Bakwa Magazine, in collaboration with partners like the Goethe-Institut, UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the University of Bristol, organizes writing and translation workshops for young writers in Cameroon. MacViban understands that role models matter. His award has shown people that writing professionally can be rewarding, and now young writers have a new role model to look up to.” “He is one of the brightest writers of his generation. “I am proud of Howard Meh-Buh Maximus,” says MacViban. Also, while the foreign reader might be intrigued by some of the depictions of Cameroonian life in the novel, Cameroonian readers can find that it binges too much on nostalgia. The book paints a credible picture of a Cameroonian migrant couple struggling through the 2008 recession in New York, but its depiction of Cameroon at that time, in many parts, doesn’t match that of a country that had largely moved on from the notion that its citizens living abroad were special. We see this issue in Imbolo Mbue’s representation of Cameroon in her award-winning novel Behold the Dreamers. The problem with this shortlist, besides that there are numerous other brilliant writers worthy of mention, is that the first four of these authors are dead, and the other three write from abroad. Asong, Ferdinand Oyono, Imbolo Mbue, Calixthe Beyala, and Patrice Nganang. Quiz the average adult on the street about the best books they’ve read and familiar names ring out: Mongo Beti, Mbella Sone Dipoko, Linus T.

The popular joke is that if you want to hide something from a Cameroonian, put it in a book. Like many aspects of Cameroonian life, its literature is often viewed as something that was once great, rather than an ongoing project that is still evolving.

Dzekashu MacViban is introducing some of Cameroon’s most exciting writers to readers around the world.

Of Passion and Ink by Dzekashu MacViban