Gravitas: Poetic Consciencism for Cameroon is the poet's requiem for the geographical expression code-named Cameroon. Vakunta speaks with the audacity of a daredevil and the certitude of a seer. This long poem has the twin virtues of gravity and clarity of purpose. The poet eschews the banality and sophistry characteristic of poetry for poetry's sake. Passion, sarcasm, and incisive irony are the hallmarks of this revolutionary poem. The poet subscribes to Salman Rushdie's pronouncement that a poet's duty is to say the unutterable, name the unnamable, unmask masquerading miscreants and shame the scum of society. In this poem, music serves as a clarion call for examination of conscience,and the fumigation of a rotten society; alcohol ceases to serve as opium of the people. A bittersweet potion, this book echoes the defiant voice of a son-of-the-soil at odds with his native land gone topsy-turvy.
Excerpt from the Book
Huruje! Huruje! Huruje!/
Kunkum Massa! Oh!/
Kunkum Massa!Oh!/
Hands on deck!/
Huruje! Huruje! Huruje!/
Kunkum Massa! Oh !/
Kunkum Massa!Oh!/
Huruje! Huruje! Huruje!/
One time! GO! GO!GO!/
THE BARD/
Voice of the voiceless/
Quiet peace-maker/
Loquacious griot/
Taciturn zombie/
YOU…/
Scavenger of social scum/
You create your own world/
A world of intoxication/
YOU… ME…TOWN CRIER/
Basking in the solace/
Of mediocrity and myopia/
The ‘People’s Representatives’/
Metamorphosed nitwits/
Yap like hoodlums/
In the bowels of the/
Ngoa-Ekelle Glass House/
Handclapping semi-literates/
Kowtowing to the dictates of/
Diabolical machinations/
Orchestrated by an inept Executive/
Enchained by the wheeling and dealing/
Of foreign overlords/
Toying with the supreme law of the land/
Gerrymandering being their stock-in–trade /
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