The Four Pillars of Time by Ilongo Fritz Ngale

(Originally published in EDEN newspaper, Wednesday 31-Monday 05,June 2006 pg.5)

The literary critic, poet and playwright, Dr Bate Besong, BB, praised the author for “constructing an intellectual arsenal for the liberation of the country and the decolonization of the mind ”. He pointed out that IIongo Fritz Ngale’s “anti-hero King Lak is a pastmaster at the art of discovering the most ingenious methods of torture and brutality ,unleashing a reign of terror and suffering on the innocent people of Suna”.

BB argued that the relevance of IIongo’s novel is the extent to which he “explains the past, understands the present and predicts the future ”. BB used the book launch to criticize the Cameroonian intellectuals who “instead of fulfilling the expectations of the people they are supposed to serve, they are more concerned about the personal material gains that comes with privilege and power ”, BB said amidst thunderous applause that “Intellectuals decode , unmask, condemn , and refute” but the Cameroonian intellectuals are “inert ,amorphous , mute … politically sterilized!”

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