?