Perspectives on Written Cameroon Literature in English

4. The African Writer and the Preservation of Cultural Values

67 4 The African Writer and the Preservation of Cultural Values What are cultural values and why should they be preserved? By the way, what type of African writer are we talking about and how should he go about preserving cultural values? In brief, dear readers, these are some of the questions I will attempt to discuss in this article. And without any delay, I would like to first define the word “Culture.” You can take my word for it that I do not wish to take you through many and, at times, reductive definitions of the word Culture. At the risk of oversimplification, I will just cut asunder the Gordian knot by saying that culture relates to that quality that distinguishes a whole way of life of a particular group of people from that of another group of people; that is, culture, in relation to a unique group of people, embodies the distinctive way they think, feel, behave, dress and view the world. Out of these people’s way of life certain principles, certain qualities, certain things emerge which they cherish, they hold dear, they value. Now, these things, these qualities, these principles that they value, cherish, and hold dear are indubitably what we call cultural values, qualities that are intrinsically valuable and desirable. These values may be aesthetic, humane, moral or aught else. We all love a well-told story or a beautiful tale; we all appreciate an enlightening proverb, an intriguing riddle, an inspiring legend; everybody is excited at soul-elevating drumbeats, well-blended musical sounds or full-throated harmonious voices. These are the things we cherish because they give us mental and emotional pleasure, intellectual and emotional stimulation. 68 Some include respect for the elders, the young and the infirm; others embody decency towards strangers, family members, and neighbours; some include decorum towards traditional as well as religious authorities; others embody concern and thoughtfulness for one another; yes, they comprise the spirit of solidarity, the spirit of sharing, indeed the communal spirit. These are the things we cherish for the dignity and respectability they give man in his day to day relationship with his fellowmen. These values must be preserved because of the basic sanity of human behaviour that they make possible; they must be safeguarded because without them boundless brutality, ruthlessness, darkness or, indeed, chaos would be unleashed onto the world; they must be perpetuated so that we can bequeath to our children and their children’s children a spiritual habitation in a world that is increasingly becoming impersonal. Ours is a world that is progressively producing soulless individuals, too much occupied with getting and spending, a world wherein humane values are counting for little and for less. In short, these values must be preserved to ensure our basic African Cultural continuity. As I see it, writers with an interest in preserving cultural values fall into two broad categories. The one deals with conceptual and informative knowledge; the other is concerned with experiential and creative knowledge. Their methods are radically different in that the former handles ideas and concepts in an obvious, straight-forward manner; the latter handles ideas and concepts in a subtle, artistic fashion. The first category may include anthropologists, sociologists, and formal essayists; the second generally includes novelists, playwrights and poets. But I do not intend to examine both groups of writers in detail. I will limit myself to the creative writers. To the extent that our creative writers are writing in foreign languages instead of in our home languages, the real mediums of a genuine transmission of our cultural values, it can be said 69 that these writers cannot be completely successful in the task of preserving our cultural values. For a language that a people speaks is the best vector of its culture. And only that language can best reveal the cultural nuances, realities and subtleties of its speakers. Now any attempt to expose these realities and subtleties in a language other than that native to the cultural context, that which is the authentic embodiment of the thought and feeling of its users, would at best produce only partial results: results that would be mere approximations, results that would be only the closest things to the real things, still falling short of the authentic things themselves. That is, some of the original sense and beauty will be lost in the attempt to translate concepts, idioms, proverbs, riddles, and...