Perspectives on Written Cameroon Literature in English

23. John Ngong Kum, Battle for Survival, Yaoundé: Editions CLE 2006

317 23 John Ngong Kum, Battle for Survival, Yaoundé: Editions CLE 2006 About a fortnight ago, in this column, we mentioned in passing Battle for Survival, with the intention of coming back to it. With an insightful foreword by Bole Butake, John Ngong Kum Ngong’s play is set in an imaginary African country called Inayeh. It deals with the subject of satanic, blood-sucking practices as a means of achieving political and material prosperity. The play foregrounds the Scarlet Star Booster Club, a demonic cult which has as its exclusive members, the military, political and bureaucratic elite. Once you access this club, you can consider all worldly sufferings over: promotion, wealth, power and material possessions come easily. Once in it, you may well say, ‘suffer done finish’ as the world knows it. It therefore takes a great deal of courage and moral rectitude on the part of an individual not to belong to such an attractive society, especially when he is an intellectual elite with two doctorate degrees bossed over by a mere chief clerk of thirty years’ standing, and bossed around by an intellectual featherweight. It takes great guts and moral uprightness for a man to resist these material temptations, especially when he has a nagging wife with a materialistic, ‘grong-cargo’ mentality. Is there such a man in a difficult, materialistic society where everybody is struggling to survive by all means? Yes, there is, and he has got the gumption. His name is Wujwab, the central character around whom the drama is constructed, the conscience and the last upright man in Inayeh. 318 He refuses to become a member of the demonic fraternity and be transformed into a political superstar on the back of innocent blood. He asks his wife: ‘You want me to deny myself And sacrifice innocent souls For a place among monsters? No’. (44) The play makes it clear that the ruling class is ill at ease with such a man of unsullied integrity; his moral purity remains a threat to their diabolic practices in honour of mammon. He must be co-opted into their club so that their almighty ‘messiah’ may rule supreme with guaranteed longevity. In vain they attempt to break his will; they imprison, torture and starve him. The carrot and the stick approach is ineffectual to win Wujwab over. Having failed to convert the man, General Nyamitauyi orders Captain Wokikoh to ensure the physical elimination of Wujwab: ‘Clear this dirt from my office… I don’t want to see the brat again Or hear his name mentioned anywhere.’ (74) However, Wujwab gets off the hook thanks to the venality of Wokikoh the crook. He saves his neck from the captain and escapes to a foreign country, only after giving away all his lifesavings and uncompleted house. Hopefully, from the foreign nation, Wujwab and his now persuaded wife will launch a moral war ‘To continue the combat from outside Until the sharks in this bleeding nation Are set in the stocks’ (87). 319 So, despite its pessimistic atmosphere, the play ends on an upbeat note. This optimism hinges on the action of one upright man on whom will depend the salvation of Inayeh. Therefore, Inayeh is still waiting for its moral saviour. But who will that be?That is the question the play’s construction elicits from the reader, and one on which we should all reflect in materialistic, satanic times like ours. Written in verse which lends concreteness and seriousness to its subject matter, Battle for Survival is situated within conventional, realistic drama. It is structured in six scenes and essentially a drama of conscience wherein Wujwab is pestered by his former friend, Wazwoh who has since joined the ranks of the members of the Scarlet Star Booster Club. But at other times Wazwoh is simply Wujwab’s alter ego, his own conscience tormenting him. Wujwab’s struggles with Wazwoh, on the one hand, and Njwahkwam his wife, on the other, occasionally give rise to some interesting dramatic ironies. The venal Captain Wokikoh with his humorous brand of broken English provides a kind of comic relief in this grave drama. However, I think the hero’s buying of his life from the venal soldier is a structural weakness. This betrays the hero’s life-at-all-cost stance. The author could have found a more dignifying way out for Wujwab. Some major leitmotifs of Walls of Agony resurface...