Kruse's Keys: Read "Season of the Shadow" to Peer Into Slavery's Origins (Cameroon)

What were the beginnings of slavery like for those villagers who were first kidnapped?  Author Leonora Miana transports the reader to those early terrifying days and likens the horror of slavery to a shadow of darkness whose advance can't be stopped nor hidden from.  Instead the insidious shadow grows and consumes with a callous indifference.

Miana's story begins as the inhabitants of a tribal village tucked away in the interior of modern day Cameroon awaken to its huts ablaze and find that 12 of its men have vanished.  This mysterious disappearance sets off a chain of events that, as one might guess, ends in tragedy.  This tale's power comes as the reader is placed in the middle of a people group who's whole order and existence is thrown into havoc.  Even as the reader is keenly aware as to what happened, the kidnapping is so out of place with centuries of accepted conduct and cultural norms that its tribal members can't fathom who the perpetrators might be.

Written in lyrical prose, "Season of the Shadow" is equal parts beautiful, terrifying, and tragic.  In it Miana's reminds the world that evil unchecked can quickly grow from from the slimmest of shadows to an all-encompassing darkness.

*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here.
See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
**Poet of the week from Cameroon: Mbella Sonne Dipoko

Key Takeaways:

• Parents of stillborn children were scarified to remind death that it had already taken a life (6).
•  In the Mulongo tribe, sovereignty was passed through the maternal line (7). 
• Importance of group over individual is emphasized at the tribal level.  One's own suffering is almost immaterial if the larger group's well-being is preserved. "I am because we are" was the tribe's motto (19, 26, 88).
• There's a large power associated with one's name and the history associated with it.  Sharing one's name is to share a vulnerability that one has (75).  
• The idea of this shadow is not only consuming villages and people, but also entire cultures and histories (171).
• All it really took was one coastal tribe becoming enamored with the Europeans and their "gifts" to push them to expand and grow the kidnappings.  In this way the "shadow" of slavery was like a malignant cancer--every spreading and near impossible to stop (194-5).

Key Quotes:

• "The shadow is also the shape our silences take." (31)
• "Evil, his father had taught him, exists only to be battled." (157)
• "Like other men with shaven heads...he considers that he has no past anymore." (197)

Key References:

• https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/leonora-miano-l-enigme-des-fils-disparus_1283735.html

Poet of the week from Cameroon: Mbella Sonne Dipoko

In celebration of Cameroon's Independence Day (20 May 1972) my poet of the week is Mbella Sonne Dipoko.  I have provided a slew of links that can give you more background on his very interesting and colorful life.  I think that the poem that I have featured below aptly captures the spirit of the man whose life spanned the breadth of the human experience: poet, writer, chieftain, mayor, rebel and thinker.

NOTE: When I feature these poems I am not cutting and pasting them from anywhere since most of them aren't readily available on the web.   Instead I am retyping (transcribing) them from a book of poetry.  Initially this was tedious, but I have found that I enjoy it now.  Typing out the words, the stanzas, the periods, the capital letters, the commas, illuminates the poet's intent and state of mind for me. 

*From what I can tell, Dipoko wrote this poem in English.  I intend to translate it into French at a later date.

A Poem of Villeneuve St. Georges

(for M-C)

I am tempted to think of you

Now that I have grown old

And date my sadness

To the madness of your love.

All those flowers you hung

On my gate

All those flowers the wind blew

On the snow!

Why must I remember them now

And recall you calling me

Like a screech-owl

While I watched you

Through the window-pane

And the moon was over the Seine

And Africa was far away

And you were calling

And then crying

In the snow of exile

And the neighbor’s dog barking as if bored

By the excesses of your tenderness?

When I came down for you

And opened the gate

Cursing the cold of your hand

You always went and stood

Under the poplars of the river Yerres

At the bottom of the garden

Silently watching its Seine-bound waters;

And the moon might take to the clouds

Casting a vast shadow

That sometimes seemed to reach our hearts.

And then following me upstairs

You stopped a while on the balcony

As high as which the vines of the garden grew

With those grapes which had survived

The end of the summer

You picked a few grapes

Which we ate

I remember their taste

Which was that of our kisses.

And then in the room

You in such a hurry to undress

And you always brought

A white and a black candle which you lit.

Their flames were the same colour

Of the fire glowing in the grate

And you were no longer white

You were brown

By the light of the fires of love

At midnight

Years ago.

Dipoko was born in 1936 at Mungo, Cameroon.  He left Cameroon for Paris in 1960 and lived there for about 25 years (I think); he died in Tiko, Cameroon in 2009 .  He published two novels: A Few Nights and Days and Because of Women.  He also published a book of his poetry entitled Black and White in Love.  From what I have been able to research, he was also a controversial figure in his service as a mayor in Cameroon (in Tiko) under the CPDM after previously denouncing authoritarianism.

LINKS:

FUUO Poets of the Week Compilation

Wikipedia Dipoko entry http://anglocamlit.blogspot.com/2007/11/profile-mbella-sonne-dipoko.html

http://www.dibussi.com/2006/06/mbella_sonne_di.html
http://www.joyceash.com/2009/12/mbella-sonne-dipoko-dies-at-73.html
http://www.palapalamagazine.com/2009/12/in-memoriam-mbella-sonne-dipoko.html
http://www.peuplesawa.com/fr/bnvip.php?prid=4085&wid=2
FUUO Happy Birthday Cameroon Post

Poet of the week from Cameroon: Mbella Sonne Dipoko

In celebration of Cameroon's Independence Day (20 May 1972) my poet of the week is Mbella Sonne Dipoko.  I have provided a slew of links that can give you more background on his very interesting and colorful life.  I think that the poem that I have featured below aptly captures the spirit of the man whose life spanned the breadth of the human experience: poet, writer, chieftain, mayor, rebel and thinker.

NOTE: When I feature these poems I am not cutting and pasting them from anywhere since most of them aren't readily available on the web.   Instead I am retyping (transcribing) them from a book of poetry.  Initially this was tedious, but I have found that I enjoy it now.  Typing out the words, the stanzas, the periods, the capital letters, the commas, illuminates the poet's intent and state of mind for me. 

*From what I can tell, Dipoko wrote this poem in English.  I intend to translate it into French at a later date.

A Poem of Villeneuve St. Georges

(for M-C)

I am tempted to think of you

Now that I have grown old

And date my sadness

To the madness of your love.

All those flowers you hung

On my gate

All those flowers the wind blew

On the snow!

Why must I remember them now

And recall you calling me

Like a screech-owl

While I watched you

Through the window-pane

And the moon was over the Seine

And Africa was far away

And you were calling

And then crying

In the snow of exile

And the neighbor’s dog barking as if bored

By the excesses of your tenderness?

When I came down for you

And opened the gate

Cursing the cold of your hand

You always went and stood

Under the poplars of the river Yerres

At the bottom of the garden

Silently watching its Seine-bound waters;

And the moon might take to the clouds

Casting a vast shadow

That sometimes seemed to reach our hearts.

And then following me upstairs

You stopped a while on the balcony

As high as which the vines of the garden grew

With those grapes which had survived

The end of the summer

You picked a few grapes

Which we ate

I remember their taste

Which was that of our kisses.

And then in the room

You in such a hurry to undress

And you always brought

A white and a black candle which you lit.

Their flames were the same colour

Of the fire glowing in the grate

And you were no longer white

You were brown

By the light of the fires of love

At midnight

Years ago.

Dipoko was born in 1936 at Mungo, Cameroon.  He left Cameroon for Paris in 1960 and lived there for about 25 years (I think); he died in Tiko, Cameroon in 2009 .  He published two novels: A Few Nights and Days and Because of Women.  He also published a book of his poetry entitled Black and White in Love.  From what I have been able to research, he was also a controversial figure in his service as a mayor in Cameroon (in Tiko) under the CPDM after previously denouncing authoritarianism.

LINKS:

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbella_Sonne_Dipoko http://anglocamlit.blogspot.com/2007/11/profile-mbella-sonne-dipoko.html

http://www.dibussi.com/2006/06/mbella_sonne_di.html
http://www.joyceash.com/2009/12/mbella-sonne-dipoko-dies-at-73.html
http://www.palapalamagazine.com/2009/12/in-memoriam-mbella-sonne-dipoko.html
http://www.peuplesawa.com/fr/bnvip.php?prid=4085&wid=2
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/05/joyeux-anniversaire-cameroon.html

Some of my favorite poetry books:

Joyeux Anniversaire Cameroon!

Cameroon's Anniversary of Independence

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

Washington, DC

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send best wishes to the people of Cameroon as you celebrate the anniversary of your independence this May 20. Our two nations share an enduring partnership that reflects our long history working on behalf of common causes.

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps this year, we honor the Peace Corps volunteers who have partnered with Cameroonians in rural villages and urban towns. Since 1962, more than 3,000 Volunteers have worked with Cameroon to help improve the quality of lives and empower individuals and communities throughout the country.

The United States remains committed to working with the Cameroon Government as it seeks to strengthen democracy, governance, and rule of law. We look forward to seeing the people of Cameroon exercise their right to vote later this year in a free, fair, and credible Presidential election.

As you celebrate this special occasion, know that the United States stands with you. We are committed to this enduring partnership to help build a more peaceful and prosperous future for all our people.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/05/163800.htm