Conscientisation and Political Liberation in Anglophone Cameroonian Poetry: The Poetic Vision of Emmanuel Fru Doh, Bate Besong and Mathew Takwi

Abstract

The main thrust of the argument of this paper is that Emmanuel Doh, Bate Besong and Mathew Takwi have used their poetry as a veritable weapon of conscientisation and political liberation in Cameroon. Thus, the three poets blend literature and reality to advance the cause of Anglophone National Liberation in Cameroon. From a clearly Marxist literary perspective, the ideo-aesthetic position of Emmanuel Doh in Wading the Tide (1998), Bate Besong in Just Above Cameroon (1998) and Mathew Takwi in Messing Manners (2014) is very clear, though subtle: these poets view the emancipation and welfare of Anglophones in Cameroon as an index of socio-political growth.
In the light of the above assertions, the paper argues that Doh, Besong and Takwi are deeply sensitive and responsive to the realities and moods of moments of collective experience, especially crisis moments. Their poetry is , in fact, a summation of their political and ideological commitments. These poets have endeared themselves to the Anglophone, especially those who are dissatisfied with the present day political dispensation in Cameroon in their attempts to write and be involved with what has become known as “literature of conscientisation and commitment”.