Poetry in Times of Conflict
Editors: Meera Chakravorty, Geraldine Sinyuy
Pages: 60
Year of Publication: 2020
Price: Rs 200 / £10
ISBN:
978-81-949985-4-9 (9788194998549)
About the Editors
Meera Chakravorty is a research faculty member in the Department of Cultural Studies, Jain University, Bengaluru, India. She has translated into Kannada Bengali novels that won Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters) awards, like Manoj Basu’s Nishikutumba and Amiyabhushan Majumdar’s Rajnagar, as well as a collection of Jibanananda Das’s poetry and Saonli Mitra’s play Nathavati Anathavat. She translated into Bengali a
collection of Kannada Vachanas by medieval poet visionaries challenging stereotypes, and the renowned Kannada author Devnoor Mahadev. Essays in Philosophy and Culture, Consciousness, Time and Praxis, and Colours of Mind, along with edited volumes and poetry collections in both English and Bengali, are some of her other publications. Her domains of interest are philosophy, social justice, women’s studies and cultural studies. Her philosophical research on “Enquiry into Time” was awarded by the John Templeton Foundation, USA. She was a member of the Karnataka State Women’s Commission. Her involvement in women’s struggles over the years has been recorded in many journals.
Geraldine Sinyuy earned her PhD in English (Commonwealth Literature) from the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. She is currently an English Language and Literature in English teacher at Government Bilingual High School Down Town Bamenda, Cameroon. She earned a Secondary and High School Teacher’s Diploma at the Higher Teachers Training College, University of Yaoundé I, and taught English as a Foreign Language at Government Technical College Bangoulap, Bangangte from 2006 to 2016. She was part-time Assistant Lecturer of Medical English at Université des Montagnes, Bangangte (2010-2014) and English Language part-time teacher (2005-2007) at English High School, Yaoundé. She has published academic articles in international journals on culture, gender and migration in postcolonial literatures in English. Sinyuy writes folktales, short stories and poetry, and was a featured storyteller on World Pulse in 2017. She has attended many international conferences, one of which, held in Bengaluru, was where she met Meera Chakravorty, and the idea of this poetry anthology was conceived.
About the Book
“This book is a collection of responses to the plight of the internally displaced persons from various poets in Cameroon and Nigeria. The poems decry the indifference that society maintains in the face of a crisis which strips human beings of both their rights and their homes.”
~ Geraldine Sinyuy
“In Cameroon, people have taken it for granted that they have been dedicated to the country in their resistance against the rebels, the sole object of whom is to create tragedies to make people fragile and powerless. But people who, through conflict and chaos, stand condemned in the eyes of the rebel army, stand like the famished gulls before them, still consider their passion for their country as the root of their continuous striving for joyful days in future. They believe strongly that some day, the tormentors will eventually bring this chaotic period to an end. However, for the time being, they will have to plunge perilously to the very depths of resistance. It is in honour of these lion-hearted individuals that this anthology expresses our solidarity.”
~ Meera Chakravorty
Contents
Poems by Blossom N. Fondo, Geraldine Sinyuy, Joshua Akemecha, Lola Orlando Laika, Mbuh Tennu Mbuh, Ngah Beatrice Wirnsungnin, Onuorah Valentine Chukwuebuka, Bertha Bongajum, Nyaa Hans Ndah, Gladys Focho Ngwi, Peter Suh-Nfor Tangyie, Tata-Banin Wan-Ebsiy, Vivian Bongka Tah and Meera Chakravorty