ANGLOPHONE CAMEROON WRITER INVENTS NEW LITERARY GENRE
Interview with Sampson N. Ngwuekie
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TNKR: Good afternoon Sampson
Sampson: Good afternoon Sir.
TNKR: Could we know a little more about your person?
Sampson: Yes Sir. My name is Sampson Nkwetatang Ngwuekie. I am a graduate of the University of Yaounde I with a B.A in English (1995). Since then till now, I have been a full-time creative writer of ‘Repsy’, Poetry and Discourse. I am also a 3rd Class Honours Penfellow and Disputant of the Magnolian Academy.
TNKR: What are some of your philosophies about art and maybe life?
Sampson: To begin with art, as short-distanced as I can see, it is largely inborn, and partly a sacrifice. And to be celebrated in art requires commitment to it; first, for its own sake, and secondly, as a source of income. If one involves in art primarily to earn a living, either he departs with inspiration or inspiration departs with him all of a sudden. Then, about life, my view is likely to be very controversial. According to me, life is what it makes you; not what you make it. Otherwise, are people necessarily successful in life because they have worked harder than others? I don’t think so. If you work hard and divine providence does not ‘accord’ your mandate, you won’t make it. Summarily therefore, that which would be yours would be yours. That which would not be yours would not be yours.
TNKR: What is the Magnolian academy all about?
Sampson: The Magnolian Academy is an Advanced Institution of liberal reading, of devoted writing, of creative thinking, of fluent speaking, of attentive listening, of objective disputing and of project developing.
TNKR: Does it have an institutional base? That is, is there a structure that one can locate as belonging to the academy or it is just a mental faculty – imaginative academy for those who believe in some of your philosophies?
Sampson: The said Academy to begin with, does not belong to me. It was founded by two of us, and it now has an enrolment of 43 fellows. Talking about its location, it does not yet have a structure or rather a building of its own now. All along, it has been operating as an academic exchange in correspondence. We exchange ideas, books, papers and research findings stretching from antiquity to the present. Nevertheless, we have never relented our efforts attempting to secure funding to put up a permanent structure.
TNKR: Now let us focus on the issue at hand. What is ‘Repsy’?
Sampson: ‘Repsy’ is a new literary genre in the same rank with Poetry, Drama and Prose.
TNKR: How is ‘Repsy’ different from other literary genres, say Poetry or Prose?
Sampson: ‘Repsy’ contains ten peculiar characteristics which distinguish it from any other literary genre. First, it is neither written in stanzas like Poetry (although there exist prose-poetry), in acts and scenes like Drama nor in paragraphs and chapters like Prose. It is written in ceremonies. What is a ceremony? (See page 6 of my dissertation on ‘Repsy’, October 2007).
TNKR: Don’t you think that ‘Repsy’ is just a form of Poetry, possibly in the free verse tradition of writing?
Sampson: Anybody who has asked that question is one who has not yet had the opportunity to handle a ‘Repsody’ in his hands. When you must have been humbled with a copy, you would certainly confess to this Newspaper that ‘Repsy’ is neither a mingle nor a dangle. It is a fait accompli which has silenced the literary traditional dogmatism of ages unremembered.
TNKR: You know as I do that literary genres are distinguished by some distinct characteristic features. What are those aspects that you can say that make Repsy different from other genres. That is, what are those things that when you see in a piece of work you can say this is ‘Repsy’?
Sampson: In Repsy, all the ceremonies are built within the framework of a ‘root word’. For example, my first publication on ‘Repsy’ is titled Initiation of the Genteel Volume I (2002). It contains ten ceremonies, and all of them are initiations into different cults (not sacred cults). Therefore, the most peculiar feature of ‘Repsy’ is that it takes up just one subject at a time, magnifies it and shows how that particular subject manifests itself in different walks of life. The volume of this publication for example is 200 A5 pages; that is almost the size of Sheldon Book of Verse which is a collection of poems. Yet mine is not a novel despite that size. Although size is not necessarily ingenuity. As I earlier said, a critic needs to handle a ‘Repsody’ to see the exact direction to which my arrow is pointing.
TNKR: Are you the first person to have written ‘Repsy’ or it is a form of writing that exists and you are just renaming it?
Sampson: Thank you very much. I contend sole invention and copyright of the word ‘Repsy’ as an unprecedented form of writing.
TNKR: How many ‘Repsodists’ do you know or are you in contact with? Are there any differences in your ways of approaching ‘Repsy’?
Sampson: There are no ‘Repsodists’ on this planet but they will be with time. Like any other literary genre, there are many ways of approaching ‘Repsy’ but not without respect of its fundamental characteristics laid down. Drama has many ways of approaching it but never without its traditional feature called dramatis personae. So is ‘Repsy’, guided by its own features.
TNKR: How far have you gone with the propagation of ‘Repsy’ and has there been any success or possible successful outlets in the future?
Sampson: Yes. I have written six books on different subjects to back ‘Repsy’. They include
Initiation of the Genteel Volume I (published, 2002)
Tribute in Memory of Beloved Volume I (unpublished),
Dedication to Mankind Volume I (unpublished),
Incantations of the Provoked Volume I (unpublished),
Dispute of the Tender-Hearted Volume I (unpublished)
Counsel of the Meek Volume I (unpublished).
Talking about the propagation of ‘Repsy’, in 1997, The Post Newspaper granted me an interview (Yaounde Varsity Graduate Challenges Intelligentsia with New Genre), see flap on page 13 of my dissertation. In 2003, The Star Headlines Newspaper granted me another interview (Cameroonian Writer Marvels Intelligentsia with New Literary Genre) see flap on page 14 of my dissertation. In the year 2000, I was in Tripoli, Libya where the interview with the AL Jomuhiriya Newspaper and Radio failed due to racial violence. In 2001, I went to Lagos State University Nigeria and the University of Nigeria Nsukka where criticisms rained on ‘Repsy’ but I never gave up. It was the fervent wish of many lecturers and writers there that I should stay but I returned because I was not yet happy with the quantity of material backing ‘Repsy’ which I had to write in a more tranquil environment without distractions and flattery. I cannot say that the future of ‘Repsy’ is not promising because it has been developed to this state; thanks to the alternative financial and moral support of the common weal.
TNKR: You are an Anglophone Cameroon Writer and a member of the Anglophone Cameroon Writers’ Association. Firstly, what is your relationship with other writers?
Sampson: I have a very vibrant relationship with other writers in Cameroon and beyond her frontiers. But I must honestly admit that majority of Cameroonian writers find a ‘natural oddity’ in me which when I started writing, they interpreted as satirical but in recent years, they have been trying to reconcile it with ingenuity. It is natural that the African never believes in a dream till it comes true in total manifest. But in the Western world, the creed of success is that only dreamers are achievers.
TNKR: What has been the response of other writers towards this creative-invention of yours?
Sampson: Its reception has been very enthusiastic. I have received many encouraging comments from both local and international readerships; namely, from UNESCO, from the British Council, Literary Dynamics South Africa, the Canadian Authors Association etc.
TNKR: If negative, what steps are you taking to get them to understand and possibly share in your vision?
Sampson: I cannot dishonestly say that ‘Repsy’ has not met with negative criticisms nor that I have a fair weather relationship with all my fellow writers. In order to make them see my vision, I have always tried to see their own vision too. I am grounded in literary interpretation and criticism in the Magnolian Academy, and once in a while, I make critical reviews on their works and give them as feedback. This is how I manage to integrate myself among them and secure favour.
TNKR: What has been the response of critics to 'Repsy'?
Sampson: From its very inception, the first criticisms on ‘Repsy’ were clouded with doubts as to whether such a fabulous venture was to see the light of day. But as soon as I published my first ‘Repsody’, it spoke for itself and helped me settle most of these quarrels. For example, when I first spoke of it to Professor Simo Bobda (although his specialty is English not Literature), he could not be convinced that what I was saying could work till he bought a copy of the book and saw for himself. Similarly, Dr. Asheri Kilo and the late Dr. Atangana Nama of the University of Buea were firing critics of ‘Repsy’ till the publication redeemed the situation. In a nutshell, the response of critics to ‘Repsy’ has shuttled between theory and practical – what has been said and what has been done.
TNKR: Have you written any ‘Repsy’ in honour of the fallen poet, Bate Besong? Could we get an excerpt of it?
Sampson: No, I have not. An entire ‘Repsody’ cannot be written in honour of an individual. Rather, it can be dedicated to him. ‘Repsy’ is not a commonplace exercise as many people may think. Many writers may not attempt it because of the depth to which one needs to dive before coming out with it. Nevertheless, I equally write Poetry, and many of my readerships have mistaken my Poetry for ‘Repsy’. I wrote a poem in honour of Bate Besong and gave it to Dr. Babila Mutia who was compiling poems for the diseased writer. My Poetry is very peculiar because it is heavily indebted to ‘Repsy’. With its sorrowfully descending tone, it is almost a kind of ‘Repsy’-Poetry. Below is an excerpt of the poem.
“Elegy of bate Besong”
Who will tell Wa Thiong’ o?
Who will tell Ekwensi?
Who will tell Senghor?
Who will tell Salomey?
Who will tell them that Besong is no more?
Oh, Who will tell them?...
I cry but my tears flow not.
I wail but my voice vibrates not.
I yawn but my lungs contract not.
I sleep but my eyes close not.
I trek but my feet move not.
Oh, sorrow has built its temple upon my head…
Wherefore do I go with young, foolish and untamed pen flames?
Who will kindle my enthusiasm in creative writing as Besong used to do?
Who will sing a lullaby for my infant write-ups as Besong used to do?
Who will?...
Tell Dipoko that the double-edged sabre that be has slaughtered.
Tell Achebe that fire has ravished grass on the anthills of the savannah.
Tell Kunene that the bond is broken.
Tell Soyinka that Moremi has gone beyond.
Tell them for the sake of literary profusion.
Oh, tell them for, Besong is no more!
TNKR: As a young writer without an alternative source of income, say a job, how do you reconcile your strong passion for creativity with daily existence especially given that we are in a context where there is little or no interest in writers and writings?
Sampson: I have a job. My job is creative writing. Have you ever held something in your hand and searched for it elsewhere before realizing that you were holding it? Yes, that is the philosophy. I don’t need to crave for further employments. If my writing is not paying me now, it is either because I have not yet seasoned it to the taste of the public or it has not yet reached the quarters which are supposed to recognize and appreciate its worth. And I cannot quit. I was passing near a Winners’ Chapel Church one Sunday morning and overhead the Pastor saying, “Winners never quit. And quitters never win.” If there is little or no interest in creative writing in our country then, it is our challenge and responsibility to overturn the tables. It is simply the lack of mutual understanding and cooperation. How many Cameroonian writers have collectively written and addressed a quarrel to the government to pay unblinking attention to writing and writers? Why do we always stay behind and think that we cannot do it? Do you know what John Milton’s Areopagitica of June 14, 1643 did? It uplifted an Act of Parliament against unlicensed printing. Another handicap is that the Cameroonian writer has not read and seen the path through which great people have risen to the heavens. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We are cowards.
TNKR: What is the greatest obstacle which retards ‘Repsy’ from expanding faster?
Sampson: The greatest obstacle of ‘Repsy’ from expanding faster is the publishing of the books written on it so that through them, ‘Repsy’ is known far and wide, and critics discover for themselves the characteristics of this novelty right on their doorsteps.
TNKR: What are you doing to this effect?
Sampson: I am requesting for a sponsor (preferably one in possession of a Publishing House) whose preoccupation would be to publish and market the books while mine is only to write and defend wherever and whenever I am called up. If I am understood this way, a pen Eto’o Fils will surface from Cameroon in the nearest future.
TNKR: Thank you for your time. We wish you the best. Any last word?
Sampson: Yes, this our generation has the utmost privilege to be living a New Literary Genre born and bred in their time which shall forever live in the literary annals for the admiration of posterity.