Poetry
Hymnes et sagesse
Not translated into English
Patrice Kayo · 1970
Synopsis
A slim collection of poems, twenty-nine pages, published in 1970 in Honfleur by a poet who also collected the proverbs and songs of his Bamileke country. For Georges-Bertrand Abouna, who sees it as his properly poetic work, the author's verses make of each thing a symbol and a sign, and naming an object there brings a whole universe into being.
Context
The collection's publisher, Pierre Jean Oswald, was then based in Honfleur; the book appeared in the year its author signed, with others, a book of Bamileke proverbs; he had already published in 1964, in Nkongsamba, a collection of wisdom from his country. The same publisher, by then in Paris, brought out his second book of poems in 1972. A survey of Cameroonian literature and an anthology of his French-language poetry followed in 1978, then Bamileke popular songs in 1983; verses of his appear in English translation in the Penguin anthology of modern African poetry, in 1998.
Who it is for
In French, a very short collection. It is worth knowing that the Bamileke country, in western Cameroon, carries a rich tradition of proverbs and songs.
Prizes and reception
No prize for this collection. Its author received the Mécènes grand prize in 2015, awarded by Cameroonian literary associations.
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