Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong

Book excerpt: Bate Besong was Cameroon?s most vocal and controversial poet, playwright and scholar, who died in March 2007. The poems in this collection are a tribute to the man and his work, and provide a snapshot of the mood that prevailed after his death. Bate Besong ushered in a new kind of nationalist ?fighting? literature in Cameroon, unapologetic in its defense of Cameroon?s Anglophone minority and scathing in its denunciation of postcolonial African dictators and their foreign collaborators. These poems defy Bate Besong?s death by affirming that his impact as a writer lives on. 34 poems are included from 30 poets. ?Moving and tellingly generous, these tributes attest to the value of Bate Besong as humanist, artist, and patriot; the ?Inextinguishable Flame? of his inspiration; the triumph of his life over the pain of his departure. Here is a resonant celebration not only of the brief but boisterously bright fire of one of our bravest writers, but also of the unbreakable chord of our common humanity. The refrains in these elegies are anthems of hope. The ink in their lines will for ever stay aglow.? Niyi Osundare, Nigerian writer & former teacher of Bate Besong ?These poems put into perspective the essence of that Anglophone Cameroon literary icon, the fearless ?Obasinjom Warrior? with the bemused smile, who once upon a time, was called Bate Besong.? Ba?bila Mutia, Professor of Literature, ENS, University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon. Author of Coils of Mortal Flesh.