Batuo's world

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

‎2011 is gone. Though regrets of things done and undone may hit like waves bringing remnants of memorable debris...it’s a new year now! I am looking forward, placing each step gingerly but with confidence because I am surrounded by all of you my virtual visitors. Thank you for the year gone by, thank you for the months to come. My gratitude froths like early morning palm wine in the land of my birth.

May 2012 be good to you!

Dr. J

Delirium

                         By Joyce Ashuntantang

Today I will be at the airport to bid you goodbye

You will be dressed in your ancestral confidence

A worthy emissary of our people to their people

You will squeeze my hand discreetly because you

Speak the language of bodies too

Before the hands untangle you would utter

Words profound to fill my

Woven basket of desired memories

 

In my car I will unpack your words

and hang them on lines of  shared moments

Waiting for the sunshine of recall

When I get home I will court sleep

To dream of the eagle on flight,

The one whose flapping wings

Float our ideals beyond our earth

And douse our fires with new words wet with

the defiance of  oppressed humanity

Freeing the tight chains of tyranny’s reign

       

But today is still young and the sun

is smiling with the intensity of youth

Burning the weight of waiting on my skin

Tonight will never come and tomorrow neither

The airport is a space between my head and feet

Delirious with your impending “goodbye”.

 

 

 

I Have Been Inside Letter "V"

By Joyce Ashuntantang 

Yes, Batuo’s World has been quiet for some time.  I can now tell you why. I have been inside letter V. Oh yes, even those of us whom friends and family have labeled "tough" have a time when the leaves of life just wilt in front of our own eyes and no matter how hard we try, we just have to give the cycle of life the space and time to run its course. I have dubbed times like this being inside letter “V”.    In fact on May 21st 2011 I shared this insight with my facebook friends:

 “When you go through life's alphabet and fall inside letter V, don't struggle to scale its steep walls. Just remember it must be time for a well deserved rest and when you wake up with renewed energy you will jump out like a champ and fly over W, X and Y to reach the finish line Z with a refreshed smile on your face”.  

Little did I know that I will have to use my own recipe a few months down the line.  Well, on the 19^th of August 2011, just barely two months after I posted this status, I fell headlong inside Letter “V”. The death of my all powerful and illustrious aunt, Mrs. Comfort Eneke Ashu  plunged me into the very depths of despair.  She had been diagnosed with cancer and had been receiving treatment for about two months, yet I could not fathom her name and death in one sentence. She was a go-getter, dynamic, and
took no nonsense! She was what the patriarchal world called a “Nnem Ngoreh”, a woman who had pushed beyond the boundaries of womanhood to reach heights traditionally preserved for males. I believed my aunt could shout death down if it came to it, but helas she was only human and so death conquered her.  

Mrs. Comfort Ashu receiving EduART Lifetime Achievement Award

    And thus I found myself crumbled like a piece of paper inside letter V. I had to test my own recipe; I settled inside, "V" and tried to “relax” for a few days hoping that I will feel refreshed, jump out and continue anew. But life handed me one of its double jokers.  September 1^st came and swept me in the turbid floods of nightmarish memories. This was the 25^th anniversary of my parent’s tragic deaths by car accident.   For the last 25 years I have welcomed each anniversary with the ancestral assurances of an African, the certified faith of a Christian, and the practical tears of a mere mortal.  This year, however was determined to be different. The events of those 14 days in 1986 came in 3D images and refused to go away. In that tight space inside letter V, I relived the nightmare in the huge flat screen TV of my mind:

September 1^st: Accident occurs, My mother dies on the spot, My Dad is in a coma

September 9^th: My Mom is buried

September: 11^th My Dad dies

September 14: My Dad is buried. 

Reliving this gruesome timeline with its crushing weight pushed me further into letter “V”. To make matters worse my father’s sister, Mama Lydia Ashuntantang, another major role model in my life died on the 10^th of September the eve of my father’s death anniversary. I was now kaput!

Mama Lydia Ashuntantang

Well, my two aunts were buried on September 24 and October 8 respectively. I calmly stayed inside letter V and had to pull back on some of my activities including my blog and facebook.  It was a “me” time for the grieving process to run its course and also time for me to distill these events and find their lasting value in lessons that would transcend the pain of the moment. Just when I believed I had everything in perspective and I could now jump out, the now historic power outage in Connecticut occurred- it went peach black inside letter V!! I was forced to stay there for 10 additional days waiting for Connecticut Light and Power to illuminate more than my town of West Hartford.

 

Laying the family wreath- memorial service 1987
I have finally completed “my time" in letter “V” and after a couple of attempts I have jumped out, but I didn’t come out flying to Z. It has been a brisk walk but I have arrived and more than a smile refreshes my face. A deep laughter from within caresses  my insides as I give thanks to the powers that be for blessing my life with these incredible people who have added to my throng of worthy ancestors.

 Thanks again to you my loyal readers. All is well and I am back on course…I was just recuperating inside letter “V”.

 

EduART Awards Night 2011 in Pictures (with exciting music)

Create a free digital slideshow

Ex-SSA USA Celebrates 10th Anniversary

                                      By Joyce Ashuntantang

This week-end, August 5-7^th 2011, the Ex-Saker Students of the prestigious Saker Baptist College, Limbe,  popularly known as Sakerettes will convene in Atlanta, GA, the land of Martin Luther King Jr., to celebrate the association's 10th anniversary in the United States of America. This celebration under the leadership of the current National President, Rev. Esther Tanga Gadpaille (picture insert) will serve as a golden opportunity to pause and look back on the journey covered thus far.   The historic week-end will include a general assembly and common meal on Friday, a fun filled Saturday with games at the park and in the evening, a star-studded exquisite gala showcasing the best of ExSSA-USA. Besides the food to tantalize your taste buds, the Ex-SSA choir will be on hand to soothe your ears. As for your eyes, there will be a feast to titillate those pupils, and of course your brain will savor the memories for years to come!!                             
    But it  should be noted that the relationship between Saker Baptist College and the USA is enshrined in the very fabric of the school since the college was founded with the aid of the North American Baptist Convention in 1962. To top that, in 1969, “The College Singers”  made up of students from Saker Baptist College made the now legendary tour of the US and Canada with songs of praise.  From that time on many ex students from Saker travelled to the USA to further their education or join other family members.  By the mid 1990s, with the growing number of emigrations to the USA, Ex-Saker students in Dallas, Houston and Maryland began congregating at intervals to share common concerns and to celebrate their sisterhood from their Saker days. However, it is in the year 2000 that Sakerettes in Dallas led by Ms. Martha Akwa Teke decided to create a national body to cater for ex students of Saker Baptist college living in the USA. In August 2001 the Ex- Saker students Association (Ex-SSA) USA was born in Dallas, Texas. 

 

The Pioneer Executive:                                                                                         

Regine Efeti Ojongtambia:   President                                                              

Christina Kidi Makia: Vice President

Shiri  Ndang: Secretary

Sylvie Makoge: Vice Secretary

Marie Takusi Njowo: Treasurer

Alida Welashey: Financial Secretary

Genevieve Ndando: Public Relations

Martha Teke: Organizing Secretary

Jackie Atang: Vice Organizing Secretary

Vivian Barake: Music Prefect

Christina Naduvi Body-Lawson- Chief Whip

Since August 2001, Ex-SSA USA has been on a roller coaster ride. The three successive presidents, Ms. Efeti Ojongtambia (2001-2005), Ms. Ndedi Ngonga (2005-2009) and now Rev. Esther T. Gadpaille (2009 to Present), and their national executive members have built different parts of the magnificent edifice that we now call Ex-SSA USA. During this ten year run, ExSSA USA’s accomplishments include:

In Cameroon

• Contributed to the water project in Saker to make water available to students on campus, a process complicated by the hilly topography on which the college rests.
• Contributed to the Furnishing of  the  College chapel named “Chapel of Faith”  .
• Renovated and donated medications to the sick bay in Saker
• Provided scholarships to current Saker students
• Donated books by indigenous writers to Saker Baptist college Library

In the USA:

• Contributed to enhancing a visible and positive Cameroon community in various US cities
• Provided a credible support system for members nationwide
• Volunteered in soup kitchens/pantries across America
• Donated to the Haiti relief fund
• Formed CAMELA, Atlanta, GA, a leadership program for Cameroonian youth in the USA based in Atlanta
• Participated in fundraising for various charities e.g. Cancer Research Foundation, Organization for Autism Research, AIDS Walk, etc
• Organized a community health fair in Houston,Texas
• Bone marrow drive in Los Angeles, CA 

Indeed EXSSA USA members continue to make their mark both as a group and as individuals.  The dedication towards excellence and orientation towards service built in Sakerettes runs across generations and we continue to celebrate mind-blowing successes even from younger Sakerettes.  Some recent successes in the USA include, Ms. Martha Endum Teke, who at 17 became the second youngest student in US History to graduate from a University nursing Program in the USA. Endum recieved a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Texas A & M University- She was profiled in the Exceptional People Magazine, April 2011 edition;  Geena Mbange  Ngaaje who was recently profiled on Fox News for her innovative “Hip Hop on Heels” dance routine. In fact, EXSSA USA members continue to light the corner of the globe wherever they find themselves and the theme of this milestone convention captures this clearly: “Go Light Your World: Sustaining A Tradition Of Excellence In Service”.

 Join us this week-end and be part of our world as we celebrate in Atlanta, Georgia. 

 

 

Bebe Manga's Voice Continues to deliver...

By Joyce Ashuntantang 

In life she had no biological children of her own but her death proved that she had used her voice to deliver a mammoth crowd that showed up at her wake yesterday at the Limbe municipal stadium. It is this crowd with persons cutting across every ethnic , age and gender grouping that welcomed the  casket carrying the remains of  the  polyglotic singer born Elizabeth Bessem Manga. Her mortal remains entered the municipal stadium to the sonorous sounds of the brass band churning popular gospel tunes. It was a hair raising moment. By 10.30 pm Elizabeth Bessem Manga alias Bebe Manga lay in state, her body resplendent in a queenly lavenda outfit befitting the grand diva that she was. Her baby face did not lose its charm in death; her beauty still shown through in spite of her earthly transition to the world beyond. Her gilded casket seemed at home amongst the carefully chosen fresh flowers that graced the canopy which had become an instant shrine. As some dignitaries took their turn in viewing the remains of the diva, the roving ambassador/artist Roger Milla flanked by veteran artists Sam Mbende, Sam Fan Thomas, Henry Njoh and Nkotti Francois made their entrance into the municipal stadium.

It was now time for Bebe’s artistic family to mourn her with the rhythms that had formed an integral part of her life. Ms. Mary Mandi opened the way; a consummate guitarist, she tickled the guitar strings and the resulting sounds accompanied her velvety voice in  her hit song “Na Wetin Be Man” to the thunderous applause of the crowd. Her song underlined what The  Preacher had so succinctly captured in Ecclesiastes, “vanity of vanities; all is vanity”. Then came the makossa maestros in succession, Sam Fan Thomas, Djene Djento, Axel Mouna, Charlie Nelle  Emile Kange, Nkotti Francois,  Njoreh, Ann Nollo including stars of other musical genres like Ateh Francis alias Bazore. As each artist hit one of his or her signature tune, Bebe Manga’s children a.k.a her fans went into a frenzy. Like a Greek chorus the fans’ chants, shouts and tears reaffirmed that Bebe Manga had indeed lived a fulfilling life. She had enriched the earth and the earth was already missing her. Some of her songs like Amio, Esele Mba, Djiya Kamba, Na meya made their mark.

From L-R, With Veteran Cameroon Artists Henry Njoh and Sam Fan Thomas at the wake

 I was moved and could not resist joining these artists to celebrate the woman whose  poetic flair had put the kenyang language on a world stage. It was therefore only normal that I should acknowledge her achievement in this regard with a performance in Kenyang. With the band playing Bebe Manga’s Amio in the Background,  I launched into a monologue celebrating the golden voice which had not only given  her the children she did not have but a voice that paved the way and narrowed the African continent as her music  quickly made rounds from Ivory Coast, to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Equatorial Guinea etc. 

Bebe Manga (2001) Performing at the Launching of our movie Potent Secrets

By the time I was leaving the stadium, the voice of  Njume Loko trailed me, and Bebe’s casket was now closed and ready for the journey to her final resting place in Tinto, Manyu Division, but the verdict was already written in the early morning sky: Bebe Manga’s voice will live on because it has been trapped in time and will never die!!
    

Prof. Victor Anomah Ngu: In His Own Words

 On June 14^th 2011, the venerable Professor, esteemed surgeon and internationally acclaimed scientist finally came to the end of his earthly journey highly marked by achievements in superlatives.  In April 2009 he granted a major interview to Summit Magazine. In this interview, Prof. Anomah Ngu talked extensively about his life, his love for medicine, his medical research and discoveries including Vanhivax, the HIV/AIDS Vaccine, as well as his role in the process leading up to the reunification of the British and French Cameroons. At the end of that interview it was clear that despite his mega achievements in science, he was just another human being who loved playing golf and enjoyed eating “rice and moi-moi”, maybe an influence from his high profile Nigerian wife, Etso Clara Ugbodaga Ngu, an accomplished artist who died in August 1999.

For the complete interview and selected photographs click on the link below.

Brief profile

Education/Employment

St. Joseph’s College (secondary school) Sasse, Cameroon (1943)

Scholarship to study in the Government College in Ibadan, Nigeria (1944)
Scholarship to study medicine, Ibadan, Nigeria (1948)
Qualified as a surgeon, University of London. (1954)

Rockefeller Foundation Research Fellowship in Cancer Chemotherapy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (1962-1963)

Exchange Professor in Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital Medical School, Baltimore, USA (1964)
Appointed Head of Surgery, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1965-1968)

Appointed Head of the Nigerian Medical Corp (1967)

Professor of Surgery, University of Ibadan (1965 - 1971);
Professor of Surgery, Université de Yaoundé (1971 – 1974);
Vice Chancellor, Université de Yaoundé (1974 - 1982);
President of the Association of African Universities (1981 – 1982);
Minister of Public Health, Government of Cameroon (1984 - 1988);
Director of the Cancer Research Laboratory, Université de Yaoundé (1984 - );
Founder - Hope Clinic Cameroon opened to treat HIV, Sickle-cell anaemia and cancer (1991-)

Some Awards:
Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Clinical Cancer Chemotherapy (1972);
Dr. Samuel Lawrence Adesuyi Award and Medal by the West African Health Community (1989)

Grand Commandant de l’Ordre de la Valeur, Cameroun; (1991)
Leon H. Sullivan Achievement Award, U.S.A. for work in HIV/AIDS therapeutic vaccine research(2003).

A lion indeed has fallen asleep!!

Click here: Download Prof. Victor Anomah Ngu

Press Release March 30, 2011:

Press Release March 30, 2011:.

My Son Loved the Wrong Animal

By  Joyce Ashuntantang

I have never been one for pets. I did not grow up with a dog or cat. Truth be told: I am scared of dogs.  I have actually been bitten a couple of times by dogs.  No pun intended.  I am equally uncomfortable around cats; they leave me with an eerie feeling. If I have to own a a pet it would be a bird, but the whole idea of caging a bird traumatizes me; to ask me why is to start a whole different story.

Well, one day, while watching a national geographic documentary on primates, my four year old son told me he loved gorillas. Of course, as a vigilant mother I had noticed this. He was very excited to see one when we visited the zoo.  He also wanted to read any book that had gorillas or monkeys in them. I was frightened out of my wits. We were not in Cameroon or any other African country for that matter; we were living in the United States of America where the connotation between blacks and primates is alive and raw. And this was well  before Phillip Atiba Goff’s research which proved that “white supremacist assumptions that black people are related to apes and monkeys is not just history… those racist associations remain embedded within the minds of most white people, affecting their opinions and their behavior”.   This was also a couple of years before the New York Times published a cartoon of an assassinated monkey signing a bill after Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill. 

Well,  I imagined my son in the predominantly white school library, picking up a book with monkeys or gorillas….that in itself could be turned into a scientific explanation of why blacks are considered apes. How does one tell a 4 year old about racism and stop him on his tracks from loving an animal he genuinely admires. I went on a mission NOT to bring him near books with pictures of primates of any sort. Then, he started pre-kindergarten and a week later, a teacher called him “Curious George” and I was on my toes. He was an intelligent boy, very curious and his name was George, so why did this make me uncomfortable? Well, the book character "Curious George" is a monkey!  True, he loved monkeys and gorillas but he was not one! That day I had to tell myself over and over that the teacher did not mean any harm. A year later my son turned five and I gave him a birthday party; as we unwrapped the gifts, one stood out… a book on gorillas. My son jumped up excitedly and started flipping the pages.  I did not know that his love for gorillas was known to his friends.  He was the only black kid in his class. I was on the edge of my sit: a white family giving my black son a book on gorillas. I had no reason to doubt that it was a genuine gift, but the flood of history drowned me. I reviewed the racist premise of the last 400 years from Hegel’s “scientific” race theories to New Jersey cops’ racial profiling case.

The Art of "Braining"

                                             By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

This Valentine’s day finds me in Granada, Nicaragua at the VII edition of the Granada International Poetry Festival. There are over a 100 poets here including local Nicaraguan poets united in the theme “La poesía es el reino de la imaginación y el más feliz y doloroso testimonio del ser humano sobre la tierraa” In English, “Poetry is the realm of imagination and the most happy and painful testimony of human beings on earth” . On this Valentine’s day then, I decided to honor some male poets of my youth. These are the boys and young men who composed all those beautiful poetic monologues complete with performance in the name of “braining”.  Braining, the way it is done in Cameroon can be rightly considered an art form. The English call it “to woo” which means to seek the affection of someone with intent to romance or to court a woman. In English Speaking Cameroon this phenomenon is known variously in pidgin as “to brain”, “lay case”, “nak kwadi”, and “nak parole” (or nak pa). These phrases combined together suggest that what is going on here is decidedly a creative and intellectual process.

My Christmas Gifts: Moments with my dying Cousin

                                             By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.               

     Today, January 6th 2011, my cousin, Joan Bechem-Agbor Arrey, will start her final journey to her resting place in her husband’s village in Akak, Manyu Division, Cameroon;  another victim of the dreaded disease, Breast Cancer.  Joan was only 34!  It was actually a few days ago, on the 24^th of December, Christmas Eve, when I kissed Joan and wished her, a safe trip to Cameroon. The United States health care system had done its best and come to the end of what they could do. Her dedicated sister-in-law, Mrs. Christy Arrey Akoachere and her husband had done their best too and re-defined the notion of “in-law-ship”, but even they had to come to terms with the fact that they could do no more. Our greatest wish now was to see Joan reunited with her husband and family in Cameroon. Her husband Mr. Johnson Arrey had visited her in the summer and was hoping for a better outcome but things went downhill unexpectedly. It was a painful separation when I took leave of Joan  as she left for Logan Airport. In fact, it was a slow two hour plus drive back to West hartford, Connecticut. My wheels rode on the lines of my tears as I drove to my kids who were innocently waiting for their mom to make  christmas happen.

 
Joan and and her husband in happier times!

The last time I saw my cousin Joan before this time must have been when she was probably around eight years old.   I was not in Cameroon when she blossomed into a beautiful woman, earned her degree from University of Buea, and became the respectable wife of Mr. Johnson Arrey, Delegate of Land Tenure and State Properties, Meme Division, Cameroon. I might have missed seeing Joan when her outer beauty was radiant but I thank God for bringing me close to her when her inner beauty shone like a light house. Joan, known as Mbockayah, to her family members, faced the disease that ravaged her body with fortitude and calm. It must have been God’s design that I should meet with her at this time because she gave me gifts I will always treasure.

 

Excerpts of Poetry reading/performance from my collection "A Basket of Flaming Ashes"

 

Poems in the clip above: "The Voice" Confession" "I cry When It's Cold" and the "finale", 

Poems in the Clip Below:  "A Song in the Shower", "Talk to me" and "Monikim Dancer"  

EXSSA USA: Poised for annual Extravaganza in Houston,Texas

By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

The Ex- students of Saker Baptist College better known as Sakerettes will be having their annual convention in Houston ,Texas.  The convention which has been framed under the theme “empowering today’s woman” will take place on August 6- 8^th 2010. This will be the culmination of a very productive year under the leadership of Rev. Esther Tanga Gadpaille (top) as National President and Ms. Susannah Mondoa (bottom) as Vice.   

  

This annual gathering at the Marriott, Sugarland, gives Sakerettes an opportunity to take stock of the year gone by and also to approve the budget and projects for the forthcoming Year. The convention highlights include a business meeting and common meal for registered alumni, an educational trip to NASA headquarters and the main event which is a Dinner-Gala fundraiser on Saturday August 7^th.    

   On Saturday the world meets EXSSA USA. This is not a night to miss because the Sakerettes do not put on a show- they are the real thing! It will be a night of refined elegance- exquisite cuisine, reverting sounds from DJ Jean-Simon and a nostalgic dose of the legendary Saker choral music.  This is a combination of life’s major comforts brought together under one canopy as only the sakerettes can. But these girls now women will not be true to their Christian upbringing if they did not go beyond their own comfort level to bring respite to those in need. This year EXSSA USA was not only the first Cameroonian organization to send money for relief in Haiti after the earthquake, the EXSSA National president launched a campaign to help local communities in the USA. The pioneer event- a community health fair took place in Houston Texas under the Direction of Dr. Rachel K. Tita who doubles as the President of the local Houston EXSSA Chapter.  With the help of other partners like Caring Angels healthcare group, MedStar Clinic, Quest Diagnostics, First Option EMS Ambulance and  Bethel American Healthcare, EXSSA USA was able to triage over a 100 local residents.

New Poetry Collection by Joyce Ashuntantang

Joyce Ashuntantang. A Basket of Flaming Ashes (Poems). 2010 | Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon | 78 pages | Paperback. Available from ABC and Amazon. £15.95 (UK)/$19.95 (US)

Reviews

"Ashuntantang is an extraordinary weaver of words who showcases vivid pictures that compete with 3D simulation. Her greatest asset is her use of the beautiful traditional Cameroonian anchor that evokes folk tales with its moonlight romance and glory. You feel, laugh, weep, shiver, wonder, and hail the triumphant spirit of the persona as it navigates African post-colonial and global experiences with the melancholy of an exile who is purposeful, strategic, and a lot of fun."

Chinyere G. Okafor, Professor of English and Women’s Studies, Wichita State University, Kansas

“A Basket of Flaming Ashes may be Joyce Ashuntantang’s debut poetry collection but it already displays the lyricism and craftsmanship of an experienced poet. The poems flow naturally with feminine elegance and course through myriad forms of love. These are poems that the reader will always go back to read because of their enduring freshness and evocation of experiences that one can easily identify with. I find the collection enthralling.”

Tanure Ojaide, Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies, University of North Carolina

Speaking for The Generations: An Anthology of contemporary African Short Stories

An excerpt of my short story "My Mother's Recipe" has been published in the ground breaking anthology, Speaking For The Generations: An Anthology of Contemporary African Short Stories. I know the next question is "recipe for what? "  Well, you will have to read the story and find out. But first let me tell you more about this anthology. It is edited by Dike Okoro, professor of English and World Literature at Olive-Harvey College, Chicago. It is published by the renowned Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey.

 

This is a collection to love and own. The stories here are in the flash fiction category, so each story is about 800 words long. I have already read about fifteen and I enjoyed them tremendously.

Actress, Screenwriter, Filmmaker, and Poet, Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang grants interview to Integration, a new York based Newspaper.

 

Culled from Integration of May 19-June 02, 2010

 

Integration: Please introduce yourself to your fellow Cameroonians and our readers who don’t know you?

Well, I am Joyce Ashuntantang. I am originally from Cameroon. I graduated from the University of Yaoundé with a degree in English Modern Letters.  I then left for Britain where I graduated with a master’s in Library and Information Science. I returned to Cameroon and after graduating from Ecole Normale Superieure, I started working with the Bilingual Training Program attached to the Presidency of the Republic. Here, I had the rank of a Chief of Service in the central administration. In 1994 I moved to New York, USA. I earned another Masters from Hunter College, City University of New York and a PhD from the Graduate School and University Center, CUNY. After my PhD, I taught at University of Connecticut at Storrs/West Hartford. Today, I am an Assistant professor of English/African Literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford. In terms of my personality, I will prefer others to define me. Here with what one of my professors from University of Yaoundé, Dr. Babila Mutia said recently about me, “Adjectives to describe Joyce's multi-dimensional explosive personality, into all aspects of life, cannot readily be found to describe her dynamic nature”

Integration:

I understand you now teach English/African Literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford in Connecticut. Yet, several years ago, you were a star actress with the University of Yaoundé theater group and you also starred in several TV plays for the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV).  Please tell us Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, where are you today with your career as an actress?

Dr. JA: Although I am presently a college professor, I have not abandoned the theater. Acting is an integral part of my life. In fact, as a performing artist, my approach to teaching is performance-driven with roots in African participatory theater where the actors and audience collaborate in the process of creativity and performance. Based on this “dialogic” approach, I create a collaborative and interactive learning environment that facilitates the development of students’ self-confidence in their own ideas, analytical ability and their vision to draw connections between the literary texts and their own lives.

 

USA Class of 2010: Cameroonian Makes History

    By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

At 13, Martha Endum Teke became the youngest student to graduate from Saker Baptist College, Limbe Cameroon.  Now, at 17,  she joins Danielle McBurnett as the youngest graduate from a university nursing program in the USA.  Endum received her degree, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Texas A &M University. She graduated Magna Cum Laude on May 21^st  2010 and was equally inducted into the Nursing Honors Society. However, while McBurnett graduated from Arizona State University in 2009, she was homeschooled till the age of 12. Endum, on the other hand, took a route that began in an elementary school,  in the USA to Saker Baptist College in Cameroon, West Africa.  Born on September 4 1992 in Erie, Pennsylvania, Endum is the daughter of Martha and Mathias Teke who are originally from Cameroon and reside in Dallas, Texas.  The young Endum’s success has been a combination of intelligence and discipline on her part and foresight on the part of her parents.

  Endum receiving her prestigious Nursing pin.

English 110 Draft

For Victor Pungong, April 11^th 1967- May 9^th 2007

 By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

What you have heard is true. She stepped into my office cradling her folder in her bosom. Her pink boots oppressed the blue carpet on my office floor. My gaze caught her eyes off guard. “Yes Miss Sanchez, what can I do for you?”  “Professor, this paper is difficult for me. You know I struggle with English. I speak Spanish.” “Who are you writing on?” I ask  “That’s my problem. Don’t know who to choose. I look at the topic “The individual in history: Actions and legacies”. Then I get confuse. I want to write on Bill Clinton but it is too common. I try Mandela, but my friend say she is doing Mandela. I don’t want to do the same with her.  I want to do the other one you give but I don’t know him.”  “Which other one?” I ask  She hesitates, and uses her right foot to draw a pattern on the floor.  “The last one in the list, Victor Pugog.”  Oh. Ok, but let us start with the pronunciation of the name. The name is Victor P-U-NG-O-NG. The letters dropped one after the other into the space between us. The “ng”  clusters  made a summersault trapping her doubts before landing on her pink boots.

 Dr. Victor Pungong, Graduation from Cambridge University, UK 

Tongues For Nigeria

Nigeria’s senate Minority Whip and  former Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Yerima, who introduced sharia law in Nigeria, has recently married a  13 year old Egyptian girl as his 4^th wife.  This has led to public outrage and many groups in Nigeria are protesting the marriage including women in the Nigerian senate, Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Women Rights Advancement and Pro-tection Alternative (WRAPA) and the Global Association of Women Attorneys (GAFA). As an African woman and mother, I join my voice in this protest. This is just one of the many reasons I say “Amen” to Pius Adesami’s serious but equally hilarious prayer here below!

Tongues for Nigeria By Pius Adesanmi

Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma! Daddy Jehovah Jireh in heaven! Oh yantana ma ma ma ma ma! Daddy we bless you and magnify your holy name for you are God. Daddy we glorify you for you are worthy to be praised. Daddy we worship you for this is the day that you have made and you have anointed us to rejoice and be glad in it. Daddy we thank you for making us the power and the force of your word. For you promised us that whatsoever we bind here in this sinful world, even that shall ye bind in heaven.

Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! Father we bind the spirit of pedophilia in our land. Father we come against the demons of pedophilia. Father we call on your authority and we know that you will answer by fire. For it was you who came against the demons of the Gerasene demoniacs and cast them into pigs. Father we ask you to come against the demons of pedophilia in our errant son, Sani Ahmed Yerima, and cast them into donkeys for there are no pigs in his sharia land in Zamfara. Father we call upon thee to burn his demons and render his loins weak even before he goes into the 13 year-old girl he has just bought from the land of the Pharaohs.

Oh yantana ma ma ma ma ma ma ma! Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! He is God/He is God amen/He has risen from the dead/ He is God/ every knee shall bow/ every tongue confess/ that Jesus Christ is God! Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! Father we come against the principalities and powers of impotence and unmanliness in our land. For it was given unto us to make a man of Goodluck Jonathan O Lord! But he lives in fear of a ghost and the wife of the ghost O Lord. He is unable to sanctify the house of power against the presence of the ghost O lord. And the wife of the ghost is made man over him.

Oh yantana ma ma ma ma ma ma ma! Father we call upon you to rain energy into Goodluck Jonathan’s loins, courage into his heart, and spine into his back so that he can become a man. Father you led by example. For it was you who assumed power, flogged, arrested, and drove those corrupt moneychangers out of thine temple in Jerusalem. Father,

Goodluck Jonathan hath eyes but cannot see thine example; though he hath ears, he doth not hear of thine leadership by example. Hence a rogue moneychanger called James Ibori has been defiling the temple called Nigeria under Jonathan’s watch. The cavalry of Ibori has successfully defied Jonathan and his centurion, Ogbonaya Onovo, just because Jonathan is not yet a man. Father render unto him the strength of a lion for you are the lion of the tribe of Judah. We remove and bind the dominion of effeminacy in Jonathan’s life in the m-i-g-h-t-y name of J-e-s-u-s! Oooooooooooh! Ooooooooooooo! Oh yantana ma ma ma ma ma ma ma! Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! I feel it now! I feel the spirit in me now! It has descended. It is raining/all around me/I can feel it/all around me.

Thank you Lord. You are able/abundantly able/to deliver to deliver/you are able/abundantly able/to deliver those who trust in thee. Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! Father the Nigerian nation trusts in thee. They call on thee more than any other nation on earth. Some of them call on thee before they loot. Some call on thee before they give or accept bribe. Armed robbers commit their goings and comings unto thine hands. Hired assassins call on thee before stepping out. Nigerians pray in their offices and preach your word in secular Internet forums. Father in heaven we ask you to look with favour on the prayers and ministrations of this religious people and make a Saul of them.

Oooooooooooh! Ooooooooooooo! Oh yantana ma ma ma ma ma ma ma! Oh shantara ma ma ma ma ma ma! Father Nigerians need to become Saul for an Amalekite called Ibrahim Babangida wants to come upon them a second time. Father Lord you know the story of the first coming of this Amalekite in the lives of this people. For the eight years that he ruled them, birds did not chirp like birds, rats did not brux like rats, and men did not speak like men. He brought pestilence upon the land O Lord. And even unto this day his heart is hardened like the heart of Pharaoh for he has refused to wear sackcloth and apologise for his sins. Oh Lord, we pray that the Saul of Nigeria brings the abomination of desolation to bear on the ambition of this mad Amalekite.

Father we thank you for you have listened to our prayers.

Father we thank you for you have answered our prayers in the mighty name of Jesus!! A-m-e-n!!!! Hello somebody! Hello Pastor Pius! Turn to your neighbor and say: “your prayer has been answered”!

Originally published at : http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/Columns/PiusAdesanmi/5560733-176/little_ends_tongues_for_nigeria.csp

Energy and nutrient contents of “waterfufu and eru”

By Abia W. A., Numfor F. A, Wanji S.,  and Tcheuntue F

In this article, three  food and nutrition researchers analyze the energy and nutrient contents of “Waterfufu and eru”. "Water fufu and Eru" is a traditional dish popularly eaten in Cameroon and neighboring Nigeria. In Cameroon, the dish is traditionally associated with the Bayang ethnic group from Manyu division in the Southwest province; however, in recent years most ethnic groups in Cameroon have learned the art of cooking and eating "waterfufu and eru". In fact due to its popularity, "waterfufu and eru" can be accurately described as a  national dish!

Fufu and Eru

  
   Eru being transported to neigboring Nigeria  

Download Energy and nutrient contents of “waterfufu and eru”

Condom to Intercourse

By Pius Adesanmi** “You’ll get to see Condom”. She uttered that sentence in a friendly manner that made her completely oblivious to the outlines of shock that were changing the contours of my face as she spoke. I used to live in Europe – France – before I moved to North America. Having lived continuously in Canada and the United States now since 1998, I always receive a fair dosage of culture shock every time I return to Paris – my second home away from Nigeria. If there is one thing Europeans and Nigerians have in common, especially the French, it is liberty of expression devoid of the irritating encumbrance that is political correctness. In Europe and Nigeria, you can still call a prisoner prisoner without wahala. In Canada and the US, he is an inmate and may sue you if you call him a prisoner; if your neighbor can’t see, he or she is not blind but visually challenged. Anybody you would call disabled in Nigeria is physically challenged here in North America. You may not use generic ‘man’ the way they use it in Europe and Naija English, you’d better say ‘person’ here in North America. Every language situation here is a mine field of political correctness that restricts and stands in the way of natural, spontaneous, free-flowing communication. North American communication is stale. My graduate students and I once left a graduate seminar room untidy after our three-hour class at Penn State University. It was an evening seminar and we normally brought snacks to class. That evening, we got carried away debating Frantz Fanon and Walter Rodney and forgot to clean up the room. Next day, a terse email from the Departmental Secretary was in my inbox: “Hi Pius, it would appear that you and your students left the seminar room in a less than complimentary situation yesterday…” At this point, I stopped reading and went to her office and told her: “you know, it’s ok to say hey Pius, you guys made a heck of a mess in the seminar room! I won’t sue for pain and suffering if you put it plain old English. Less than complimentary situation? That’s political correctness gone too far”. I have very little patience with American political correctness. My work depends on the flow and effervescence of language, political correctness stands in the way of language. But don’t blame the poor secretary. In America, I could very much have claimed that she used “made a mess” for me just because I’m black. Were I white, she would have used the politically correct and respectful “less than complimentary situation”. If I put up a good show, weeping profusely on national TV with a furious Reverend Al Sharpton trying to console me at a press conference, I may even get a moronic jury to award me ten million dollars for pain and suffering! By the time I’m done with lawyers’ fees and taxes, I could still pack my load and return to Nigeria with about 1.5 million dollars. That’s America! That’s why that society has come up with an overdose of political correctness in daily communication. That’s why the naturalness of communication and the unguardedness of diction and expression always shock me whenever I return to Paris. But not even my knowledge of the absence of North American political correctese and other conversational hindrances in French and France prepared me for what the lady had just thrown at me with a very friendly smile: “You’ll get to see Condom”! “Condom ke?”, I thought. Then I looked at her properly for the first time: thirty-ish and very beautiful. There she stood, blessed with the sort of fullness and roundedness in certain geographies of the female anatomy that make Nigerian men in Europe and America secretly describe her type as a black woman’s behind trapped in a white woman’s body, away from the unwary ears of the Nigerian women in their lives. And she had thrown Condom into the conversation out of the blue!

Establish Boundaries

Establish Boundaries.

A Tribute to Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a

Video filmed and Edited by Ryan Glista with music by Henry Tanyi (Tanash).

This is a poem written and performed by Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, a star actress in in several productions by Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a. Thomas died on March 8th, 2007 along the Douala-Yaoundé Highway as a result of a ghastly auto accident. He died along side Dr. Bate Besong, Dr. Hilarious Ambe and their driver, Mr. Awoh Franklin.

A Tribute to Dr. Bate Besong

Video filmed and Edited by Ryan Glista with music by Henry Tanyi (Tanash)

 

This is a poem written and performed by Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang in Memory of Dr. Bate Besong. Dr. Besong died on March 8th, 2007 along the Douala-Yaoundé Highway as a result of a ghastly auto accident. He died along side Thomas Kwasen Gwan'gwaa, Dr. Hilarious Ambe and their driver, Mr. Awoh Franklin.

BATE BESONG: THE FINAL INTERVIEW

  by Joyce Ashuntantang

A few days before his death in a ghastly accident, the feisty Anglophone Cameroon playwright and Poet, Bate Besong recorded this interview with ace CRTV Producer, Robert Ekukole. Little did both of them know that the interview would be BB's Last. Bate Besong, the celebrated champion of the masses, died in a ghastly car accident on March 8 2007 along side, Veteran producer, Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a, Ambe Hilarious and their driver, Awoh Franklin. Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) later broadcasted this interview posthumously.

In this prophetic interview, Bate Besong states, "Everyday I leave my house...my family knows...for the past twenty years...when I leave my house I know I will not come back home. Every play I write, Any poem I write,  I write as if it is my last poem, as if it is my last book". He died less than a day after a heavily attended launch of what has become his last  book , Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus. He was on his way to Yaounde for a visa interview at the American Embassy in order to attend the 2007 ALA conference In West Virginia.

Cameroonian Men change Perceptions on Valentine’s Day.

 By Joyce Ashuntantang*

In a rare show of emotion and public display of affection for their spouses and significant others, a bunch of Cameroonian men a.k.a African men, defied the stereotypes to actually profess their love openly on February 13^th in Dallas, Texas. They did it with red roses, gifts, poems, sultry looks and kisses. Maybe it had to do with the particular women involved, just maybe!

The occasion was a Valentine’s day party dubbed “An affair of the heart” organized by the Ex Saker Students Association (EXSSA USA), Dallas chapter. This is an alumni organization of the prestigious Saker Baptist College, in Limbe, Cameroon; a Christian based boarding secondary school for girls. These girls, now grown women are a combination of fine intelligence and positive energy that revitalizes. On this day, they went all out to set the mood and the results were there for all to see. The hall was transformed into a banquet fit for royalty, and surely the EXSSA ladies were bent on treating their guests as such.

VIRTUAL DOOR (For you in my world)

    By Joyce Ashuntantang

Without knowing your face
I built a home for us
So each day I wake up
Did she come? Did he come?

So now you're here
Let your words feed mine
Let your laughter wet mine
Let our worlds touch

Tomorrow  when I come
I'll look for footprints
Left just for me
By this virtual door

Happy Valentine's Day to you all...in my world!

Binding in Love (for EXSSA-USA)

In celebration of the 48th anniversary of Saker baptist College, an all girls christain college founded on January 29th 1962 with a vision to groom girls with a high moral and academic acumen. Saker has become a beacon of dynamic womanhood in Cameroon. The alumni (Ex Saker Students Association, EXSSA) of this prestigious college cover the globe and there is an energetic chapter in the USA.    

  By Joyce Ashuntantang
 
With God’s grace freely given,

From Saker Baptist college,

we’ve travelled afar to Atlantic’s other side

But no snow, sleet or slush

 

Will keep Saker off our minds

 

 

Yes, women we’ve now become

 

In different careers of life

 

But we join here in love, as ExSSA USA.

 

Giving back to Saker

 

To glorify our maker

 

 

Every now and then

 

We meet valleys on our paths

 

But armed with our God, we make "a climbing out".

 

Walking in our faith

 

and duty to His word

EduART Awards For Cameroon Literature in English

Published in The Post, Cameroon

EduART Launches 2nd Edition Of Awards For Literature
Friday, January 08, 2010

By Azore Opio

EduART, a US-based corporation, has launched its second edition of awards for Cameroonian Literature, written in English by Cameroonians and published in Cameroon or any other African country. This edition will carry a cash prize of FCFA 200,000 each for the three literary genres; novel, drama and poetry.

Competitors are required to submit three copies each of any works besides fulfilling the following criteria; there is no restriction on setting, theme or mode. EduArt accepts any fictional work which falls in any of the categories below: fiction (novel or collection of short stories) drama and collection of poetry. Non-fiction books are not eligible for these Awards.

To be eligible for the 2010 award, the work must have been written by a citizen of Cameroon; must have been published in Cameroon or any other African Country; must be of a reasonable length; must have been first published between 1st January 2008 and 31 December 2009; the author must be alive on the closing date for entries; the entry must be originally written in English (works translated from other languages are not eligible) the book (s) should have been published with an adult readership in mind. For a collection of short stories or plays to be eligible, at least half of the short stories or plays in the collection must have been published after January 1, 2002.

Furthermore, entries must be made by the author and or copy right holder; self published works are eligible given the dearth of publishing houses in the Cameroon Anglophone territory. To encourage more submissions, publishers or writers may submit up to three books not limited to any category. Where publishers or copyright holders are submitting works, they must obtain the author's consent before submitting her/his work (s). This written consent must accompany the application form.

To enter a book for the competition, send a completed Registration form and 3 copies of the book through ESSICO Express mail services to:

EduArt Awards for Literature 2010

c/oAmity law firm
P. O. Box 90, Buea
Southwest Region
Republic of Cameroon

The deadline for submission is May 15, 2010.

The maiden edition of EduART Awards for Literature; the Victor E. Musinga Award for Drama,
Jane and Rufus Blanshard Award for fiction and Bate Besong Award for Poetry, was launched in July, 2008. It was highly contested and the winner was John Ngong Kum for his poetry collection, "Walls of Agony". The chief judge was renowned poet and Distinguished Professor, Tanure Ojaide of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

According to  Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, Founder and CEO of  EduART Inc., this organization seeks to use both creative and performing arts to educate, enrich and entertain both Africans on the continent and African immigrants in the USA on varied social and economic developmental issues in order to increase a productive lifestyle. EduArt will also use these artistic media to educate non-Africans on African values, cultural heritage and social lifestyle to facilitate

Mbella Sonne Dipoko Dies at 73

(Author of A few Nights and Days, 1969, Because of Women, 1969, Black and White in Love, 1972)

Mbella Sonne Dipoko, Novelist, Poet and politician died on Saturday December 5th 2009 in Tiko, Cameroon after a brief illness. He succeeded his father as chief of Missaka village in 1991, but he continued writing, contributing poems and articles to local and international magazines. His poem, below, was submitted to The Post newspaper, Cameroon, a few days before his death.

Copenhagen

By Mbella Sonne Dipoko

It was foretold long ago
That after Noah's deluge
The next destruction of the world
Would be by fire
And can't you feel the heat building up already,
The global warming up?
 
And so to fulfil the prophecy
Copenhagen is going to be
Just some more hot air
Presaging the sparks that would turn
Into the flames in which the world will be consumed
And then out of the ashes of ecocide capitalism
It won't be Christ on His second coming presiding
On Judgment Day
But Karl Marx returning like a revolutionary phoenix
Out of the ashes of the busting bubbles
Of the lopsided economies
Of our over-heated world

Dipoko in his own words culled from Cameroon Life Magazine (May 1990)

 In the West they would call me a romantic, one of the last breed, I suppose. A romantic and not a mad man, as some people do here, in Africa, fearing the beard and scared of the head of hair...So let them be scared of my look, of my beard, of my head of hair. They are just philistines who are afraid of originality. They wish to be caricatures of Europeans. When they are scared of a mere beard, what would these people do when war comes, when the horizon suddenly begins to sneeze smoke and spit flames? Who will save the nation? For only the courageous can defend the colors of a country.

I did two stints at the university. First, it was when I imagined I could become a lawyer. So for a couple of years I studied law and economics at Paris University. But I gave this up when I began to work on my first novel, A few nights and Days. I really could not reconcile the drudgery of law school studies with the flamboyance of compulsive creative information. And also, what news was coming out of Africa, spoke of the death of freedom, and I thought it would be spiritually stultifying to try to function as a lawyer in a totalitarian environment.

Memory lane 2: (1989) Bole Butake's The Survivors

After surviving what seems like a natural disaster, five survivors are caught in a web of corruption and human rights abuse. They are trapped as refugees and used as pawns by the government to attract international aid. Finally, one of the survivors, Mboysi (a woman) takes charge, manoevers the lead military officer (Bannavti Joseph) and kills him....how long will this victory last? Your guess is as good as mine! This performance took place at the legendary Amphi 700 of the University of Yaounde. It was filmed for Cameroon television by Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a.

This TV Drama Launched Late Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a's career as a veritable TV Producer with Cameroon Television. Joyce and Valentine were 2nd year students at the University of Yaounde at the time. Here with excerpts of the play- Pamela is forced to live with her father's friend while waiting for accomodation at the student hostel. What happens next becomes more than a violation of friendship...

Blog reviewed by George Esunge Fominyen

Originally published in http://www.gefominyen.com/

Is it easy to be an African woman? Always having other people deciding what you do, have, like or say; and how you should feel and act. Except if you are a woman like Joyce Ashutantang; a Cameroonian literary academic, actress, playwright, scriptwriter and poet.

In a series of poems posted on her blog –Batuo’s World – she masterfully brings out women's  innermost feelings about love and life that some of society’s “protectors” in her country and continent of origin would want gagged and buried inside.

One of those issues is whether to allow women choose to keep or terminate pregnancy within given conditions. In “Sarah Palin: A Poem for Women” Ashutantang writes: “She can kill a moose, I can’t / She touts a gun, I hate guns / She derides abortions; I stand by them; my body is mine…”

Recently in Cameroon, persons who speak for women (and who seem to know better than women about choices they should make) got thousands of men and women to march on the streets against the parliament’s decision to ratify the Protocol to theAfrican Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa which simply provides that right to choose.

How many contemporary Cameroonian women would hate to be given the choice to terminate or keep a pregnancy they got because a group of brutes (in that insecurity infested country) stormed into a home, asked the “head of the family” to hand-over the Njangi money he just received,sexually abused him, gang raped his wife and three daughters and asked him (father of the house) to have sex with his own daughters under the pressure of a gun to his temple?

The protestors were told it (the protocol) was ratifying homosexuality (I didn't see that in the Protocol) and murder.

Article 14, paragraph 2C of the Maputo Protocol simply requires of states to: “protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the unborn child”

If a woman’s body is hers, to paraphrase Ashutantang, isn’t she entitled to decide whether it is a gift from heaven or hell to carry (for nine-months) the foetus from a violent sexual relationship with an HIV infected gangster or live to nurture a child born of one’s own father?

Beyond what meets the eye

The rhythm, tempo and colour of Ashutangtang’s poems on Batuo’s world are so entrapping one may miss the undertones.

Is it easy to be an African woman? Always having other people deciding what you do, have, like or say; and how you should feel and act. Except if you are a woman like Joyce Ashutantang; a Cameroonian literary academic, actress, playwright, scriptwriter and poet.

In a series of poems posted on her blog –Batuo’s World – she masterfully brings out women's  innermost feelings about love and life that some of society’s “protectors” in her country and continent of origin would want gagged and buried inside.

One of those issues is whether to allow women choose to keep or terminate pregnancy within given conditions. In “Sarah Palin: A Poem for Women” Ashutantang writes: “She can kill a moose, I can’t / She touts a gun, I hate guns / She derides abortions; I stand by them; my body is mine…”

Recently in Cameroon, persons who speak for women (and who seem to know better than women about choices they should make) got thousands of men and women to march on the streets against the parliament’s decision to ratify the Protocol to theAfrican Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa which simply provides that right to choose.

How many contemporary Cameroonian women would hate to be given the choice to terminate or keep a pregnancy they got because a group of brutes (in that insecurity infested country) stormed into a home, asked the “head of the family” to hand-over the Njangi money he just received,sexually abused him, gang raped his wife and three daughters and asked him (father of the house) to have sex with his own daughters under the pressure of a gun to his temple?

The protestors were told it (the protocol) was ratifying homosexuality (I didn't see that in the Protocol) and murder.

Article 14, paragraph 2C of the Maputo Protocol simply requires of states to: “protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the unborn child”

If a woman’s body is hers, to paraphrase Ashutantang, isn’t she entitled to decide whether it is a gift from heaven or hell to carry (for nine-months) the foetus from a violent sexual relationship with an HIV infected gangster or live to nurture a child born of one’s own father?

Beyond what meets the eye

The rhythm, tempo and colour of Ashutangtang’s poems on Batuo’s world are so entrapping one may miss the undertones.

By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D. *

                                                 (originally published at http://www.postnewsline.com/2009/07/sakerettes-converge-on-obamacity-for-annual-convention.html)

 

 The ex-students of the all girls secondary school, Saker Baptist College, Limbe Cameroon popularly known as Sakerettes will be holding their annual convention in Washington DC from July 30th -2nd August.  This will be the second time the Sakerettes are matching on the nation’s capital, but the  mood that pervades the convention this year is inspiring and this is in no small measure connected to the person now inhabiting the White house- Barack Hussein Obama. One of the highlights of the convention this year will be a tour of Washington DC’s historic monuments which will of course include the White house. But this  time around this visit to the white house will be “ a moment in time” where history, dreams and hopes converge to fuel a  new vision for our sojourn here in the United States of America. 

By Joyce Ashuntantang

Will we be there for him, now that he is gone in flesh?

Will we be there to protect his name, his children, his love, his care, and his dreams?

Will we be there beyond the tears and songs, beyond our own myopia and sins?

Will we be there in the fullness of time when the media comes swinging

And the racial bigots in envy swim? Will we be there?

 Will we be there for a mother who grieves and a father who cared?

Will we be there to heal the world and be the world?

Will we be there with a smile like Jermaine sang?

Will we be there when it is black or white?

That's all MJ is asking: will we be there??

 

 

 

From "Will you be there"  by Michael Jackson:

Spoken:

In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will you still care
Will you be there
In my trials
And my tribulations

Through our doubts
And frustrations
In my violence
In my turbulence
Through my fear
And my confessions
In my anguish and my pain
Through my joy and my sorrow
In the promise
Of another tomorrow
I'll never let you part
For you're always in my heart

 

Yes today is my birthday…and I am simply excited to have shared my life with you all, my relatives, friends and the many well wishers I have garnered over the years.  I leave you all with three new videos, as my gift to you for all the love, support and even challenges you have thrown my way.  When you are done with the videos, take your time and browse around especially for those of you who are not physically with me today. Through my website you can spend some quality time with me. Remember, you have contributed to the person I now call “me”. And for that I am grateful. I look forward to many more years plus good health by the Grace of our God and the good spirits that be. Enjoy!

From yours truly, Joyce, Dr. J, Prof., Batuo, JB, JAB, Ngore, Manoh,  plus all the other ways you have referred to me over the Years.

YES THE KING/CHILD OF POP MUSIC IS DEAD- A legend was born, a legend lived, a legend has died!!!! Now we can weave myths for our unborn children. We will gather them in the twilight and whisper the story to them..."once upon a time there lived a boy...he was born Michael..Michael Jackson

 

So I cry and weep for this son of a mother who has gone before his time but I have a story to tell and where there is a story, lives are born!!! May Michael Jackson be reborn a thousand times as we pass his name down for generations to come...

 

Adieu,

Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

Interviewed by Dibussi Tande and originally published at www.dibussi.com (Scribbles from the Den) and http://www.langaa-rpcig.net/+As-long-as-foreign-publishers+.html

“As long as foreign publishers remain the mid-wives of our stories, they will keep determining the nature of these stories.” Joyce Ashuntantang

Early this year, Joyce Ashuntantang published a book titled Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature which Bernth Lindfors describes as the "most comprehensive study of Anglophone Cameroon literature that has been published to date". In the book, Dr. Ashuntantang, who teaches literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford, USA, demonstrates that contrary to widespread belief, literature from the English-speaking part of Cameroon is alive and well, in spite of a host of obstacles that have slowed its development and reduced its international visibility. In this interview, Dr. Ashuntantang discusses her ground-breaking book and the state of Anglophone Cameroon literature with Dibussi Tande. Excerpts:

“As long as foreign publishers remain the mid-wives of our stories, they will keep determining the nature of these stories.” Joyce Ashuntantang

Early this year, Joyce Ashuntantang published a book titled Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature which Bernth Lindfors describes as the "most comprehensive study of Anglophone Cameroon literature that has been published to date". In the book, Dr. Ashuntantang, who teaches literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford, USA, demonstrates that contrary to widespread belief, literature from the English-speaking part of Cameroon is alive and well, in spite of a host of obstacles that have slowed its development and reduced its international visibility. In this interview, Dr. Ashuntantang discusses her ground-breaking book and the state of Anglophone Cameroon literature with Dibussi Tande. Excerpts:

 By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

Originally published in Palapala Magazine at:

http://www.palapalamagazine.com/2009/05/composing-and-desire-.html#more.
 
When it hits me, my pupils dilate, my breathing doubles in speed, and my heart races. I can't contain myself; I smile and sometimes notice the onset of perspiration. At this juncture, I must rush to the object of my desire. I get there with my left hand on my bosom trying to stop my heaving breasts from tearing through my blouse.

Originally published in:

http://234next. com/csp/cms/ sites/Next/ Home/5413479- 147/story. csp

By Ikhide R Ikheloa May 15, 2009

 

I am married, happily married. I am a woman wrapper, yes, I won't lie, I am a woman wrapper, I do whatever my wonderful, lovely, gorgeous wife wants me to do, who wan die? I have said it; o ya, sue me. as I write, she is looking over my shoulders and dictating every word of this wonderful essay. No, it is the truth; I am happily married to my wonderful, lovely, gorgeous wife. Actually every happily married man is a woman wrapper. Any man who says he does not take "nonsense" from his wife is divorced or dead or both.

Priceless marriage tip: If a man ever tells you, "I will not take that from my wife, mba O!" na lie, it is a big lie, the yeye man takes that and more from his wife and thanks his wife for the privilege of taking nonsense from her! Even my father, the dreaded Papalolo, was a woman wrapper. Don't mind him, he is still very alive and he is still a woman wrapper. When I was growing up, we called him "Na Because Of You" behind his back. You see, my mother was a very reasonable person, however, whenever she was pregnant, she loved driving my father insane. In the middle of the night, she would wake up and sweetly request that my father go out and split the firewood for tomorrow's cooking. My father would gnash his teeth like Okonkwo, turn to me and hiss: "Na because of you O, it is because of you that I am going to do this!" And he would go out and split the firewood! At midnight! Whenever my dad resumed splitting firewood in the dead of night, the village knew Mamalolo was pregnant again. I am lying of course, in the sixties, we cooked with gas and we used our microwave to warm our low-fat milk and NO ONE would dare interrupt my father as he watched American Idol on his plasma TV - but you get my gist sha.

 

By Pius Adesanmi

 

America invaded my formative years in Nigeria through culture, mainly books and music. Indian (Amitabh Bachchan!) and Chinese (Bruce Lee!) films relegated American (John Wayne) films to a distant background. In High School (Titcombe College), James Hadley Chase was our most mesmerizing path to America. The irony of prefering the America of an enthralling British author was supremely lost on us. We did not just read Chase, we lived each title and its captivating characters. You boasted to schoolmates that the trouble was finding which Chase you hadn’t read. Confessing to having not read a particular Hadley Chase title was a felony. I learnt the hard way when I owned up to having not read Want to Stay Alive? in Form Two. “Ah, you mean you don’t know Poke Toholo?”, my friends asked in horror, their tone acquiring an instant whiff of superiority.

Joyce B. Ashuntantang. Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Langaa Publishers, 2009. 188 pages. Available on amazon.com and African Books Collective.

  This is a foundational text on the production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature. The Republic of Cameroon is a bilingual country with English and French as the official languages.

Ashuntantang shows that the pattern of production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature is not only framed by the minority status of English and English-speaking Cameroonians within the Republic of Cameroon, but is also a refl ection of a postcolonial reality in Africa where mostly African literary texts published by western multi-national corporations are assured wide international accessibility and readership.

This book establishes that in spite of these setbacks, Anglophone Cameroon writers have produced a corpus of work that has enriched the genres of prose, poetry and drama, and that these texts deserve a wider readership.

 By Joyce Ashuntantang

She can kill a moose, I can’t

She touts a gun, I hate guns

She derides abortions; I stand by them; my body is mine

She’s white and privileged

I’m black and sidelined

But I will not join the laughter

I will not cast a stone

The flower between her legs connects us

 

We have been stoned as heretics in Europe

We have been given up at birth in China

We were killed as witches in Salem

We were refused land in Africa

We are property in Pakistan

We have been killed for honor in Bangladesh

We have been raped and maimed the world over

And so I will not nail her

 

The bumps on her chest connect us

Me, Hilary and Amina Lawal.

We’ve been refused equal pay

We’ve been forced to hide our belly bumps

We’ve been hanged by our PMS*

We’ve been judged by our lipstick

We’ve been dared to grow a penis

We’ve been called nutcrackers

And so I will not stone her

 

 

Let her deeds hand the stones

Let her words nail her

Let her faults trip her

And you can call me what you will:

Fuckn’ Femminist

 

* Pre-menstrual syndrome

(This version originally published in Palapala Magazine)

 Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

I grew up speaking English. In fact, I was born into English and never considered it a foreign language. I was also born into Kenyang, the language of the Bayangis, and Pidgin English. I learnt all three languages at the same time and in the same house.  Actually, my love for literature in English is rooted in both African and British literature including Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, Jane Eyre, Eze goes to School, The Drummer boy and Things Fall Apart.  Also, my parents studied in England in the nineteen sixties and as I grew up, I visited England through their stories, pictures, music, my mother’s kitchen utensils and my father’s bookshelf.

Indeed my childhood was immersed in English.
Buea, where I grew up, is situated at the foot of Mount Cameroon. It is a town built by Germans in the 19th century. What is remarkable about Buea is the cool weather, the German architectural relics and the English Language, a British legacy. Inhabitants of Buea are known in Cameroon as “I was” because they prefer speaking English amongst themselves instead of Pidgin English.

 Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

I grew up speaking English. In fact, I was born into English and never considered it a foreign language. I was also born into Kenyang, the language of the Bayangis, and Pidgin English. I learnt all three languages at the same time and in the same house.  Actually, my love for literature in English is rooted in both African and British literature including Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, Jane Eyre, Eze goes to School, The Drummer boy and Things Fall Apart.  Also, my parents studied in England in the nineteen sixties and as I grew up, I visited England through their stories, pictures, music, my mother’s kitchen utensils and my father’s bookshelf.

Indeed my childhood was immersed in English.
Buea, where I grew up, is situated at the foot of Mount Cameroon. It is a town built by Germans in the 19th century. What is remarkable about Buea is the cool weather, the German architectural relics and the English Language, a British legacy. Inhabitants of Buea are known in Cameroon as “I was” because they prefer speaking English amongst themselves instead of Pidgin English.

Memory Lane: Joyce Ashuntantang in Gwangwa'a's SEMINAL DREGS 1987

This TV Drama Launched Late Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a's career as a veritable TV Producer with Cameroon Television. Joyce and Valentine were 2nd year students at the University of Yaounde at the time. Here with excerpts of the play- Pamela is forced to live with her father's friend while waiting for accomodation at the student hostel. What happens next becomes more than a violation of friendship...

To Jump-start my week and Yours: Enjoy!

What African Women think inside - A review of poetry on Batuo’s World

Blog reviewed by George Esunge Fominyen

Originally published in http://www.gefominyen.com/

Is it easy to be an African woman? Always having other people deciding what you do, have, like or say; and how you should feel and act. Except if you are a woman like Joyce Ashutantang; a Cameroonian literary academic, actress, playwright, scriptwriter and poet.

In a series of poems posted on her blog –Batuo’s World – she masterfully brings out women's  innermost feelings about love and life that some of society’s “protectors” in her country and continent of origin would want gagged and buried inside.

One of those issues is whether to allow women choose to keep or terminate pregnancy within given conditions. In “Sarah Palin: A Poem for Women” Ashutantang writes: “She can kill a moose, I can’t / She touts a gun, I hate guns / She derides abortions; I stand by them; my body is mine…”

Recently in Cameroon, persons who speak for women (and who seem to know better than women about choices they should make) got thousands of men and women to march on the streets against the parliament’s decision to ratify the Protocol to theAfrican Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa which simply provides that right to choose.

How many contemporary Cameroonian women would hate to be given the choice to terminate or keep a pregnancy they got because a group of brutes (in that insecurity infested country) stormed into a home, asked the “head of the family” to hand-over the Njangi money he just received,sexually abused him, gang raped his wife and three daughters and asked him (father of the house) to have sex with his own daughters under the pressure of a gun to his temple?

The protestors were told it (the protocol) was ratifying homosexuality (I didn't see that in the Protocol) and murder.

Article 14, paragraph 2C of the Maputo Protocol simply requires of states to: “protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the unborn child”

If a woman’s body is hers, to paraphrase Ashutantang, isn’t she entitled to decide whether it is a gift from heaven or hell to carry (for nine-months) the foetus from a violent sexual relationship with an HIV infected gangster or live to nurture a child born of one’s own father?

Beyond what meets the eye

The rhythm, tempo and colour of Ashutangtang’s poems on Batuo’s world are so entrapping one may miss the undertones.

Is it easy to be an African woman? Always having other people deciding what you do, have, like or say; and how you should feel and act. Except if you are a woman like Joyce Ashutantang; a Cameroonian literary academic, actress, playwright, scriptwriter and poet.

In a series of poems posted on her blog –Batuo’s World – she masterfully brings out women's  innermost feelings about love and life that some of society’s “protectors” in her country and continent of origin would want gagged and buried inside.

One of those issues is whether to allow women choose to keep or terminate pregnancy within given conditions. In “Sarah Palin: A Poem for Women” Ashutantang writes: “She can kill a moose, I can’t / She touts a gun, I hate guns / She derides abortions; I stand by them; my body is mine…”

Recently in Cameroon, persons who speak for women (and who seem to know better than women about choices they should make) got thousands of men and women to march on the streets against the parliament’s decision to ratify the Protocol to theAfrican Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa which simply provides that right to choose.

How many contemporary Cameroonian women would hate to be given the choice to terminate or keep a pregnancy they got because a group of brutes (in that insecurity infested country) stormed into a home, asked the “head of the family” to hand-over the Njangi money he just received,sexually abused him, gang raped his wife and three daughters and asked him (father of the house) to have sex with his own daughters under the pressure of a gun to his temple?

The protestors were told it (the protocol) was ratifying homosexuality (I didn't see that in the Protocol) and murder.

Article 14, paragraph 2C of the Maputo Protocol simply requires of states to: “protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the unborn child”

If a woman’s body is hers, to paraphrase Ashutantang, isn’t she entitled to decide whether it is a gift from heaven or hell to carry (for nine-months) the foetus from a violent sexual relationship with an HIV infected gangster or live to nurture a child born of one’s own father?

Beyond what meets the eye

The rhythm, tempo and colour of Ashutangtang’s poems on Batuo’s world are so entrapping one may miss the undertones.

Sakerettes Converge on Obama-City for annual convention

By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D. *

                                                 (originally published at http://www.postnewsline.com/2009/07/sakerettes-converge-on-obamacity-for-annual-convention.html)

 

 The ex-students of the all girls secondary school, Saker Baptist College, Limbe Cameroon popularly known as Sakerettes will be holding their annual convention in Washington DC from July 30th -2nd August.  This will be the second time the Sakerettes are matching on the nation’s capital, but the  mood that pervades the convention this year is inspiring and this is in no small measure connected to the person now inhabiting the White house- Barack Hussein Obama. One of the highlights of the convention this year will be a tour of Washington DC’s historic monuments which will of course include the White house. But this  time around this visit to the white house will be “ a moment in time” where history, dreams and hopes converge to fuel a  new vision for our sojourn here in the United States of America. 

Will We Be there???

By Joyce Ashuntantang

Will we be there for him, now that he is gone in flesh?

Will we be there to protect his name, his children, his love, his care, and his dreams?

Will we be there beyond the tears and songs, beyond our own myopia and sins?

Will we be there in the fullness of time when the media comes swinging

And the racial bigots in envy swim? Will we be there?

 Will we be there for a mother who grieves and a father who cared?

Will we be there to heal the world and be the world?

Will we be there with a smile like Jermaine sang?

Will we be there when it is black or white?

That's all MJ is asking: will we be there??

 

 

 

From "Will you be there"  by Michael Jackson:

Spoken:

In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will you still care
Will you be there
In my trials
And my tribulations

Through our doubts
And frustrations
In my violence
In my turbulence
Through my fear
And my confessions
In my anguish and my pain
Through my joy and my sorrow
In the promise
Of another tomorrow
I'll never let you part
For you're always in my heart

 

My Birthday Gift

Yes today is my birthday…and I am simply excited to have shared my life with you all, my relatives, friends and the many well wishers I have garnered over the years.  I leave you all with three new videos, as my gift to you for all the love, support and even challenges you have thrown my way.  When you are done with the videos, take your time and browse around especially for those of you who are not physically with me today. Through my website you can spend some quality time with me. Remember, you have contributed to the person I now call “me”. And for that I am grateful. I look forward to many more years plus good health by the Grace of our God and the good spirits that be. Enjoy!

From yours truly, Joyce, Dr. J, Prof., Batuo, JB, JAB, Ngore, Manoh,  plus all the other ways you have referred to me over the Years.

Go Tell IT ON THE MOUNTAINS: The King of POP is DEAD!!

YES THE KING/CHILD OF POP MUSIC IS DEAD- A legend was born, a legend lived, a legend has died!!!! Now we can weave myths for our unborn children. We will gather them in the twilight and whisper the story to them..."once upon a time there lived a boy...he was born Michael..Michael Jackson

 

So I cry and weep for this son of a mother who has gone before his time but I have a story to tell and where there is a story, lives are born!!! May Michael Jackson be reborn a thousand times as we pass his name down for generations to come...

 

Adieu,

Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

Joyce Ashuntantang: Foreign Publishers Determine the Nature of our Stories (Interview)

Interviewed by Dibussi Tande and originally published at www.dibussi.com (Scribbles from the Den) and http://www.langaa-rpcig.net/+As-long-as-foreign-publishers+.html

“As long as foreign publishers remain the mid-wives of our stories, they will keep determining the nature of these stories.” Joyce Ashuntantang

Early this year, Joyce Ashuntantang published a book titled Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature which Bernth Lindfors describes as the "most comprehensive study of Anglophone Cameroon literature that has been published to date". In the book, Dr. Ashuntantang, who teaches literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford, USA, demonstrates that contrary to widespread belief, literature from the English-speaking part of Cameroon is alive and well, in spite of a host of obstacles that have slowed its development and reduced its international visibility. In this interview, Dr. Ashuntantang discusses her ground-breaking book and the state of Anglophone Cameroon literature with Dibussi Tande. Excerpts:

“As long as foreign publishers remain the mid-wives of our stories, they will keep determining the nature of these stories.” Joyce Ashuntantang

Early this year, Joyce Ashuntantang published a book titled Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature which Bernth Lindfors describes as the "most comprehensive study of Anglophone Cameroon literature that has been published to date". In the book, Dr. Ashuntantang, who teaches literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford, USA, demonstrates that contrary to widespread belief, literature from the English-speaking part of Cameroon is alive and well, in spite of a host of obstacles that have slowed its development and reduced its international visibility. In this interview, Dr. Ashuntantang discusses her ground-breaking book and the state of Anglophone Cameroon literature with Dibussi Tande. Excerpts:

Composition and Desire

 By Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

Originally published in Palapala Magazine at:

http://www.palapalamagazine.com/2009/05/composing-and-desire-.html#more.
 
When it hits me, my pupils dilate, my breathing doubles in speed, and my heart races. I can't contain myself; I smile and sometimes notice the onset of perspiration. At this juncture, I must rush to the object of my desire. I get there with my left hand on my bosom trying to stop my heaving breasts from tearing through my blouse.

Confessions of a woman Wrapper

Originally published in:

http://234next. com/csp/cms/ sites/Next/ Home/5413479- 147/story. csp

By Ikhide R Ikheloa May 15, 2009

 

I am married, happily married. I am a woman wrapper, yes, I won't lie, I am a woman wrapper, I do whatever my wonderful, lovely, gorgeous wife wants me to do, who wan die? I have said it; o ya, sue me. as I write, she is looking over my shoulders and dictating every word of this wonderful essay. No, it is the truth; I am happily married to my wonderful, lovely, gorgeous wife. Actually every happily married man is a woman wrapper. Any man who says he does not take "nonsense" from his wife is divorced or dead or both.

Priceless marriage tip: If a man ever tells you, "I will not take that from my wife, mba O!" na lie, it is a big lie, the yeye man takes that and more from his wife and thanks his wife for the privilege of taking nonsense from her! Even my father, the dreaded Papalolo, was a woman wrapper. Don't mind him, he is still very alive and he is still a woman wrapper. When I was growing up, we called him "Na Because Of You" behind his back. You see, my mother was a very reasonable person, however, whenever she was pregnant, she loved driving my father insane. In the middle of the night, she would wake up and sweetly request that my father go out and split the firewood for tomorrow's cooking. My father would gnash his teeth like Okonkwo, turn to me and hiss: "Na because of you O, it is because of you that I am going to do this!" And he would go out and split the firewood! At midnight! Whenever my dad resumed splitting firewood in the dead of night, the village knew Mamalolo was pregnant again. I am lying of course, in the sixties, we cooked with gas and we used our microwave to warm our low-fat milk and NO ONE would dare interrupt my father as he watched American Idol on his plasma TV - but you get my gist sha.

Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang in Action: When I Fall in Love I Talk About Buea

Don Williams: Fragments of memory

 

By Pius Adesanmi

 

America invaded my formative years in Nigeria through culture, mainly books and music. Indian (Amitabh Bachchan!) and Chinese (Bruce Lee!) films relegated American (John Wayne) films to a distant background. In High School (Titcombe College), James Hadley Chase was our most mesmerizing path to America. The irony of prefering the America of an enthralling British author was supremely lost on us. We did not just read Chase, we lived each title and its captivating characters. You boasted to schoolmates that the trouble was finding which Chase you hadn’t read. Confessing to having not read a particular Hadley Chase title was a felony. I learnt the hard way when I owned up to having not read Want to Stay Alive? in Form Two. “Ah, you mean you don’t know Poke Toholo?”, my friends asked in horror, their tone acquiring an instant whiff of superiority.

Now Available: Groundbreaking Book on Anglophone Cameroon Literature by Joyce Ashuntantang

Joyce B. Ashuntantang. Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Langaa Publishers, 2009. 188 pages. Available on amazon.com and African Books Collective.

  This is a foundational text on the production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature. The Republic of Cameroon is a bilingual country with English and French as the official languages.

Ashuntantang shows that the pattern of production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature is not only framed by the minority status of English and English-speaking Cameroonians within the Republic of Cameroon, but is also a refl ection of a postcolonial reality in Africa where mostly African literary texts published by western multi-national corporations are assured wide international accessibility and readership.

This book establishes that in spite of these setbacks, Anglophone Cameroon writers have produced a corpus of work that has enriched the genres of prose, poetry and drama, and that these texts deserve a wider readership.

Sarah Palin: A poem for women

 By Joyce Ashuntantang

She can kill a moose, I can’t

She touts a gun, I hate guns

She derides abortions; I stand by them; my body is mine

She’s white and privileged

I’m black and sidelined

But I will not join the laughter

I will not cast a stone

The flower between her legs connects us

 

We have been stoned as heretics in Europe

We have been given up at birth in China

We were killed as witches in Salem

We were refused land in Africa

We are property in Pakistan

We have been killed for honor in Bangladesh

We have been raped and maimed the world over

And so I will not nail her

 

The bumps on her chest connect us

Me, Hilary and Amina Lawal.

We’ve been refused equal pay

We’ve been forced to hide our belly bumps

We’ve been hanged by our PMS*

We’ve been judged by our lipstick

We’ve been dared to grow a penis

We’ve been called nutcrackers

And so I will not stone her

 

 

Let her deeds hand the stones

Let her words nail her

Let her faults trip her

And you can call me what you will:

Fuckn’ Femminist

 

* Pre-menstrual syndrome

A Journey Into Speech

(This version originally published in Palapala Magazine)

 Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

I grew up speaking English. In fact, I was born into English and never considered it a foreign language. I was also born into Kenyang, the language of the Bayangis, and Pidgin English. I learnt all three languages at the same time and in the same house.  Actually, my love for literature in English is rooted in both African and British literature including Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, Jane Eyre, Eze goes to School, The Drummer boy and Things Fall Apart.  Also, my parents studied in England in the nineteen sixties and as I grew up, I visited England through their stories, pictures, music, my mother’s kitchen utensils and my father’s bookshelf.

Indeed my childhood was immersed in English.
Buea, where I grew up, is situated at the foot of Mount Cameroon. It is a town built by Germans in the 19th century. What is remarkable about Buea is the cool weather, the German architectural relics and the English Language, a British legacy. Inhabitants of Buea are known in Cameroon as “I was” because they prefer speaking English amongst themselves instead of Pidgin English.

 Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

I grew up speaking English. In fact, I was born into English and never considered it a foreign language. I was also born into Kenyang, the language of the Bayangis, and Pidgin English. I learnt all three languages at the same time and in the same house.  Actually, my love for literature in English is rooted in both African and British literature including Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, Jane Eyre, Eze goes to School, The Drummer boy and Things Fall Apart.  Also, my parents studied in England in the nineteen sixties and as I grew up, I visited England through their stories, pictures, music, my mother’s kitchen utensils and my father’s bookshelf.

Indeed my childhood was immersed in English.
Buea, where I grew up, is situated at the foot of Mount Cameroon. It is a town built by Germans in the 19th century. What is remarkable about Buea is the cool weather, the German architectural relics and the English Language, a British legacy. Inhabitants of Buea are known in Cameroon as “I was” because they prefer speaking English amongst themselves instead of Pidgin English.