Language and commitment in Anglophone Cameroonian poetry: The poetic vision of three Anglophone Cameroonian poets

Abstract

This paper sets out to examine the relevance of language in both early and recent Anglophone Cameroonian poets. The argument of this article is built around the premise that Fonlon, Alembong and Besong are involved with what has become known as ‘literature of sensitization and commitment’. It is the contention of this article that their ideological commitments have not compromised their artistic sophistication. Guided by the new historicist critical theory and the aesthetics of socialist realism as enunciated by Maxim Gorky (1971) and Georg Lukacs (1963), this study reveals that these three poets are deeply sensitive and responsive to the realities and moods of moments of collective experience, especially crisis moments. Their poetry is, in fact, a summation of their social and political commitments.