Poetry
Les Rêveries tumultueuses
Not translated into English
Louis-Marie Pouka · 1954
Synopsis
A poetry collection of forty-four pages, published in 1954 in Kribi by its author himself. His verse of those years, according to the readings made of it, shows a growing unease in a poet committed to assimilation, who now struggles to reconcile French culture and equality with the reality of colonisation.
Context
The collection appears in Kribi in 1954, published by the author, in 44 pages. Georges-Bertrand Abouna recalls in 2004 that posterity has kept of him the assimilationist side, his pre-independence verses in praise of France, which critics have condemned, and he defends in him a nationalist side, a strategy of struggle in the writing itself. Pouka then published, in 1957, words of wisdom printed in Yaoundé, and presented himself in 1961 as the national poet in a tribute to President Ahidjo.
Who it is for
In French, a short collection. It is worth knowing that its author defended assimilation when others were demanding independence.
Prizes and reception
No prize for this collection. Its author was made an officier d'académie in 1953, the year before its publication.