Bites of Insanity

by Nsah Mala

In this collection of poems Nsah Mala casts a critical compassionate gaze at the predicaments in the lives of present day Cameroonians. The poet lambasts power abuse in Cameroon and Africa. He decries the lost glory of traditional values sacrificed at the altar of ingratiation and materialism. Insalubrities are condemned, ignorance and its ramifications satirised, and wanton destruction of the environment indicted. With a fascinating richness of imagery, Mala conveys the disillusionment, bitterness and traumas of ordinary Cameroonians – young and old – debased with impunity by the lethal and sterile grip on power of the high and mighty. The moral depravity and human frailties mused about in this exceptionally compelling collection have no room in Mala’s paradise of Cameroon.

£23.00

About the author

Nsah Mala

Nsah Mala is a poet and writer from Mbesa, Cameroon. He writes in
Iteanghe-a-Mbesa, English, and French. He has published five poetry
collections: Chaining Freedom, Bites of Insanity, If You Must Fall Bush,
CONSTIMOCRAZY: Malafricanising Democracy, and Les Pleurs du mal
(French). In 2016, he won the Ministry of Arts and Culture Short Story
Prize in Cameroon and le Prix Littéraire Malraux in France in 2017. As a
writer for children, his published picture books include: Andolo – the
Talented Albino (English), Andolo – l’albinos talentueux (French), and
Le petit Gabriel commence à lire (French). He translated the picture
book Be a Coronavirus Fighter (Yeehoo Press) into French as Un
Combattant du Coronavirus in March 2020. Nsah Mala’s picture book, What
the Moon Cooks, will be published in spring 2021 by POW! Kids Books
(USA).

Review

“Nsah Mala resorts to a rich repertoire of poetic devices, vivid description, wacky terms, dark humour, and scatology—among others—to raise critical issues about the human condition in modern times.”

Yvonne I. NGWA, PhD, Lecturer, ENS Yaoundé

“In this collection Nsah Mala ascertains his status as a committed social critic in very uncompromising terms. His contemptuousness of postcolonial states’ ab/uses of power in the bastardisation of citizens/subjects is undoubted. The decadence and moral depravity in which a directionless nation finds herself are pointers of impending destruction unless the situation is redressed.”

Charles Ngiewih Teke, University of Munich, Germany