Debut Novel by Yungsi Ernest Kiyah

Yungsi Ernest Kiyah. To Immigrate Or To Live Happily Ever After? AuthorHouse. 2008, 316pp

Product Description
Dave is denied a visa to the USA twice, but this only heightens his dream to immigrate. He turns to the au pair program but 9/11 springs an ugly surprise on his plans.An employment opportunity takes him to China, where Dave is puzzled by the lives of an interesting group of foreigners around him. Why does Spencer, who believes in online romance despite the worldwide influx of internet scammers, know so much about Dave's country? When will Randal learn that "because I am black" is not the only answer to his problems in China? Dockie, the con man gets his reward but does Annette, the ex-internet scammer get off too easily?As the puzzles unravel, Dave's dream is about to come true, but there is a catch... He falls in love! An Armenian man's secret past catches up with his daughter, to whom Dave is about to propose. Dave therefore has to choose between Immigrating to the USA and marrying Araisha.

About the Author
Yungsi Ernest Kiyah is a writer, journalist and teacher who won two prizes in the BBC Network Africa Short Story Competition with his stories "First Visit" and "Nature's call," respectively.He presently teaches English as a Second Language (ESL)in China."To Immigrate or to Live Happily ever After" is set in two countries, one where the author was born and the other where he presently lives.A holder of a Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and a Minor in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Buea, Yungsi Ernest Kiyah blends journalistic style with an in-depth understanding of social phenomena to create a story that makes you want to know what will happen next, every single step of the way.Born in Cameroon, the author runs a website on which he publishes short stories and poems at http://www.yungsibooks.com/.

Oriki'badan by Emmanuel Fru Doh (Poetry)

Emmanuel Fru Doh. Oriki'badan. Langaa publishers, 2009.

ORIKI'BADAN, is an entertaining, revealing, and equally didactic poem in which Doh, through an enchanting metaphorical backdrop, recaptures a memorable era-rich, diverse, challenging, yet gratifying-in the life of a distinguished institution-the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Characteristically bitter about those in power and the socio-political state of affairs on the African continent, this is a rare shot of Doh paying glaring tribute to his alma mater along with the distinguished faculty and student body that gave Ibadan its character during his days there as a student.

Reviews

"ORIKI’BADAN, is a poetic river of wisdom, thoughts, and meditative recapitulation of the poet’s epic, historic baptism of fire in the academic genius of his alma mater, the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier university (a.k.a. “First and Best”) during her second glorious phase of intellectual genius of the ‘80’s when she paraded a set of the world’s best faculty. The diction is lucid and the narrative nostalgically captivating in its pictographic chronicle of events and personages, all of which challenges our sense of history, memory, and dialogical imagination!"
Nelson O. Fashina, Senior Lecturer, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

"With this lyrical narrative on the experiences of one acolyte in the company of others being led through a sacred grove of learning by the most accomplished high priests, Emmanuel Fru Doh reaffirms the premier place of the University of Ibadan in creative modern African writing and thought. In Doh's hands, theory meets practice, orature meets literature, Cameroon meets Nigeria, literacy interfaces with orality, and through all this, the home of oríkì welcomes a highly accomplished practitioner as Doh renders to Ibadan a most moving panegyric while showing himself to have been an extraordinarily keen initiate. No greater sign of love and gratitude can a person accord his alma mater. We have here the best of the University of Ibadan as depicted by one of its proudest and most appreciative pupils."
Professor Adélékè Adéẹ̀kọ́, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Pilgrimage of no Retreat by Larry Bate Takang (Poetry)

Larry Bate Takang. Pilgrimage of no Retreat. A&A Printers, Florida, 2009. 86 pgs.

The poems in this collection though philosophical, deep and at times abstract, are incredibly appealing even to the non-poetry lover. The language is simple but the messages are very thought provoking and powerful. Listening to the poems of this author being dramatised keeps you literally speechless. The messages hit you hard, but then you are too touched and dumbfounded to react immediately, as if wondering why the narration came to an end.

His poems give you the feeling of being one of the first to read masterpieces that you know will be read and talked about for generations to come.

“Pilgrimage of No Retreat” is made up of a collection of 50 poems covering a wide range of subjects e.g love, nature, politics, death, life, education as well as abstract poems that touch on the unknown. It is a collection that reveals the inner thoughts of this Rotterdam based poet and unveils the beauty, elegance and uniqueness of his style of poetry. 'Pilgrimage of no Retreat' is a must read book.

Order a copy to understand why.

Bird of the Oracular Verb by Wirndzerem G. Barfee (Poetry)

Wirndzerem G. Barfee. Bird of the Oracular Verb. 2009

Wirndzerem G. Barfee's poetry is very exciting and seems to be developing in all sorts of very interesting ways... he possesses a very strong and highly individual voice and style, the work is very ambitious thematically and demonstrates very confident and imaginative uses of imagery with a sophisticated vocabulary... The poetry is also impressive in scope, quite accomplished in terms of the quality of the writing and extremely promising... I am very impressed by the work!
Brian McCabe, Scottish poet, author of Body Parts (Canongate, 1999).

Gods in the Ivory Tower - A Play by Bill Ndi

Bill F. Ndi. Gods in the Ivory Tower. Authorhouse, 2008.

A play set on a mythical hill, Ngoa and centred around Ngwa, the protagonist. Both mythic and contemporary, challenging and innovative full of accerbic social criticism, wisdom and political meaning, the culminating point in this play is when the protagonist is cast out of the scene and the Narrator alone on stage wonders and wishes the audience told him whether or not to “continue crying for the village, sadly or joyfully.” A turn which, in this captivating play, marks an arresting moment recalling the works of Strindberg in terms of character interaction, entrances and exits as well as the works of Ibsen in terms of its philosophy.

(Poetry) Words Lost in the Wind by Ndzdemo Romauld

Ndzdemo Ngong Romauld. Words Lost in the Wind. Red Room, 2008.

Synopsis:
In words lost on the wind, we enter into a world of beauty and love and mystery where everything is recognized and given its significance. The author leads his readers from page to page, with vivid images drawn from day-to-day life encounters with people and situations to that startling discovery that beneath the reality of suffering, poverty and solitude there is an instance of song where beauty reveals itself in the things we caress or break or things that touch or break us. It is poetry of love, of beauty, of passion, of encounter but above all, it is a call to an awareness that immerses us into the joys of life. Dzemo makes his readers dream, laugh, think, pray and fall in love. It is an altogether enchanting world to enter in.

Mishaps and Other Poems by Bill Ndi

Bill F. Ndi. Mishaps and Other Poems, Authorhouse, 2008.

The poems presented in Mishaps are highly varied, impressively experimental, sensitive and reflective across an astonishingly broad range of experience, and deeply moving in the richness of their humanity. Through each of them, resonates Bill’s vision of poetry as a special annunciation and of the poet as seer, as spokesperson, recorder, analyst, adjudicator and above all, as the reminder to each of us of the best that is so easily lost to the deathly universe of habit and blunted perception, to both the deadening routines of daily life and domestic regimes and to the crueller hand of oppression, authoritarianism, and misused authority in all its forms, from the primitive imposition of will through brute power political gangsterism, corruption and ‘state-orchestrated perjury’, as he calls it in ‘Sights Along Abakwa Ring Road’, through to the often less identifiable and far more insidious regimes of international finance, World Bank, ‘Black Debt’, and the hidden swindlings of the international monetary system. A collection full of richness and diversity everyone should read in its entirety.

Michael Meehan (Writer & Critic, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia)