Böcker av Emmanuel Fru Doh

During this hour of challenges and perplexity amounting to putrid and dazzling socio-cultural darkness, albeit being perceived as enlightened existence, soothing and reassuring religious nudges come to play in Throes as the spiritual impulse is frequently summoned to guide, calm, reassure, and redirect souls to that which is most important. Hence the gentle hints, with vivid imagery directed at the Cross, amidst much else, for mankind to fall back and reconsider the role of the spiritual in his/her existence, as opposed to the secular, in hopes that human beings will imbue their lives with a form of sanity, of sacrality, in the face of varied ongoing challenges.EMMANUEL FRU DOH holds a Ph.D from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Poet, novelist, social, and literary critic, Emmanuel Fru Doh is the author of Anglophone Cameroon Literature: An Introduction. He teaches in the Department of English at Century College, Minnesota, USA.

This study is the first critical examination of the novels of Linus T. Asong, a sharp, compelling, and brutally insightful storyteller, sometimes comical yet with a knack for the distraught, disturbing, and macabre in his throbbing capture and portrayal of society as it functions or as it fails to function. Asong's novels bring to the fore an unexpected enormous array of characters whose physical appearances and habits are depictions made concrete by potent imagistic words deployed not only to evoke vividness and plausibility, but more specifically to peek into the soul and mental uprightness of persons and society. Hence, they demonstrate the response of the oppressed, exploited, and abused in the face of dysfunctionality, social, and cultural violations and deviations. In this light, the novels are revealed to serve both as testimonies and critiques of the times in which Asong lived. This study, therefore, offers insights into one of the most prolific novelists of Southern Cameroons origins, as well as modern trends in African literature.¿¿EMMANUEL FRU DOH holds a Ph.D from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Poet, novelist, social, and literary critic, Emmanuel Fru Doh is the author of Anglophone Cameroon Literature: An Introduction. He teaches in the Department of English at Century College, Minnesota, USA.

Dans Les seuils de l'intolérable, Musang, originaires des Grassfields, tombe amoureux d'Etonde du littoral. Bien qu'ils soient conscients des tensions existantes et de la méfiance injustifiée entre les deux camps, le couple est prêt à se marier lorsqu'à la dernière minute, le père d'Etonde rejette fermement la demande en mariage. Bien que traumatisé, Musang, enfin, considère le rejet comme un signe providentiel et reconsidère ainsi une idée persistante de vocation - le sacerdoce. Pendant ce temps, une Etonde dévastée, maintenant défi e des hommes et lutte pour retrouver son équilibre. Cependant, des années plus tard, à quelques mois à peine de son ordination sacerdotale, Musang, postulant exemplaire, se voit soudain offrir le choix déprimant d'aller en probation ou de quitter le séminaire ; il quitta.¿¿EMMANUEL FRU DOH est titulaire d'un doctorat ès lettres de l'Université d'Ibadan, au Nigeria. Entre 1990 et 1997, il a enseigné la littérature africaine à l'Université de Yaoundé I (ENS Bambili), au Cameroun, période au cours de laquelle il s'est imposé comme une voix majeure sur la scène littéraire du Cameroun. Enseignant, poète, et critique accompli, Emmanuel Fru Doh enseigne actuellement au département d'anglais de Century College, Minnesota, U.S.A.

In this collection, Doh straddles the Atlantic with voices that doubt, question, and lament the black predicament; voices that evoke the wisdom of Africa's cultural values in a manner reminiscent of the continent's orality. Like the echoing of the talking drums in the forests and the savannahs, these voices acknowledge the challenges and vexing truths of the hour: the plight of a people that have been buffeted repeatedly by waves of invasion, deceit, and betrayals, yet against which onslaught they remain standing, frighteningly tall in dignity and integrity.

In Boundaries, Musang, from the Grassfields, falls in love with Etonde from the Coast. Although aware of some existing tension and unfounded mistrust between both camps, the couple is ready to marry when Etonde's father, incredibly, rejects the marriage proposal at the last minute. Although traumatized, Musang, finally, deems the rejection a sign from heaven and so reconsiders a lingering vocation idea - the priesthood. Meanwhile, a devastated Etonde, now defiant of men, struggles on to regain her equilibrium. Years after, however, and barely months away from his ordination into the priesthood, Musang, an exemplary postulant, is suddenly given the deprecating choice to go on probation or leave the seminary; he leaves.

On March 8, 2007, one of Cameroon's foremost scholars died in a ghastly traffic accident barely hours after launching his most forthright and acerbic collection of poems: Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus. Dr. Bate Besong was a social activist, a critic, troubadour, and playwright; an avant-garde, steeped in the tradition of the absurd, who fought against the corrupt system of governance that transmuted Cameroonians into a comatose and apathetic citizenry neutered by fear engendered by the workings of an existing Gestapo. For the first time, Emmanuel Fru Doh has gone beyond an analysis of Besong's plays into giving an in-depth appraisal of his poems which have, for a long time, held back critics because of their opacity. Doh examines each of Besong's plays and collections of poems in separate sections and succeeds in setting Besong's work in perspective-mindful of their concerns and the nation's history-as informed by a succinct political vision and an already established technique modified only by genre. The Obasinjom Warrior, which amounts to a brief look at the scholar's life and a detailed study of his works, is a befitting tribute to a true patriot and scholar who died fighting the forces of evil, in positions of power, which have transformed his native Cameroon into a province of hell. This is a careful, detailed, and authoritative study of one of the most significant literary figures ever to emerge from Cameroon.

Shadows, as the title insinuates, splits open and lays bare the frightening vision of humanity, the heart of man depressed, a veritable inferno in which there is little to be enjoyed and everything to be endured, as all is vanity, a gnawing emptiness. Nothing is but what it seems. Simple but without being simplistic, there is in the damp climate of Doh's poetry broken promises, displaced emotional centres, a pervading sense of doom, of impending disaster, and a total helplessness reminiscent of Plato's proverbial mythical cave in which all reality is but shadow, devoid of substance, with the observer chained to the walls of his feelings, beliefs, and unfulfilled ambitions. The second section, 'Celebration', is, however, a source of warmth, of light, the sun's rays in an otherwise damp and and dark collection.

In Africa, there is unrest, and possibly tragedy, when new trends clash with traditional values.With a curmudgeonly stepmother who harasses her even as she spoils her own biological daughter, Mungeu', the protagonist, blazes a path for herself in the face of many odds. But things go terribly wrong when she falls pregnant. The dilemma of whether or not to keep the pregnancy, given society's expectations, flings this young woman into direct confrontation with a life that is beyond her years. She is bent on succeeding: she will keep her baby, and with her training at a girls' craft center, start a business and bring up her illegitimate child. But Mungeu' can only make plans as she realises before long that the authority to dispose of them does not rest with her alone; there are other powerful forces out there.

Africa's Political Wastelands explores and confirms the fact that because of irresponsible, corrupt, selfish, and unpatriotic kleptocrats parading as leaders, the ultimate breakdown of order has become the norm in African nations, especially those south of the Sahara. The result is the virtual annihilation of once thriving and proud nations along with the citizenry who are transformed into wretches, vagrants, and in the extreme, refugees. Doh uses Cameroon as an exemplary microcosm to make this point while still holding imperialist ambitions largely responsible for the status quo in Africa. Ultimately, in the hope of jumpstarting the process, he makes pertinent suggestions on turning the tide on the continent.

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.

Against a disturbing political backdrop and through an in-depth appraisal of selected illustrative texts from major genrespoetry, prose, and dramaEmmanuel Fru Doh presents the origins and growth of a young but potent literature. To him, Anglophone-Cameroon literature is a weapon in the hands of an oppressed English speaking minority in his native Cameroon, Africa, who were unfairly manipulated by the United Nations and Britain into a skewed federation in the name of an independence deal.

Not Yet Damascus