Fears, Doubts and Joys of Not Belonging

Chapter 2. In Moments like These: Emmanuel Fru Doh and the Mirrors of Romanticism

31 Chapter 2 In Moments like These: Emmanuel Fru Doh and the Mirrors of Romanticism By Antonio Jimenez Munoz Despite both the French and English languages being official in the country, the Anglophones who form the minority in Cameroon have long denounced marginalization by the Francophone majority. They have claimed that their language, disfavored against French as the language of the administration, limits their participation in the decision-making of the country and also in the provinces where they live, which they believe are deliberately backward in socio-economic development compared to the rest of the country.1 They see their position close to subjugation, since many feel that “nation-building has been driven by the firm determination of the Francophone political elite to dominate the Anglophone minority in the postcolonial state and to erase the cultural and institutional foundations of Anglophone identity” (Eyoh 249). Contrasted with Francophone output, English-writing poets are themselves in an uneven situation. Their writings are often equated to oppression. Despite recent efforts, the status of Anglophone poetry within Cameroonian culture can still be considered marginal at best. While there is intrinsic value in poetry being written by Anglophone Cameroonian poets, its dissemination to their primary readership is relatively small. Abroad, 1 As Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi notes, to be “Anglophone or Francophone in this postcolony is to be much more than a speaker of English or French”; and these labels are “codes fraught with meanings that can simultaneously conjure cultural, political, linguistic complexities/tensions complicated by concepts of nation and/or ethnicity” (24). 32 within an already decentered position for African literature, their poetry seems to be even more painfully disregarded. Though English poetry commands a bigger readership and market globally, or precisely because it is the case, their poetry is nevertheless a contribution to the larger body of global poetry. As a consequence, Cameroonian poets writing in English see their work doubly marginalized: politically from within and economically from without. As Oscar C. Labang complains in the introduction to a recent anthology of Cameroonian Anglophone poetry, these poets are the “margin in a marginal society,” often “regarded as a pariah” and also “the subject of derision and misgiving” (xi). Their poems act accordingly to this derision; these are often irate speech acts against the political frivolity, economic ineptitude and downright abuse of power which has characterized the governance of the country. This is deeply distinct from the themes and function of poetry in most parts of the Western world. While these Cameroonian poets mostly have a strong trend of an eminently social poetry, in most of Europe and America this function has long been considered a mid-twentieth century phenomenon, restricted to those countries where dictatorships were in power. As Western countries transitioned towards democracy, the need for sociallygeared poems seemed to be no longer justified. In contrast, contemporary Cameroon Anglophone poetry often results in harsh contestations to the perceived oppression, marginalization and discrimination which deliberately put these poets and their poems, despite their cultural triumphs and wealth of expression, in the difficult place of a minority struggling not to be silenced. Despite their causes being different, when compared to the sorry state of poetry in the Western world, with falling sales and lack of 33 media attention,2 the status of Cameroon poetry in English is remarkably similar to that of poetry elsewhere. While poets struggle to make some impact, their voices are part of a system which favors their silence. Whether politically or economically determined, poets write in an environment which is unfavorable. Poetry is either innocuous to question power and status quo and thus inherently irrelevant to the community they serve, or else it would struggle not to be silenced. The end result is remarkably similar: poetry which is socially relevant by design, as well as one which is eminently personal or experiential, seems to end up not reaching its target audiences. As disseminating, editing and publishing poetry become scantier and the readership narrower and narrower, the blame can be easily put on poetry itself. It is no longer relevant for moments like these.3 Times for poetry are hard, but, as I aim to show here, the ways in which different poets and poems face that challenge can differ wildly while illuminating upon each other. While Western poets have turned inwards towards selfexpression and have largely relinquished the social roles of poetry, Anglophone poets in Cameroon, such as...