Ruminations of Ipome

“Crafty in the language of the people and written in a tone that combines the hushes of betrayal, the jubilation of celebration, the victory of life, the frustration of defeat, the exhilaration of new found love, the disappointments of great political expectations, and the failure to carve a personal niche in a global society still in the thralls of a Yeatsian gyration, Usongo’s poetry transcends place, time and nationality. I will strongly recommend this book to lovers and students of the human soul, and as a window to the other world, which is both alien and immediate.”

“Ruminations of Ipome is a composite collection that roughly covers several trajectories in Anglophone Cameroon literature, including patriotic fervour and nationalistic doubts, diasporic convergence of identities against demographic and cultural parallels, historical as well as spiritual and cultural imprints of how the self can be divided without denying its roots. In it, Usongo is very personal in expressing even common sentiments like those of love and death; and even the complementary theme of nature’s abundance is narrated in confessional tones of a lullaby, a dirge, and a celebration. For those who have unfairly stigmatized Anglophone Cameroon literature as a discourse on the legitimate and worrying Anglophone Problem, this well-structured collection is evidence of the variegated nature of our literature.”