Originally published on Scribbles from the Den
Francis Nyamnjoh. Stories From Abakwa. Bamenda: Cameroon. Langaa Publishers. 2007. [$19.95 (US), £14.95 (UK), CDN$ 21.14 (Canada) and EUR 17,94 (Europe)]
Barely one year after he published the highly-acclaimed A Nose for Money, which I reviewed here, 
Francis Nyamnjoh is back with his fourth work of fiction titled Stories from Abakwa. Although the collection of short stories has been on the market for only three weeks, it is already available worldwide on book retailer websites such as Amazon.com.
Stories from Abakwa, is published by the Bamenda-based Langaa Publishers, the only Cameroonian publishing outfit with a viable international distribution strategy and network. Stories from Abakwa is distributed in the United States by Michigan State University Press (MSUP), and in Europe and the rest of the world by African Books Collective.
About the Collection
Childhood and growing up in Mimboland are infused with fascinating stories and adventures. Discover life in Abakwa with Tom and his friend, as they are chased through an orchard for secretly harvesting avocadoes and mangoes. Smile as Mathias Chi's overloaded canoe almost loses balance. Shiver as Roland runs through the dark streets and bleeding corridors of Mvog Mvog. And cry when Big Brother discovers how his siblings suffered when he was away at school. What happens to Esther when she finds the courage to make an announcement at the Abakwa Mountain Foot Radio Station about her husband's disappearance? Will Prudencia and Collette kill or give life? How does Prisca Lum deal with her dwarf husband? Some characters will remind you of people you know - or even of yourself. Drum beats and church bells, thunder and lightning, princes and princesses, visions and deceptions fill the pages. Discover your favorite stories waiting to be told and retold, again and again.
About the Author
Francis Nyamnjoh is the author of four works of fiction – two novels: The Disillusioned African (1995), Mind Searching (1991), and a play, The Convert (2003) and "A Nose for Money" (2006). He has authored and edited several scholarly works, including recently, Africa’s Media: Democracy and the Politics of Belonging (Zed Books, 2005). His background is in sociology, and he has held academic posts in Cameroon, Botswana and South Africa, and is currently Head of Publications and Dissemination at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA).
Purchasing Options
Click on the appropriate option below to purchase Stories from Abakwa .
Francis B. Nyamnjoh's Stories from Abakwa is a remarkable depiction of the socio-economico-political realities of Mimboland aka Cameroon. The writer does more than re-write the events that characterize the day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of this terrestrial limbo. What strikes the reader the most in this anthology of short stories is the linguistic engineering that the author adeptly avails himself of. Camfranglais-- the mumbo-jumbo that not only baffles Fineboy Ayuk but leads to his unanticipated demise, is the hallmark of the code-switching that Nyamnjoh employs as a narartive technique in the collection.
Code-switching is perhaps one of the most effective strategies of linguistic appropriation at the disposal of this Cameroonian writer. It enables him to make the inter-language (third code) bear the burden of an experience for which terms and experiences in the inherited language do not seem appropriate. Code-switching occurs when the Empires writes back, as Ashcroft et al. would have it. By directly inscribing Cameroon Pidgin English into his text Nyamnjoh succeeds in showing that the socio- economic dichotomies created by colonialism have been retained in postcolonial Cameroon, for the Pidginized form of a language is often a marker of social status.
Throughtout the narrative, the reader enjoys not only the narrator's virtuosity in fictional narrative but also his verve at word-smiting. All in all, Stories from Abakwa is a replica of the travails of life well known to Cameroonians.
Posted by: PETER W. VAKUNTA | October 08, 2007 at 10:53 AM
Hi Peter,
Many thanks for your comment and very interesting angle from which you've read Stories from Abakwa. Let's keep the exchange flowing.
cheers
Nyamnjoh
Posted by: Nyamnjoh | October 23, 2007 at 07:59 PM
I found this name Nyamjuoh in a book I am reading now and being a Cameroonian I immediately thought I should check out this name. I searched it on the internet and was glad to get the confirmation that it is a Cameroonian name. The book I am reading is titled "Faith in Schools" by Amy Stambach, an American. She say you and Geschiere observe that political- economic liberalization leads to the intensification of debates about who belongs where.
Hope to be able to connect with you and learn more about sociology.
Posted by: Sr. Marie Therese Diang | October 10, 2010 at 05:45 PM