Perspectives on Written Cameroon Literature in English

24. Introducing L. T. Asong: “The Major Talent Of Cameroon Fiction In English”

321 24 Introducing L. T. Asong: “The Major Talent Of Cameroon Fiction In English” In their seminal article, “Cameroon Literature in English”, in the now defunct ABBIA (1982), Nalova Lyonga and Bole Butake stated unequivocally that the Cameroonian novel of English expression, with only three published titles then, was the least developed genre in Cameroon. However, barely above twenty years after that pronouncement, more than twenty titles have since appeared to the credit of the Cameroon novel in English. And out of this lot seven have been written by Linus T. Asong, the major talent of Anglophone Cameroon fiction, and the most prolific Cameroonian novelist of English expression. His seven published novels within the last decade of the twentieth century include A Legend of the Dead (1991), The Crown of Thorns (1993), No Way to Die (1993), The Akroma File (1996), Stranger in His Homeland (1997), Salvation Colony (1997), and Chopchair (1998). With such a wide range of titles covering a broad spectrum of imaginative experience, it is difficult to find a single theme that could neatly capture the spirit of all of Asong’s creative works. However, one thing that is clear with Asong’s fiction is that all his novels are constructed around anti-heroes, a deliberate rather than an arbitrary artistic decision, one involving the author in a careful selection, construction or distortion of his central male characters, meticulously building them up and then cutting some of them down to size, debunking, demystifying them in accordance with his aesthetic goal and authorial vision. In the hands of Asong, then, anti-heroism becomes a device of technique for effective artistic creation. 322 A possible thematic approach to Asong’s novels would be to treat them in groups; and the most prominent category is the now- entitled How a People Die, the single volume comprising the three familiar texts of Stranger in His Homeland, The Crown of Thorns and A legend of the Dead. The trilogy tells the harrowing tale of rural folk fatefully brought into confrontation with an arrogant, heavy-handed and dictatorial governmental system. The outcome of the encounter is a communal catastrophe for the people. There is the desecration of their god, the destruction of their chieftaincy institution, and the debasement of their customs and traditions. But the causes of the people’s physical, moral and spiritual death are varied and complex, traceable in flaws inherent in human characters, in the governmental system, and in the kingmakers ’ submission to the forceful, energetic external pressure from the District Officer to bypass the rightful heir to the throne of small Monje against the wise will of the late Paramount Chief. Written in clear, crisp and classical prose How a People Die, as a single volume in three parts, is a great, readable novel with a wide canvas of interesting characters and numerous instances of arousing, dramatic situations. Above all, it contains enough substance to occupy critics and scholars for a long time. No Way To Die (1993) is the story of Dennis Nunquam, the central character and anti-hero of the text. Victim of fate and unique circumstances, Dennis is misunderstood and later rejected by friends and relatives. He lives below the poverty line and ekes out his livelihood as a small office messenger in a tiny co-operative. Because he has been crushed by fate, he withdraws into himself and becomes a baffling psychological case. Yet Dennis is not mad but simply a victim of a peculiar set of circumstances that cannot be fully apprehended by his acquaintances. The novel’s narrative technique is that of interior monologue. With complete authorial detachment, the 323 technique consists of the individual characters telling the story from their own perspectives, as if they were speaking their thoughts aloud. The result is immediacy, casualness and freshness, producing prose different from a leisurely and discursive narrative guided by the omniscient narrator. Asong’s other novels like The Akroma File and Salvation Colony are works pre-occupied with societal crooks, the former with a swindler and the latter with a counterfeiter, both of whom are foreigners operating in Cameroon and taking advantage of some of the security loopholes in the Cameroonian security system. The Akroma File is a rare fictional exploration of criminology with frightening implications. Faced with debts at home and threatened by poverty, a brilliant and well-educated Ghanaian, Akroma, using unorthodox means successfully gets into Cameroon where he...