In Before I Die... the poet thematises unpatriotic arrogance of the privileged few and the angst of the hurting observer as incompatible for an enabling community. Each poem becomes a cautionary statement to the living before that inevitable passage when the hangman knocks on the door. Colloquial but satirical, contemporary and futuristic, the collection constructs a family-community dichotomy and unfulfilled desires spiced with hypocrisy within what emerges as a metaphorical “triangle” in a “globe”, with legitimate questions of identity and belonging in the aftermath of a poorly negotiated community. In such a space, politics and politicians are caricatured, just as the conflict between poet-persona and his village elders provokes utopian ideals, which may hopefully be constructed into a redemptive mode for a new future.
Before I Die
Number of pages: 48
Year of publication: 2016
Douglas Achingale did language and literary studies at the University of Yaounde where he returned lately to drink more from the cup of knowledge and was later trained as a Social Welfare Administrator at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), Yaounde.
He currently works as an Assistant Research Officer in the Ministry of Social Affairs in Yaounde. He was a laureate in the National Book Development Council poetry contest in 1 994 and the Transparency International short story competition on corruption in 2002.Achingale also worked as a Columnist and Editor for Cameroon’s former leading English language newspaper, The Herald, and is today the Publisher/Editor of Daybreak newspaper and Editor-In-Chief of NewBroom magazine. Before I Die is his second publication.