WHEN DID THE RAINS START TO BEAT US?

Peter Vakunta

When did the rains

Start to beat us?

Was it when our country took

The wrong turn in Foumban?

When a people grope around in obscurity

Oblivious of who they are

Not knowing where they’re going

Maybe that’s because

They don’t know

Where they hail from

And if they don’t know

Their provenance

Then they’ve failed in the quest

For the fundamental self

Maybe that’s because

They’re out of touch with reality—

A rediscovery of the ordinary

Oftentimes,

We’ve been branded

Beasts of no nation

The lost generation of Ambasonia

Aliens in the land of our birth

Some have christened

The children of this land

Fodder for military cannon,

Enemies in the house,

Maybe that’s because

Myopia has bred conceit

In the convoluted minds

Of these nitwits

The future holds no good

For the jeune talent[i]

Of this blighted nation

Caught in the crossfire

And telltale demagoguery

Of political djintété[ii]

Swamped by the

Hullabaloo of lethal tribalism

And the brouhaha of ethnic cleansing

Swayed by the whirlwind

Of cronyism and cult worship

When the katika[iii] do battle

The tchotchoro[iv] of Ngola

Leak their gaping wounds

Smothering discontent

May lurk around like the nyamangoro[v]

But there comes a time

When even the mbutuku[vi]

Picks up his boxing gloves

Like Mohammed Ali,

Like ear-munching Mike Tyson

And enters the ring

To do battle with the foe

Till death do them part.

© Vakunta 2010

NOTES

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[i] Young children

[ii]Bigshot

[iii] From the English word “care-taker”. The word refers to a security guard in charge of a public place like a cinema, recreation ground, casino, etc. It entered Cameroon Pidgin English in the late 1980s among urban dwellers, as expressed essentially in oral discourse.

[iv]Little children. Speakers of Cameroon Pidgin English have used this word since 1980s.

[v] Literally “snail”; by extension, both a slow, nonchalant person and trivial affair.

[vi] Abbreviated from the word “mbutuku”, which means “a good-for-nothing person, “a weakling” or “an idiot”.  Mainly used by young people, this loanword exists in Cameroon Pidgin English since the 1970s.

Comments

[E Ai]

I really love the pseudonyms "tchotchoro" and "nyama" (animal) "ngoro" whatever this means.

They reveal such a strong sense of hierarchy, generational gaps, and evolutionary stillness that is baffling.

Could it be that the sociopolitical system itself is predicated on these notions or everyday hierarchies and practices?

[E Ai]

Maybe a night storm began to rain hailstones on us from Foumbam, and like "nyamangoro", we began to look for dry leaves or verandas to stave the whipping...

Someday, the storm will be over... and we will continue our journey.

Thanks for keeping us awake, as the rain falls, Peter!