Anglophone literary icon, Prof John Nkengasong, drops pen at 64.

The ace Cameroonian playwright, novelist, poet and scholar, passed on Sunday following an illness, according to credible sources.

Prof Nkengasong, who until his demise was serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Buea, is said to have succumbed to the cold hands of death at the Yaounde General Hospital.

We gathered that the literary colossus died after battling with an illness that even took him abroad for treatment. 

He was best known for his famous book “Across the Mongolo", a novel that depicts the marginalisation of Anglophones by the Francophone-dominated post-colonial regimes.

Prof Nkengasong contributed immensely to the growth and development of Literature in Cameroon, Africa and beyond. 

His works included amongst others “The Widow's Might”, “Achakasara”, “Black Caps and Red Feathers” and “The Call of Blood” 

Tributes galore

Meanwhile, as news of his demise fell like bombshell yesterday, several persons took to social media to pay him homage.

The now late varsity don and poet has been described as a social critic, activist and poet who marketed Cameroon and African culture to several other countries and continents.

His demise, his admirers say, remains a monumental loss to his family, the people of his Region of birth, the South West, Cameroon, Africa and the entire world.

Prof Nkengasong, they say, stood for the truth and fought inhumanity and injustice.

In an outing yesterday via his verified Facebook page, writer and novelist, Douglas Achingale, described the late Nkengasong as a “literary baobab”.

“Across the Mongolo and beyond, he has left us weeping. How come we didn't finish our huge project before you bowed out? Rest well, John Nkemngong Nkengasong. In God's Kingdom, the nib of your pen will sure bleed even more profusely,” added Achingale.

Another author of several books, George Ngwane, merely mentioned that “My brother 'Across the Mongolo," fare thee well as you meet ‘requiem for the last Kaiser’”.

For his part, Dzernyuy Collins Fai stated that: “Prof, you have left your prints on the sands of time. May your Maker welcome you in his city as Prof Bole and cohort chant 'welcome home brother songs”.

“What a great loss to us all! Death is indeed a bad reaper, always reaping the unripe. Who will fill this paucity now? Prof, you were so unique,” a Facebook user, Manjoh Priscillia, said of the late Nkengasong.

She added: “I can’t believe all that intellect is gone. RIP Prof. You did just the best. You proved your worth. We are contented. Go well and continue to rest in the Lord”.

Also commenting on the demise of John Nkengasong, Njukang Princeley, described the late writer as a rare personality. 

He said, Prof Nkengasong “knew how to fuse history and futurism together and how to handle the complex and risky themes of the Cameroonian society without hurting any”.

Njukang said his masterpiece, ‘Across the Mongolo’, “is probably the best Anglophone political novel in Cameroon so far”. “We will miss you, Prof Nkemngong. Rest well,” he concluded.

Who really was Prof Nkengasong?

Born in 1959, the late Prof John Ngosong Nkemngong Nkengasong, was a playwright, novelist, poet and scholar. 

He was often referred to as a "Radical Visionary" of Anglophone Cameroon and an “ardent upholder of innovative creativity and crusader for the truth,” as was demonstrated by his novels, poetry, short stories but most notably his plays. 

Nkengasong spent part of his early childhood in his native Lewoh, a society within the larger Nweh tribe of Lebialem Division of the South West Region. 

The countryside's craggy and verdant scenery and its splendid culture were richly represented in his publications.

In 1971, he completed Primary School and enrolled in Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College Fontem, Lebialem Division.

At that formative age, he became conscious of the centrality of literary creativity in human experience and began writing poems; some of which were published in the college magazine. 

After graduating from High School, he read English at the then University of Yaounde, specialising in English Literature while taking elective courses in Theatre Arts.

Between 1979 and 1982, the years of his undergraduate studies, he wrote poems, some of which were published in The Mould, a journal of creative writing founded by Bole Butake and in The New Horizons, another journal of creative and critical writing founded by Tala Kashim Ibrahim. 

With a Bachelor of Arts degree in English obtained in 1982, he registered in the second cycle of the Higher Teacher Training College, University of Yaounde, graduating in 1984 as a High School teacher. 

While he taught in High School, he pursued graduate studies, earning a “Maitrise” in 1985 and in 1993, and a “Doctorat de Troisième Cycle” degree from the University of Yaounde. 

He was recruited as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Yaounde 1 in 2000. In 2004, he obtained a PhD, in English Literary Studies.

After obtaining a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Yaounde I, the university offered him fertile grounds to explore his burgeoning creative talents, leading to the publication of several plays, prose works, poetry and essays which have sought for him national as well as international acclaim. 

He lectured Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Yaounde 1 and was also the Head of Department in the University of Buea in the South West Region.

Apart from his creative works, he published extensively on African Literature and Culture, British and Postcolonial Literature and Cameroonian Pidgin. 

Prof Nkengasong’s writings

A prolific author and critic, Prof Nkengasong, wrote works which traverse genres and disciplines.

His creative imagination was inspired by his native Nweh culture and the multicultural, social and political complexity of Cameroon; particularly defined by the country's history and multiple colonial heritages. 

His works, notably his plays, were commendably innovative, postmodern and at times radically absurd in form and content.

They focused essentially on the interrelations of history, nation and culture in Africa and were presented in style that “transcends the fluid demarcations of theoretical dogmas”. 

Black Caps and Red Feathers (2001), was his first major publication, which gave signals to what would later be considered as an enriching career. 

The play is “a remarkable two-act play that constitutes the author’s individual insight into the human condition”.

It is notable for its absurdist structure and content as well as its experiments in surrealist techniques. His debut novel and best known work, ‘Across the Mongolo’, was published in 2004. 

Besides its rich cultural context, it is a subtle expression of the angst against the humiliation and subjugation of minority peoples in Africa, who are the victims of colonial geopolitics. 

He also wrote poetry, which is published in a collection titled, "Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations). It was published in 2009. 

The poetry is “built on humour, irony and bestial imagery”. It handles a wide range of issues, including “Africa’s afflictions…the petty squabbles that have transformed contemporary Africa into a battlefield”. 

His writings took him to many parts of the world. Notably, he was a Writer-in-Residence in the International Writing Program, IWP, at the University of Iowa.

He was guest writer at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, New York University, Chicago Humanities Festival Archived 2018-08-16 at the Wayback Machine, Howard University, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Augsburg, among others.

In February 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Archived 2017-05-23, at the Wayback Machine fellowship in Italy, for academic writing.