By Martin Jumbam
In the Fourth Part of his interview, Professor Porter talks about the role non-Cameroonian critics, like himself, have played in the promotion of Cameroonian literature. The North American-based African Literature Association (ALA) and its Bulletin, the ALA Bulletin, of which Professor Porter is the Editor, have been very instrumental, not only in promoting Cameroonian, and other African literatures, but also in their outspoken defence of human rights in Africa, wherever such rights are trampled upon. Their voice was heard loud and clear, for example, when the Abacha dictatorship in Nigeria murdered the human rights activist and playwright Ken Saro Wiwa in 1995. Excerpts.
What has, in your opinion, been the role of non-Cameroonian critics, like you, in the promotion of Cameroonian literatures?
Your country has a way of pulling people to itself, especially scholars of African literatures; and this goes to bolster the point I’ve been making of the important role the Department of Comparative African Literatures played, once upon a time. The impact of non-Cameroonians, as compared to Cameroonians, on your country’s literatures is, understandably small, but some good scholars have been out there to contribute their share of knowledge to the Department of Comparative African Literatures’ impact on literary development in your country. I can think of Ken Harrow, the late Richard Bjornson, who was also the Editor of the Journal of African Literatures, Douglas Killam, Aliko Songolo, Stephen Arnold, and a host of others whose names don’t come to mind readily. What is most encouraging, however, is that you now have a cadre of Cameroonian scholars, all of a younger breed, led by Ambroise Kom, who are doing a marvelous job in the area of literary criticism.
What do you think accounts for this outcrop of good literary critics, on the one hand, and what some see as a vacuum in literary creativity, on the other hand?
There has really never been a shortage of literary creativity in Cameroon, as such. There has, of course been the older crop of writers, such as Mongo Beti, Ferdinand Oyono, the late Kenjo Jumbam (author of The White Man of God), Francis Bebey, Rene Philombe, among others. Then there is an equally impressive array of younger writers, such as Calixte Beyella, Bate Besong, Bole Butake, and others.
However, one of the problems we face throughout Africa when it comes to literary production is an absence of publishing and distribution facilities. Anglophone African writers published their works with Heinemann, Three Continents Press and others that have, unfortunately, faded out. The news is not all bad, though. There is a Ghanaian publisher Ayebia Clarke, who used to be an editor at Heinemann, who will soon launch his own publishing house in Oxford, England. One of our worries is that unless Africa, and those who wish Africa well, come up with publishing houses in the immediate future, the next generation of young writers from Africa will hardly be known.
You’ve been the Editor of the African Literature Association (ALA) Bulletin that has, for the past over twenty years, been very instrumental in promoting African literatures and African writers. Who can be a member of the African Literature Association?
The African Literature Association (ALA) was formed in 1975 and, thirty years later, I’m happy to say that it has become a more dynamic and vibrant organization. Its main goal is to promote the literatures of Africa to all peoples, regardless of race or gender, and to welcome members who wish to join our association, irrespective of race, colour, origin or nationality. We are a very “catholic” - in the sense of “all embracing” - organization. We have a deal which I think graduate students, especially in African universities, should know about. The regular yearly membership for people below a certain income, say fifteen thousand US dollars is about fifty dollars; but an African graduate student, or an African student in an African university, can join our organization for only five dollars a year.
We have also been appealing to our membership to sponsor graduate students from Africa. If they know of any student who would like to become a member, they should add five dollars to their normal yearly membership fee of fifty dollars and give us the name of the student they want to sponsor. So, regular members pay for such students. My appeal through you is that if anyone knows of any such students in African universities or graduate students elsewhere, who would like to become members of our organization, please let me know and we will match them with regular members willing to sponsor them.
The ALA is basically a North American-based organization. How present are Africans living in Africa in it?
Our membership currently stands at about five to six hundred members with about a hundred and fifty members residing and working in Africa. I know this because I have the addresses of every member since I send the ALA Bulletin out to every member. I should also call your attention to a decision the ALA Executive took some years ago to send our sister journal, Research in African Literatures (RAL), for free to any African university library that requests for it. When you think that university libraries usually pay over a hundred and fifty US dollars as annual subscription to this journal, the ALA offer of such subscription free of charge to African university libraries is quite a bonus, and is meant to reflect our desire to open African universities to the various contributions scholars are making to promote African literatures.
How widely disseminated is this information and what has been the response of African university libraries to your offer so far?
Many African university libraries have been taking advantage of this offer and occasionally we receive beautiful letters of acknowledgement and thanks from some of them. Such letters have not always been letters of gratitude, though. There was an ugly episode some years ago when a librarian of an African university wrote to ask us not to send the journal to them anymore because he felt that it was too critical of some of the actions of his government. Mercifully, others are more receptive than that.
That’s not surprising, though, as the ALA sometimes takes very strong, if not confrontational, stands on issues, especially those relating to human rights in Africa, leaving many people wondering whether it is really as apolitical as it claims to be!
The ALA views itself as a highly academic organization but we also know that academics thrive in a socio-cultural and political context. That is why the ALA views the complete liberation of Africa in act, word and deed, as one of its primary goals. We have never been silent or have never hesitated to condemn the violation of human rights wherever and whenever such violations occur in Africa. Although our primary goal has always been to produce and disseminate literature, we’ve gone beyond those parameters, as needs be, to defend the inviolability of human rights throughout Africa.
The ALA Bulletin will soon be renamed the Journal of African Literatures because members thought during one of our meetings that the quality of the Bulletin has become so good that it should, in fact, be renamed a journal. As you know, I took over as editor in 1999 and have so far made the success of the Bulletin as part and parcel of my academic goals and as my own contribution to making Africa and her literatures known and appreciated throughout the world.
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In Part Five of his interviews, Professor Porter talks about the Fonlon-Nichols Award, which the African Literature Association has created to reward excellence in African creative writing. It's a yearly award. Stay with us.
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