EduArt Awards For Cameroonian Literature in English

EduART Awards Night 2011 in Pictures (with music)

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Ekosso, Barfee Win EduART Awards 2011

 

By Walter Wilson Nana

(Originally published in the The Post, Friday, July 22, 2011)

Rosemary Ekosso and Wirnzerem Barfee, Cameroonian fiction and poetry writers, respectively, distinguished themselves at the second edition of EduART Awards, which took place at the Eta Palace Hotel, Buea, recently. Ekosso, international translator and interpreter was shortlisted for the EduART Jane & Rufus Blanshard Award for fiction for her debut novel, The House of Falling Women.

  
Mrs Bate Besong presents award to Barfee

Bongasu Tanla Kishani: Shortlisted Author for EduART Bate Besong Award for Poetry

PROFILE

Bongasu Tanla Kishani has been shortlisted for the EduART Bate Besong Award for poetry for his collection of poems, A Basket of Kola Nuts.

Unable to explain how A Basket of Kola Nuts (2009) has again involved Dr. Bate Besong, for the sake of remembrance and the justice he so much cherished, Bongasu Tanla Kishani remains gratefully tongue-tied! For, in his words, ‘‘it was thanks to Bate Besong’s relentless efforts to promote my poetry that he sent copies to the ‘Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA),’ which short-listed Konglanjo (Spears of Love without Ill-fortune) (1988), in 1990 for the first position.’’ This twofold collection in English and the Laâm Nso’ publication of Kpuà e Goè’ e Njeèm during his Fulbright Senior Scholar Program (1998-1999) at Dickinson College, Carlisle, USA, today constitute a threefold corpus of Bongasu’s poetry.

 

Bongasu Tanla Kishani was born on 21^stJune 1944 in Kitiiwum, Nso’, in the British Southern Cameroons. Bongasu attended Saint Theresia’s Primary School, Kitiiwum from 1951-1952 where he won an Infant Two price for narrating a story in English and participated in the British Empire’s celebrations concerning the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This enthusiasm somehow weakened on account of unpredictably influential decisions to upgrade or merge Schools as well as daily distant walks from Kitiiwum to Kumbo and Shisong Primary Schools between 1953 and 1955. Consequently, Bongasu failed the promotion examination and repeated the Standard Three class in 1956. Later on, he steadily readjusted and successfully obtained his Standard Six First School Leaving Certificate from the Educational Services of Nigeria and the British Southern Cameroons in 1959. Admitted into St. Joseph’s College Sasse, Buea from 1960-1964, Bongasu Tanla Kishani scored six papers in the pioneer batch that replaced the former Cambridge Secondary School Certificate Examination throughout the Federal Republic of Cameroon with the General Certificate of Education Examination from the University of London in 1964.  Currently, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bongasu Tanla Kishani writes and translates poetic texts as a hobby, with philosophical overtones. His translations include Children’s Verses, the Cameroon National Anthem (1989) and some Secondary School Anthems into Laâm Nso’ to demystify the phobia attached to African languages. ‘Docteur de 3eè Cycle (1981)’ and ‘Docteur d’EÀtat-eès Lettres et Sciences Humaines (1988),’ Bongasu Tanla Kishani  has pursued poetry all along his life’s studies of Philosophy at the Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria (1964-1967); Theology at the ‘Universita di Propaganda Fidei’ in Rome, Italy (1967-1971); Linguistics, Letters and Philosophy at the Sorbonne’s ‘Universiteàs de Paris 1, 1V and V’ (1972-1981) and beyond. Bongasu has published poems in Abbia, Yawunde; Cameroon Life, Tiko; Sa’ka Nso’, Kimbo’, Cameroon; Loquitur and Lux, Rome, Italy; and Presence Afrricaine, Paris, France.

 

As a bilingual Sub-editor of Presence Africaine in Paris 1975–1981, Bongasu Tanla Kishani organized the 1977 Seminar for African and African–American Diaspora Writers in London. Presently, President of the Nso’ Literate Language Organization since 2008 after having served in the same function from 1989-1996, under his leadership, NLLO initiated an annual Laâm Nso’ Journal, Ñgoèn Nso’ in 2010. Ñgoèn Nso’ 2011 covers the Laâm Nso’ translation of President Barach Obama’s Inugural Address of January 20, 2009 in the USA.

 

 

Wirndzerem G. Barfee: Shortlisted Author for EduART Bate Besong Award for Poetry

"Wirndzerem G. Barfee  has been shortlisted for the EduART Bate Besong Award for Poetry for his poetry collection Bird of the Oracular Verb. Born on August 1, 1975 in Kumbo, Bui Division, North West Province of Cameroon, Barfee read Mass Communication at the University of Jos, Nigeria. He  also holds an LLB (University of Yaoundé II), a BA (Linguistics), an MA (English) from the University of Yaoundé I where he is currently doing a doctorate program in American Literature with critical interests in eco-criticism and feminism. A two time participant of the British Council/ Lancaster University CROSSING BORDERS pan-African creative writing program (2004/2006), he had earlier been a selected participant in the BBC/BRITISH COUNCIL Environmental Writing Workshop in 1996. He recently, with a national grant, published a poetry collection, Bird of the Oracular Verb (Iroko Publishers, 2008), and in 2009 his short story, “Jury of the Corrupt”, was included in the The Spirit Machine and Other Stories (CCCPress, UK), an anthology of Anglophone Cameroonian short stories. He has published poems and essays in literature and culture in publications such Palapala Magazine (USA), AfricanWriters.com(Nigeria),  Saraba (Nigeria), Sentinel Poetry Quaterly (UK), Fabafriq (UK/S.Africa) and Conversation Poetry (UK). He has also been involved in editorial projects which include Songs for Tomorrow anthology (Miraclaire, 2009), Ngoh Kuoh Review (Miraclaire, 2011) and Eco-Salvation poetry anthology (Miraclaire, 2011).  Having a passion for songwriting, he has also written songs in Lamnso (his native tongue), English and French for two local artists. A graduate of the National School of Administration and Magistracy, specializing in public finance, he works with the Ministry of Finance, Cameroon."

John Nkemngong Nkengasong: Shortlisted Author for EduART Bate Besong Award for Poetry

John Nkemngong Nkengasong has been short listed for the EduART Bate Besong Award for Poetry, for his poetry collection, Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations). Nkengasong hails from Lewoh in the Lebialem Division in the South West Region of Cameroon. He is a poet, playwright, novelist and critic and the author of several works. His major works include Across the Mongolo (2004), W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot: Myths and Poetics of Modernism (2005), The Widow’s Might (2006), A Stylistic Guide to Literary Appreciation (2007), Letters to Marion and the Coming Generation (2009), The Call of Blood (2010), Black Caps and Red Feathers and Ancestral Earth (2011) and Achakasara (2011).

 

John Nkemngong Nkengasong has been participant at the Fulbright Institute of the Civilization of the United States of America at New York University, guest writer at the University of Oxford, visiting scholar at the University of Regensburg, Germany, and a participant in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, USA. He currently teaches Literature at the University of Yaounde1, Cameroon.

 

Alobwede D'Epie, Shortlisted Author for Fiction

Alobwede D’Epie has been shortlisted for the EduART Jane and Rufus Blanshard award for Fiction for his novel, The Day God Blinked. Prof. Alobwed’Epie popularly known in the University of Yaounde as Pa Alobs, was born at Ngomboku, Tombel Sub-Division, Kupe/Muaneneguba Division, South West Region of Cameroon. He studied at the University of Yaoundé where he obtained his BA English and DES in English; University of Leeds England where he obtained his Masters in Folkloristic and Dialectology, and University of Yaoundé where he obtained his Doctorat d’Etat in English Language studies. He teaches Structure of English, Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics and Creative Writing in the Department of English, University of Yaoundé I. He founded the Yaounde University Poetry Club in 1992 with the aim of demystifying poetry and making it an appreciable and effective vehicle for communicating with people of all walks of life. His training as a folklorist has influenced his poetry and sharpened his senses in novel writing. Thus his poetry is greatly influenced by the English Ballard and his novel by Bakossi folkways and language.

 

 His published fiction includes:

1) The Death Certificate

2) The Lady with a Beard

3) The Day God Blinked,

The Lady with the String

 5) The Bad Samaritan

 6) What Next of Kin?

7) Exhumed, Tried & Hanged.

 Alobwede D’Epie’s poetry manuscript Crying in Hiccoughs is in print.

 Alobwede D'Epie In His Own Words:

ON WRITING

I write fiction in conformity with Chinua Achebe's belief that the story out-lives the event. Considering myself, my friends and enemies, my country, Africa and the world as a series of events, I try to record what I experience. I write fictionalized reality depicting the weaknesses of man in general and leaders in particular. To be candid, readers acquainted with my environment and characters easily point out what, where or who is depicted in my story. This is again in conformity with Alexander Pope's Essay on Man - Man Know Thyself. Man's greatest problem is man himself.

 On Africa:

Whether in poetry or in prose, I look on Africa’s independence in general and Cameroon independence in particular as a dream deferred and agree with Ayi Kwei Armah that ‘the beautiful ones are not yet born’.

 

Rosemary E. Ekosso, Shortlisted Author for Fiction

 

Rosemary Ekosso has been shortlisted for the EduART Jane and Rufus Blanshard award for fiction for her debut novel, The House of Falling Women. She was born and grew up in Buea. After her secondary education in QRC Okoyong and Baptist High School, Great Soppo, she moved to the University of Yaounde, where she earned a degree in English and French. She returned to her home town for postgraduate studies at the University of Buea, qualifying as a translator and interpreter. From 1996, she worked for Cameroon government bodies until 2003, when she joined the international civil service as a translator/interpreter.

Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban, Shortlisted Author for Fiction

Johnnie MacViban has been shortlisted for the EduART Jane and Rufus Blanshard award for Fiction for his novel  A Ripple from Abakawa. Yes, it is the same Johnnie MacViban, the veteran journist who worked for Cameroon Radio and Television. Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban was born on July 25, 1955 in Nkar, Bui Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. Educated in Bamenda, he later entered the University of Yaounde’s International School of Journalism taking a B.A (Hons) in Television Journalism. He has also taken diplomas from the International Communication Institute, Montreal, Canada and the World Bank Institute, Washington D.C.   In 1984 he joined the National Station of Radio Cameroon as a news reader and commentator and worked up the ladder up to 2011 when he retired from Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) as senior news analyst and Editor –in-Chief.  He is now a consultant. In the field of arts he worked ceaselessly behind the scenes, being instrumental in creating the Week-Ender arts supplement of Cameroon Tribune newspaper.

Mwalimu Johnnie Macviban has travelled widely and written extensively. In 1994, he won the Editor’s Choice award in poetry for the American based National Library of Poetry. He is also a member of the Anglophone Writers’ Association (ACWA). His published works include, An Anecdoted Patchwork (Poetry), The Makuru Alternative (Novel) and The Mwalimu’s Reader (a collection of journalistic essays) which is forthcoming.

In His Own Words:

Writing  originates from the wellsprings of the spirit. It is said that every man has a novel in him, but how do you churn it out?  I write because I have a message and I want to share it with my admirers and readers alike. I thus belong to the new school of Cameroon Anglophone writers, whose fact-fiction formula intends to entertain, provoke debates and get readers out of what is described as “a decline of attention”. Aren’t we writers born interferers?

 

Margaret Mbah née Afuh, Shortlisted Author for Fiction

 
Margaret Mbah has been shortlisted for the Jane and Rufus Blanshard award for Fiction for her short story collection Fireside Stories  She was born in 1960, Batibo, Momo Division, North West region of Cameroon.  Presbyterian Practicing, Primary School, Batibo and Presbyterian Girls’ School, Victoria, initiated her into literacy up to 1972. At P.S.S. Batibo and CCAST Bambili her literacy thirst was provoked before she proceeded to the University of Yaoundé, and from there to Créteil in Paris for her first degree in Bilingual Studies in 1982. On her return to Cameroon, she became a translator and a human resource officer with the former National Produce Marketing Board. In 1990, she was admitted to the Higher School of Education (E.N.S.) Yaoundé. Besides her professional certificates, she has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Buea. She has taught literature in various high schools in Cameroon. Presently, she is the National Pedagogic Inspector of English in MINESEC, Yaoundé. She is also the author of, Born Before Her Time (novel), Echoes Across Time (collection of poems), Flowers in the Desert (novel) She is an active member of ACWA (Anglophone Cameroon Writers Association).

 Margaret in Her Own Words

On Her writing:

Meet the Shortlisted Authors for the 2011 EduART Awards for Literature

Every week beginning from today May 17th 2011 we will profile one of our short listed authors, for the 2011 EduART Awards for Cameroon Literature in English,so you can get a glimpse of the person behind the name. The winners will be announced at the EduArt Awards Banquet Dinner on July 16th at ETA Palace Hotel, Buea.

Press Release March 30, 2011:

 

Shortlisted Authors for 2011 EduART Awards for Cameroon Literature in English.

 

Having received quite a commendable number of submissions this year from Anglophone Cameroon writers living in Cameroon and the Diaspora, EduART Inc is pleased to announce the short listed authors for the second bi-annual EduART Literary Awards for Cameroon Literature in English. These awards are intended to encourage not only the production of more creative writing but also to boost publishing in Cameroon.  These are “people's choice” awards which means the winning entries will be selected by a panel of judges drawn from a cross section of the Cameroon reading public not just literary experts.

 Shortlisted Authors for the “Bate Besong Award for Poetry” are:

• Bongasu Tanla Kishani for A Basket of kola Nuts 
• John Nkemngong Nkemgasong for Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations)
• Wirndzerem G. Barfee for Bird of The Oracular Verb

 Shortlisted Authors for the “Jane and Rufus Blanshard award for Fiction” are:

• Margaret Afuh  for Fireside Stories
• Alobwede D’Epie for The Day God Blinked
• Rosemary Ekosso for The House of Falling Women
• Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban for A Ripple from Abakwa

 

The winners will be announced at the EduART Literary Awards Banquet to take place on July 12^th 2011 at the newly opened ETA Palace Hotel in Buea.  

There are no short listed Authors for Victor Elame Musinga Award for Drama because all but one entry was disqualified for technical reasons. Therefore the competition was canceled for this category. 

It should be recalled that the inaugural EduArt Literary Awards Night took place in Buea, Cameroon on July 18, 2008 under the auspices of Professor Niyi Osundare, award-winning Nigerian poet and distinguished professor of Literature at the University of New Orleans, USA. John Ngong Kum won the inaugural award of 500.000CFA for his poetry collection, Walls of Agony, Published by Edition CLE.

 

EduART AWARDS Second Edition 2011: Nominations are around the corner!!

Unlike the maiden edition, this year's edition will consist of two phases. First, the authors shortlisted for each category (Fiction, drama and poetry) will be announced in March 2011. Then the winner for each category will be revealed during the EduArt Awards night tentatively set for July 12th 2011 in Buea, South west Region, Cameroon. The prize for each category is 200.000CFA.

 It should be recalled that the inaugural EduArt Literary Awards Night took place in Buea, Cameroon on July 18, 2008 under the auspices of Professor Niyi Osundare, award-winning Nigerian poet and distinguished professor of Literature at the University of New Orleans, USA. John Ngong Kum won the inaugural award of 500.000CFA for his poetry collection, Walls of Agony, Published by Edition CLE.

 

  

 Stay Tuned,

Joyce Ashuntantang Ph.D. ,  for EduArt Inc.

 

EduArt Awards 2011: Deadline Extended to August 30th, 2010.

In order to make the award more representative, the deadline for EduArt Awards for Cameroon Literature in English has been extended to August 30^th   2010. We are calling on all eligible writers and publishing houses (Buma Kor  publishers, Miraclaire, Designer House, Patron Publishers, Langaa etc etc)  to take advantage of this extended deadline. Please  check out application guidelines on this site or at www.eduartinc.org. To those of you who have applied already, you will be receiving a confirmation call, email or letter soon if you have not yet received one.

 

Please disseminate this information as widely as possible.

 

 

 

 

Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D.

For EduArt Inc

Rosemary Ekosso's "House of Falling Women" Nominated for the Aidoo-Snyder Prize

House of Falling Women, the debut novel of Cameroonian writer Rosemary Ekosso has been nominated for the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize.

Other nominees include Kenyan novelist Wambui Githiora for her book Wanjira; Valerie Tagwira of Zimbabwe for The Uncertainty of Hope; Amma Darko of Ghana for Not Without Flowers; Kopano Matlwa of South Africa for Coconut.

The Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize is awarded annually by the Women’s Caucus of the African Studies Association (ASA) for an outstanding book published by a woman that prioritizes African women’s experiences. Named in honor of Ama Ata Aidoo, the celebrated Ghanaian novelist and short-story writer, and Margaret Snyder, the founding Director of UNIFEM, this award will be given during the 2010 ASA annual meetings in San Francisco at the Women’s Caucus Annual Lecture and Luncheon. Every fifth year the prize is given for a creative work, this year the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize will be awarded for a novel.

LOVING OUR COUNTRY

 

BY KUM ERIC TSO

   

If this be the thread of a love play,

Let’s knit it tightly so fitting that the flare

Does erupt as molten lava in display
For all men to glare
At the essence of love
As the eyes of our heart do blend
At the world’s narrow clove
And the adventures of this beautiful den.
Be not in a hurry
To the land of straw berry
Else you’ll never arrive
At the mysteries of good life
I’ll say no more of the excess
For my words trot in the soul of my princess.

Existence

by  Dzekashu  MacViban

We fought back, with light,the endless night
You imposed on our existence
As the day had left the day,never to return
It seemed--
Had it all ended there
In that primaeval darkness of genesis?
You tailed us-- through time and space, alas!--
Remember Alexandria, and the dung-heap of lies
Which, like crumbs, you left behind.

Brother, your embrace is full of thorns
Which try to asphyxiate our age-old exuberance
To no avail, though; for everyone who fell
Two rose-- stronger.

The griot-led population fears not
The forest of a thousand daemons
For we are in harmony with nature
And
In your frustration, we beheld
Your milk-white pitch-black face of decadent beauty
In its free-fall.

Perfect Politicians

 

By kum Eric Tso

 

They look like saints
patriotic faces
at all phases
always looking innocent


but when elections come
they rig
they kill
they steal
they loot
they rape
our country's progress


they look like worker ants
of success
in the press
always looking triumphant


but when elections come
they rig
they kill

they steal
they loot
they rape
our country's progress.


 

EduART Launches 2nd Edition of Awards For Cameroonian Literature in English

By Azore Opio (originally published in The Post)

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.

EduART Awards 2010 Launched!!!

CATEGORIES:

 

 

VICTOR ELAME MUSINGA AWARD FOR DRAMA-200.000CFA

JANE AND RUFUS BLANSHARD AWARD FOR FICTION- 200.000CFA

BATE BESONG AWARD FOR POETRY- 200.000CFA

 

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 (opposite OIC Buea)

P. O. Box 90, Buea 

Southwest Province.

 

ELIGIBILITY RULES

There is no restriction on setting, theme or mode. EduArt accepts any fictional work which falls in any of the categories below:

1. Fiction (Novel or collection of short stories - Non-fiction books are not eligible for these Awards)
2. Drama
3. Collection of poetry

To be eligible for the 2010 award, the work must meet the following criteria:

1. The work must have been written by a citizen of Cameroon
2. The work must have been published in Cameroon or any other African Country
3. It must be of a reasonable length
4. The work must have been first published between 1st January 2008 and 31 December 2009
5. The author must be alive on the closing date for entries
6. The entry must be originally written in English. (We regret that works translated from other languages are not eligible.)
7. 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 1 January 2002. **

Download Eduart inc eligibility and registration form

Diktat

 

By  Marinus Samoh YONG,

 

That all this while they have been up there

With no thought spared for us seen down here

Groaning under the heavy weight of their power

The  pain of their hammer every sluggish hour.

 

That all this while they have held us hostage

With all the thought for barbaric rage

Scheming on how to improve their tool

The effective staff of their harsh misrule.

 

Corpse Cameroes

 

By  

Marinus Samoh YONG

 

 

Why disturb the real peace of the triangle

Sitting on the western lap of Mother Africa?

Why scheme, angle and juggle

The fate of this wealth in plethora?

Why grasp with gloved hands

And silent smoking double barrels

The overflowing oiled vessels

From our rich common sands?

Cameroes grows yet remains puerile.

Cameroes bleeds and remains docile.

Cameroes faints and remains fragile.

Cameroes dies yet remains tactile.

Her death, the strength of groveling imperialists

Her transience, the muscle of mindless men

The fruit of faithless extortionists

The glory of an octogenarian fiend.

Cameroes, in the casket made of the woods

From the dense tropical forest

On which stands the imperial boots

Is thought to be in rigid rest.

 

A Sweeter Song

    By Afeseh Ngwa Hilary

There is always a sweeter song,
It hates the place of stagnation,
Comes on the wings of adventure,
Played with the instrument called daring,

If you cling to your past,
Settle in your present,
You cannot hear this song,

Take An African Trip

   By Afeseh Ngwa Hilary

Yes Africa is still a continent,
With a flow of woes incontinent,
But that is only part of the story,
Disabuse yourself from a partial story,

Get on a mental flight,
Meet ignorance with a fight,
Take an African trip,
Redeem your ignorant slip,

Africa's not only the wars,
Neither is it only the sores,
Nor a starving child on tv shows,
It is also those who rise when the cock crows,

Looking at uncertainty in the face,
Summoning courage of every trace,
Doing countless little things,
Rewriting the song that circumstance sings,

Showcase your poetry or short fiction here

If you  write poetry or short fiction professionally or for fun, consider sharing it at eduartawards.org. Your work should be in English and you should be from Cameroon or originally from cameroon. I would like to encourage those who have always written creatively but have never shared their work publicly. Here is your chance. Just send your work to eduartinc@yahoo.com.

Thanks,

Joyce Ashuntantang Ph.D.

Diana's Fortress of Fear

By Male Anonymous from Cameroon

 

Babe, here I am again
Dis-armed, unmasked, naked, exposed by your gaze within my stare
Warm winds, set free from the depths of my soul
As you try to pry open its vaulted doors
Twirls around my ankles, working their way upwards to my heart

Creating winds of warmth, that long to belong to your passions and your all

But the insincerity from your smile, ways and words keep it at bay

The insolence in your actions steeped in an unjust past

Fire warning shots of caution to my premise of restraint

The sharp tongued ignorance from your mind chills the approaching warmth

 

Diana, I loved you long before I held you, and felt you

I admired you, seasons before I heard you, and fell for you

I coveted you, ages before I embraced you, and kissed you

From the field of a bachelors playground you seduced me

 

With the gravity of your sensuous ways and sizzling methods, you pulled me

Fastening the chains of your wants, your needs and your desires

Firmly on my means, my pulse and my yield

My yield to your dictates

 

In the twilight of my knowing you

Was the pronounced essence of lighting your candle of hope

The candle with a promising brightness

A brightness to shine the path towards the star of your dreams

Dreams that took precedence over our candle of love

 

But present was the discordance of the storms

Storms generated from two generations gone by

And reinforced by a present void of essential tools

Tools of definition, clarity, and strategy

A strategy to calm the storms and define a path

 

I met you with my heart, my soul, my weaknesses, my blindness

And to you I gave my best, my brains, my patience

 

To your enterprise was my unflinching zeal

A zeal that calmed the storms, and unearthed the instruments

Instruments that lit the candle of your enterprise

Inviting a brightness that further tamed the storms of despair

 

Antidote - A Poem

 By John Ngong Kum (winner, EduArt Bate Besong award for Poetry 07) 
 
I have combed the country
looking for where to rest
and forget the scarlet screams
of people scrubbing hard but never rising to smile
I have pleaded with the muse
to release and let me die
but you came with antidotes
stood them before me smiling
and challenged me to try them

True African Woman (For Professor Joyce Ashuntantang)

By Ekpe Inyang

When the name I first heard
Matched with plans of a great event
In honour of a fallen Iroko Tree
I saw in my mind’s eyes
A lady in full display of grey hair
Majestic look, pompous gait
Imperious tone to announce
Her place on the Ivory Tower
Like those we have around

Niyi Osundare - A Toast to Bate Besong

Grandiose Kick-off for the Inaugural EduArt Awards For Cameroonian Literature in English

The inaugural EduArt Literary Awards Night took place in Buea, Cameroon on July 18, 2008 under the auspices of Professor Niyi Osundare, award-winning Nigerian poet and distinguished professor of Literature at the University of New Orleans, USA.

www.flickr.com

Niyi Osundare in Cameroon for the EduArt Awards for Literature

A few days before winning Africa's highest award for poetry, the 2008 Tchicaya Utamsi award, Niyi Osundare was in Buea, Cameroon, as a special guest for the inaugural EduArts literary awards ceremony, a celebration of  literature by English speaking Cameroonians.

Osundare landed at the Douala International airport on Wednesday 16th July 2008. On hand to welcome him was the founder and CEO of EduArt Inc USA, Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, accompanied by a Nigerian delegation led by the Consul General of Nigeria to Cameroon in charge of the South West and Northwest provinces (English-speaking Cameroon).

Celebrating 50 Years of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in Buea, Cameroon

One of the highlights of the EduArt awards night was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. This part of the ceremony was presided over by Dr. Kenneth Nsor, the Consul General of Nigeria to Cameroon in charge of Southwest and Northwest provinces. After remarking on the importance of this milestone for Africa and the world at large, Dr Nsor popped champagne and invited the guests to drink to the health of the great Chinua and Achebe and African literature. It was on this joyful note that the inaugural EduArt Literary Awards night came to an end.

Prof. Niyi Osundare and Dr. Kenneth Nsor, Consul General of Nigeria to Cameroon in charge of the Southwest and Northwest provinces of Cameroon celebrating Things Fall Apart and Chinua Achebe while Prof. George Nyamdi, Head of the Department of English at the University of Buea and former presidential candidate looks on.