Conscientisation and Political Liberation in Anglophone Cameroonian Poetry: The Poetic Vision of Emmanuel Fru Doh, Bate Besong and Mathew Takwi
The main thrust of the argument of this paper is that Emmanuel Doh, Bate Besong and Mathew Takwi have used their poetry as a veritable weapon of conscientisation and political liberation in Cameroon. Thus, the three poets blend literature and reality to advance the cause of Anglophone National Liberation in Cameroon. From a clearly Marxist literary perspective, the ideo-aesthetic position of Emmanuel Doh in Wading the Tide (1998), Bate Besong in Just Above Cameroon (1998) and Mathew Takwi in Messing Manners (2014) is very clear, though subtle: these poets view the emancipation and welfare of Anglophones in Cameroon as an index of socio-political growth. In the light of the above assertions, the paper argues that Doh, Besong and Takwi are deeply sensitive and responsive to the realities and moods of moments of collective experience, especially crisis moments. Their poetry is , in fact, a summation of their political and ideological commitments. These poets have endeared themselves to the Anglophone, especially those who are dissatisfied with the present day political dispensation in Cameroon in their attempts to write and be involved with what has become known as “literature of conscientisation and commitment”.
Power Dialectics and the Crisis of Identity in Anglophone Cameroonian Poetry: The Poetic Vision of Gahlia Gwangwa'a and Bate Besong
The concept of power dialectics in African literature accounts for the tension, contradiction and confusion that have resulted in identity crisis, alienation and social exclusiveness. Guided by the socialist realism of the Lukacsian-Marxist paradigm, this paper contends that the power dialectics in the Cameroonian society is responsible for the crisis of identity, alienation and social exclusion. In trying to recreate poetry that tyrannizes the spirit, Gwangwai¯a and Besong construe that only the destruction of totalitarianism and neocolonialism can usher in justice, equity, equality, democracy and a sense of belonging in a society bedeviled by corruption, tribalism, dictatorship and moral decadence.
Shoeless Joe: Fantasy and the Humor of Fellow-Feeling
In his essay on Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Thomas Carlyle writes of a humor that manifests itself in smile rather than laughter. "Richter is a man of mirth," says Carlyle, whose humor is "capricious . . . quaint . . . [and] heartfelt" (15). The three adjectives represent for Carlyle the essence of what he terms "true humor" because they suggest Richter's enormous respect for humanity. "True humor," he goes on to say, "springs not more from the head than from the heart; it is not contempt, its essence is love; it issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper" (17). These smiles are not Hobbesian smirks of superiority1 but genuine signs of compassion for, sympathy toward, and empathy with the object of the humor. Carlyle further provides a direct link between humor and both pathos and nobility; the link is the smile of the caring man. For Carlyle, this smile is one of "fellow-feeling":