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Imbolo Mbue: Cameroon’s literary gem and Africa’s first million-dollar novelist

By - 18 Comments - - 7 minutes of reading

   Who is Imbolo Mbue? What does it mean to write a million-dollar novel? Nkiacha Atemkeng explores these questions and reviews “Emke“, Imbolo Mbue’s first published story. When I first heard that a US-based writer from Cameroon, Imbolo Mbue, had signed a whooping book deal of one million dollars for her manuscript, The Longings of

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Modern Juju Music

By - 4 Comments - - 13 minutes of reading

Dami Ajayi From I.K. Dairo’s refreshing contribution, to King Sunny Ade and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, the legendary ying-yang of Juju music, Dami Ajayi traces the evolution of a genre which spanned the oil boom of the 70s as well as the 90s, a draconian period of economic austerity occasioned by military rule in Nigeria.

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Q & A With Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban on Political Fiction

By - 2 Comments - - 6 minutes of reading

Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban is a household name in Cameroonian journalism and was featured in Index on Censorship in 1986 for an article titled ‘The Enemies of Democracy’. In 2011 he was shortlisted for the EduART Jane and Rufus Blanshard award for Fiction for his novel A Ripple from Abakwa. His other works include The Makuru Alternative, An Annecdoted

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Akua Naru’s Poetic Discourse on Love and Black Suffering

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Why does Akua Naru accept Africa’s music and spirituality, and neglect its people’s voice in her poems? The 1997 film Love Jones features a scene in a dark jazz club at an open mic night where a young black man, Darius, performs an erotic spoken word poem dedicated to his love interest Nina. He references

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An Overview of Cameroon Prison Literature From Albert Mukong to Titus Edzoa

By - Leave a Comment - - 14 minutes of reading

Unlike prison literature in the United States, South Africa, or Kenya, Cameroon prison literature is yet to be treated as a distinct literary genre. In fact, it is not far-fetched to state that in Cameroonian academic and literary circles, books written by detainees or former detainees about their prison experiences are not considered “literature.” In

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Mboko Leak and a New Era of Online Piracy in Cameroon

By - Leave a Comment - - 7 minutes of reading

Music piracy has acquired an almost legal status in Cameroon, with burnt copies of albums on display in various markets countrywide. This has been going on for so long, such that many of those who buy aren’t aware that they are buying pirated CDs. If one goes from the premise that music piracy is the

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The Politics of Exile in Inongo-vi-Makomè’s Natives

By - 3 Comments - - 5 minutes of reading

The last few years have been exciting for Cameroonian writers. At the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014, Random House signed a seven-figure deal for the North American rights to The Longings of Jende Jonga, a novel by Cameroonian writer Imbolo Mbue. The book, which will be available in August is now titled Behold the Dreamers.In

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Negrissim’s Long Awaited Afrofuturist Comeback

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When Sadrak and the Sassene brothers (Evindi and Sundjah) decided to form Negrissim’ in 1995, little did they know that they’d created what would become one of Cameroon’s most influential pioneering hip hop crews, which would later win accolades from Senegal to France. Sometime later, Boudor joined the group and in 2000 they released their

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The Minimalist Aesthetic in Ayriq Akam’s New Songs

By - 1 Comment - - 4 minutes of reading

Ayriq Akam’s experimental hip hop goes from soulful to minimalist Perhaps best known for “Bienvenue au Cameroun”, a hip hop song with a soulful influence released in 2010 to wide acclaim, Ayriq Akam can be considered as a lynchpin of the underground hip hop/rap scene in Cameroon. “Bienvenue au Cameroun” is shot around the Central

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