The Ofi Press Magazine

Scions of the Malcontent (2011)

By Dzekashu Macviban

Miraclaire Publishing

http://www.miraclairebooks.com/poetry.html

Review by Jack Little.

Published in Issue 23.

Scions of the Malcontent is a compelling collection of poetry from young Cameroon writer Dzekashu MacViban. With turns and twists, we find conflict and longing, for instance in the poem below.

Harvest of Thorns.

The love fell, a petal at a time

The scene, as seen behind innocent eyes

Could not come to terms with the harvest of thorns

Worsened by the horror of taking sides.

The book also deals with social issues riddled throughout with religious images. The poet asks will God be Africa’s saviour?

Coup d’ Etats in Africa

There’s a coup d’ état

New persons impose themselves to-night

And take into their hands – the Power-

To wreck the ship-of-state

Give a dog a bad name, then hang it.

Thy throne’s thy grave...

A young snake kills its mother

Yet, it ain’t different

Déjà vu, I’d say

As a dishonest saint replaces another

Is this our fate until the Second Coming?

Macviban further explores the turmoil in his country through the poem The Mendicant of Yeruwa.

The Mendicant of Yeruwa[i]

Water is blessing to this baked earth

Insatiable from birth...

Armed for the feats of Tabasky

Mark how even the Joshua tree observes

This double-bent figure-

Putschist-turned-mendican

Out of depth of a threadbare bag

An ever-empty bowl, beseeching

The seed has been sown

A positive move plunges him into reveries

Of his troubled dawn

Punctuated by showers of Allah’s benediction

The contrary unleases his forked tongue

Which slices the air, the heart too

he moves on

With his army of flies.