Straddling the Mungo: A Book of Poems in English and French

Straddling the Mungo: A Book of Poems in English and French

Author: Peter W. Vakunta

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 9956558893

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This collection makes a forceful case that official bilingualism is not a pipe-dream, but rather a powerful modus operandi with the potential to ease a myriad of socio-political bottlenecks.


Being and Becoming African as a Permanent Work in Progress

Being and Becoming African as a Permanent Work in Progress

Author: B. Nyamnjoh

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2021-06-09

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 995655183X

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This book is a timely addition to debates and explorations on the epistemological relevance of African proverbs, especially with growing calls for the decolonisation of African curricula. The editors and contributors have chosen to reflect on the diverse ways of being and becoming African as a permanent work in progress by drawing inspiration from Chinua Achebe's harnessing of the effectualness of oratory, especially his use of proverbs in his works. The book recognises and celebrates the fact that Achebe's proverbial Igbo imaginations of being and becoming African are compelling because they are instructive about the lives, stories, struggles and aspirations of the rainbow of people that make up Africa as a veritable global arena of productive circulations, entanglements and compositeness of being. The contributions foray into how claims to and practices of being and becoming African are steeped in histories of mobilities and a myriad of encounters shaped by and inspiring of the competing and complementary logics of personhood and power that Africans have sought and seek to capture in their repertoires of proverbs. The task of documenting African proverbs and rendering them accessible in the form of a common hard currency with fascinating epistemological possibilities remains a challenge yearning for financial, scholarly, social and political attention. The book is an important contribution to John Mbiti's clarion call for an active and sustained interest in African proverbs.


Wading the Tide

Wading the Tide

Author: Emmanuel Fru Doh

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13: 995655877X

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Wading the Tide is an expression of profound emotions touching on a wide range of issues-personal and political-from the birth of the Cameroon nation, her political meandering, until the state of emergency declared on the North West Province in 1992. Accordingly, Doh complains, ridicules, and pays tribute, even as he instructs and guides on timeless matters of life, all in an effort to draw attention to his country's gradual, downward spiral into anomy.


Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations)

Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations)

Author: Nkemngong Nkengasong

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009-03-15

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13: 9956715352

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In this rich and compelling collection of poems the author explores the recesses of the imagination to reveal the different facets of contemporary experience. In doing this he highlights the social, the spiritual, and the metaphysical functions of poetry. The reader will find in the collection sincere expressions of feelings and penetrating thoughts, the genuine tone, spirit and taste of poetry and its ability to provide contemplative clues to prevailing circumstances. The preponderance of stimulating imagery and the overall display of ingenious poeticality reveal the poet as one imbued with a fertile imagination and prove as well that poetry remains the most noble of art through which one understands and comes to terms with the hidden secrets of the universe.


Scribbles from the Den

Scribbles from the Den

Author: Dibussi Tande

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9956558915

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"49 insightful essays ... which originally appeared on his award-winning blog 'Scribbles from the den'"--Page 4 of cover


A Legend of the Dead

A Legend of the Dead

Author: Linus Tongwo Asong

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9956558702

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When the admirable Kevin Beckongncho becomes the new Paramount Chief of the much-coveted throne of Nkokonoko Small Monje as well as its new DO, Chieftaincy could finally be said to have been redeemed. But he quickly becomes a marked man, as he runs into fatal collision with an unscrupulous governmental system with which he cannot co-exist. How this great man suddenly dies, and why his people must not mourn for him, is the unresolved mystery with which Asong closes both the book and his trilogy that includes The Crown of Thorns and No Way to Die.


Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon. A Study of National Youth Day Messages and Leadership Discourse (1949-2009)

Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon. A Study of National Youth Day Messages and Leadership Discourse (1949-2009)

Author: Churchill Ewumbue-Monono

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 995655832X

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This meticulous and comprehensive documentation of Cameroonian Youth Day Messages and leadership discourse on youth from 1949 - 2009 is a gold mine for researchers, historians and anyone interested in studying youth, politics and society in Africa. The book presents and explores themes and content of Youth Day Messages: how these messages tied in with, or veered away from, key events and issues of the time; how they served as a platform for West Cameroon governments, and the Ahidjo and Biya regimes to articulate their political vision, justify their policies, sell their respective ideologies to the youth; and what lessons could be drawn from them on competing, conflicting and complementary perspectives on youth agency in Cameroon and Africa. Churchill links the Youth Day to ongoing discussions in Africa about the role and place of youths as agents of development in Africa. Most significantly, he finally puts Cameroon's controversial Youth Day in its appropriate historical context - not as a political device created by the Francophone politicians to distort Cameroonian history and erase 'plebiscite day' from the collective memory as Anglophone nationalists claim, but as a British Cameroons colonial legacy, successfully sold to the Ahidjo regime as a day to be commemorated throughout the federation, by leaders of the federated state of West Cameroon. Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, a senior career diplomat, is Minister Counsellor in the Cameroon Embassy in Moscow. A graduate of the International Higher School of Journalism, and the International Relations Institute of Cameroon in the University of Yaounde, he was a 1991-92 Fellow in Public Diplomacy in Boston University, USA. He has served in Cameroon in various professional capacities. Ewumbue-Monono has written extensively on Cameroon's political history, and his books include Men of Courage, published in 2005.


A Basket of Flaming Ashes

A Basket of Flaming Ashes

Author: Joyce B. Ashuntantang

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 62

ISBN-13: 9956616567

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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 postcolonial and global experiences with the melancholy of an exile who is purposeful, strategic, and a lot of fun.


Ecology and Natural Resource Development in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Issues in Natural Resource Management

Ecology and Natural Resource Development in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Issues in Natural Resource Management

Author: Cornelius Mbifung Lambi

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 995661548X

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The densely populated Bamenda Highlands of Cameroon remains one of the regions with the greatest land degradation problems in the country. Factors responsible for this include climate change, the hilly nature or topographic layout of the land, and human interference through overgrazing, destructive agricultural practices and the impact of deforestation. This detailed study of resource management and its ecological challenges in the Bamenda Highlands, stresses an important link between falling food output and soil deterioration. While most areas in this predominantly agricultural region enjoy food abundance, the inhabitants of high-density infertile, rugged mountainous areas are forced to resort to double cropping and intensified land exploitation that leave little room for soil regeneration. The population problem in relation to land degradation is infinitely more complicated than the region's sheer ability to produce enough food supply. The authors make a strong case for a delicate balance between human agency and environmental protection in this highly populated and physically challenging region where land is a precious resource and land conflicts are common.


Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament

Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament

Author: Lilian Lem Atanga

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9956615463

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This book investigates gender and power relations in the Cameroonian parliament using a critical discourse analytical approach, which focuses on social issues and seeks to expose unequal relations within institutions. The study identifies different gendered discourses within the speeches of Members of Parliament and government ministers. Consciously or unconsciously, these participants within parliamentary debates draw on topics that construct women and men in specific ways, sometimes sustaining gender stereotypes or challenging existing conditions. The way men and women are constructed using language also is indicative of gender and power relations within this particular community. The study also looks at the way men and women are constructed using traditional discourses of gender differentiation and how some of these discourses get challenged, appropriated or subverted using progressive gendered discourses that advocate equal opportunities, gender equality and gender partnership in development.