J. N. NKENGASONG: INTERVIEW WITH SAMSON WEBSI ON CAMEROON CALLING: CRTV-NATIONAL STATION Transcribed and Edited by Oscar Chenyi Labang Abbreviations CRTV = Cameroon Radio Television JNN = John Nkengong Nkengasong (Author) SW = Samson Websi Introduction Dr John Nkemngong Nkengasong who is also current President of the Anglophone Cameroon Writers Association launched his first novel Across the Mongolo. The novel transcends the frontiers of literature to revive the current debate on the negative hangovers of colonialism on the African countries. In a chat with Samson Websi, the author John Nkemngong Nkengasong began by explaining what the word Mongolo means. JNN: Mongolo is an imaginary river, which divides two states of opposing character and heritage. SW: Can you give us a brief synopsis of this novel titled Across the Mongolo? JNN: Across the Mongolo tells the story of a youth, Ngwe who moves from the state of Kama to the state of Ngola where he has to continue with his University education. But while at Ngola he is confronted with a series of problems. He is marginalized, he s subjugated, he s humiliated and so his excellence in academic 1
work, which he had had in his former state, was now destroyed. He s pushed to a state of near mental psychosis which makes him to withdraw to the village. SW: You are talking about Kama, you are talking about Ngola; I mean where do these states actually exist? Do they exist in some imaginary world? JNN: Well I think it is the artist s own creation to explain some of the fundamental problems that we are facing in Africa. They are not real names; they are imaginary states, which were supposed to form a Federated Republic. They are used to express some fundamental problems we face in Africa. SW: Something must have actually motivated you to come up with this piece. JNN: Yes! It s actually my experience as a Cameroonian having observed which are posed by the Federal nature of Cameroon in which case I ve often found that peoples from the Anglophone side of Cameroon have been placed in the situation where they are considered most often as second-class citizens and I have lived that experience first hand; that sample of humiliation, of marginalisation, of subjugation. Linked with other African countries where minority people are treated alike, I thought I should come out with something to tell Africa that we were pushed into states in spite of our cultural, political and 2
religious differences by the West for their selfish interest and it is now time for us to realize that before we were put in this position, we were first of all brothers. From my own experiences and from the experiences of others I have observed, in other words, it is not just the author but what the author has observed of other persons from the particular part of the country or from particular parts of Africa who have suffered that kind of humiliation, that kind of torture, that kind of subjugation and marginalisation because of their political affiliation or political entity or religious and cultural or ethnic groupings. SW: Is your message directed to a particular group of persons or it s to Africans as a whole? JNN: It is not just to Africans as a whole. I think I m trying to establish the fact that even out of Africa, care must be taken to ensure that people should not be considered more privileged than others. I think we are thinking of a world in which we want harmony, we want peace, we want friendliness. To be able to attain this we must be able to accept as brothers, as sisters, as fathers and mothers. It transcends our Cameroonian experiences to African experiences to even the European and even American experiences because that is the fundamental source of conflict the world over and over the ages. We now call the world a global village. We should show this example of a global village by showing the harmony, by ensuring that harmony exists amongst 3
all peoples of different races, of different tribes, of different political, religious and ethnic groupings. SW: You have simply put the problems that you experienced in a kind of History book but you decided to adopt a particular style using words like the Mongolo, you have Kama, names like Ngola. Why did you decide to adopt a literary approach to handling a problem which appears to be a historical one? JNN: I think Literature is a fundamental tool for social regulation for political regulation. Literature is an instrument which the writer uses to highlight certain burning issues of the day. Literature is an instrument which through symbolic and imagistic dimensions, lampoon, caricature, highlight, draw the attention of the powers that be to understand that there is a problem, because they need to know it. The way a politician would say, or the way a man of religion would say or the way a journalist would say, that doesn t give it a particular touch but I think through artistic method, it is intended to rouse some feeling, intended to create some emotions, intended to highlight certain burning issues through symbolism, through imagery, allusions and other literary devices. So literature becomes an important tool which communicates specific intensions and ideas very very effectively. SW: Can we say that you are writing a kind of lets say revolutionary literature in the line of Ngugi and other Africans? 4
JNN: Of course revolutionary in the sense of having the society changed for the better. Because the term revolutionary as politicians will have it, is that you want to deprive them of their daily meal, which they will always have in excess. Revolutionary in terms that the writer s quest has always been to ensure that society attains a harmonious experience; that society is a peaceful harmonious entity. And so, what the writer seeks to do through artistic methods, initiates change in a country or in a continent where people are supposed to be living as one another, there should not be such things as segregation or as intimidation. And this question of merit, Africa is destroying most of its heroes; it is destroying most of its talents; it is destroying most of its scientist because those people who possess these values are subjugated. How can Africa grow? Look at Mandela. He was imprisoned for more than 27 years. Nkrumah, he was murdered. Patrick Lomumba was murdered. In Cameroon we have Mummy, we have Wanje, we have lots of them. Those are the heroes that have been murdered. The experience of the young man in Across the Mongolo is one of such persons who is intelligent and has a future but because of humiliation he is subjugated and so he losses the talent. My idea is that political conflicts are responsible for destroying Africa, not only the forest is going the minerals are going but the human resources are frustrated and so Africa can not be the place that it ought to be. In other words I am calling on African leaders, even Cameroonian leaders to 5
recognize that there is a need for merit whether you are a Francophone or an Anglophone and that if you know that an Anglophone can be a good Minister of Finance why don t you make him a Minister of Finance, if you know that an Anglophone can be a good Minister of Education, why don t you make him a Minister of education? Why must we forever think that it is only people of a particular region has to be a minister of Finance, Minister of Public Service, Minister of Education, Minister of Armed Forces? The segregation is very glaring and in doing this we destroy the very bases of nation building. In other words the resources that are suppose to ensure the effective development of the nation are destroyed because they are not given a chance to exercise those values. SW: when I look at the cover design of this book Across the Mongolo, I see somebody that is in the form of a silhouette. He is actually supporting his head and is inside a chain. What impact do you want to create? JNN: I will like to confess that the cover design is done by an artist selected be the publisher. But, I think that it communicates in one way; first of all you have a black star, you have a chain. For a talented young man like my main character who does not succeed in achieving his ambitions, he is psychologically in chains, not only physically. His star is not a bright on it is dark one that suggests the darkness of the future of a country, of Africa, of the world once merit is not given the priority. 6
SW: After raising all these problems what solutions are you proposing? JNN: My intention in presenting the situation as I have done in the work has been to call on Africans beginning with Cameroonian to recognize those that they marginalize and subjugate have a talent that can contribute to the development of not just their own countries but the world at large and for Africa in particular I keep stressing on the fact that the west (I am sorry for the convenience of this statement) for a long time since colonial rule the intention of the West has been to put Africa in conflict; brother conflicting against brother in other that they can effective exploit them the way the want. You can see what is happening on the African mainland today. Once there is a crisis the empire s troops are already stationed in the country sowing more seed of confusion and one will have the impression that they want to reconcile but they are rather creating more conflict. So it is high time Africa should realize that they were put asunder, they were put aside by the rapacity of the West and understand one another love one another and consider one another as brother, as sister, as father and as mother. In that way I think that we shall have a more glorifying experience such that our forefathers and ancestors had designed for us. SW: From the synopsis of this story about Ngwe in Kama, is there a safety valve for him out of the situation in which he find himself? 7
JNN: By the end of the novel the omniscient narrator makes it clear that the hardship, which he has undergone, prepares him for a more divine task; the task of using his experiences to rescuer his people from that entanglement. He is fully equipped. He doesn t die; he doesn t commit suicide, but he now thinks that rather than subject himself to death or to total frustration as is the wishes of those who frustrate him, he should rather come out and project himself and fight and announce his rights and discuss his rights, and tell the world that he is a Kamangolan, that he is a nation builder that he has capability. How to Reference this Interview Labang, Oscar C. Ed. with Samson Websy on Cameroon Calling: CRTV-National Station. Feb 2006. (Date of Access) http://www.jnnkengasong.tripod.com/reviews&interviews/labang.id4.html. 8