IHRAM’s Dr Geraldine Sinyuy dives into conversation with an insightful and daring Cameroonian writer, publisher and entrepreneur, Nkwetatang Sampson Nguekie.

Geraldine Sinyuy:  In your opinion, what makes a good story?
Nkwetatang Sampson Nguekie: In my opinion, what makes a good story is the author’s simple way of making the story to be real – even if it is mere imagination, it is his prowess in capturing the setting of the story vividly, in giving distinctive qualities to the characters in the story, in using diverse literary devices in making the story beautiful, and in intriguing the minds of the audience with the manner in which he crafts the rising action of the story, the climax of the story and the falling action of the story leading to the end.    

GS: Writers are also believed to be ardent readers. When did you start reading?
NSN: I started reading in 1985, at the age of fourteen when I was in Form One in secondary school. The first book which I read to the end – which laid the foundation of my becoming a future writer was a small novel titled Chike and the River by Chinua Achebe.

GS: What kind of literature did you read when you were growing up?
NSN: I mostly read Poetry when I was growing up. In primary school, we recited a lot of poems in our readers. The most popular of them was titled “Frogs at School” by George Cooper. Later in secondary school; in my teenage, I was further inspired by some poems which I recited day and night. Some examples include “Young Africa’s Resolve” by Denis Osadebay, “Down by the Salley Gardens” by W.B Yeats, and “Morte d’Arthur” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. I also read the pacesetters series novels from Nigeria.

GS: Where do you get your inspiration for writing?
NSN: I largely get my inspiration for writing from my childhood experiences packed to capacity by primitive African folklore. Other sources of my inspiration include travelling and interacting with people of different ages, educational and cultural backgrounds, achievements and walks of life, reading widely, watching all kinds of films, and spending much of my time in seclusion.    

GS: Do you ever get inspiration from your dreams?
NSN: Yes. Some scenes come to me in my dreams, and I recollect and write them in my tranquility. Most of them are my encounters with my ancestors in the land of the dead. Such scenes are always very frightful.

GS: What is your favourite genre to write, and why?
NSN: My favourite genre to write is Poetry, because it is when I express my feelings poetically that I totally empty myself and feel happiest and most at ease.

GS: Who is your favourite author, and what is it that actually touches you about their work?
NSN: My favourite author is Alfred Lord Tennyson. What actually touches me in his work is the depth to which he explores the theme of nostalgia, especially in his longest poem titled “Locksley Hall”.

GS: Have you ever experienced what is called a writer’s block? If yes, how did you get out of it?
NSN: I have never experienced a writer’s block.

GS: What themes do you write about?
NSN: I write about primitive African cultural values, customs and traditions, I write about all human virtues and vices, human rights and self-esteem, I write about patriotism and good governance, I write about nostalgia, romanticism and metaphysics.       

GS: Do you in any way write about human rights? If yes, what aspects of human rights?
NSN: Yes. I write about human rights, especially on the aspects of the respect for children’s rights, women’s rights and the rights of the less-privileged in the society.

GS: Can you share an instance where you drew from real-life events to write your story?
NSN: Yes. I wrote a tearful tribute to the 114 passengers who died tragically on aboard the Boeing 737-800 which crashed on the 7th of May 2007 in the mangrove of Mbanga Mpongo in Cameroon.

GS: Have you published any books? How have they been received in the society?
NSN: Yes. I have published nineteen books, and they have been received in the society with fervent excitement.

GS: What is the most inspiring feedback you've ever received from a reader?
NSN: The most exciting feedback I have ever received from a reader was in 2005 from Mr. Kwasen Gwangwa’a who was then the coordinator of a certain programme on culture in the Cameroon Radio and Television Corporation. After reading one of my manuscripts titled “The Mind on an Odyssey”, he wrote to me that my greatest strength in creative writing was my ability to solemnise and to sermonise, and that I wrote exactly like Alexander Pope.     

GS: How has your writing evolved from when you started writing till now?
NSN: I started writing in 1996 by inventing a new literary genre in the same rank with Poetry, Drama and Prose called “Repsy”. When I finished backing it with seven publications on sacred subjects including rituals, dedications, incantations, lamentations, valedictions and tributes in 2008, I started writing Poetry and Prose. Since then, till today, I have written two novels, six poetry books, four publications on diverse subjects, and edited and published eight poetry anthologies with Cameroonian and Nigerian writers.

GS: What are some of the challenges that you face as a writer?
NSN: As a writer, I face the challenge of raising funds to print my books, and of exercising much patience for them to yield dividends, the challenge of making them to reach their targeted audience for it to read and give feedback to me, the challenge of negligence of writers by the government of my country by not giving us subventions, the challenge of marginalisation in my country because I am an indigene of the Southern Cameroons – the English-speaking Region of Cameroon which constitutes the minority in my country, and the challenge of getting international visibility for my works to be read far and wide, appreciated and given the quota which they deserve.      

GS: What advice will you give to young aspiring people who want to become writers?
NSN: The advice I will give to young aspiring people who want to become writers is that they should prepare themselves for a very long journey full of trials, temptations and tribulations. They should not focus on what they lose, but on what they gain, and that they should value the connections and relationships which they secure in their writing career more than the sales of their books.

GS: What writing project are you currently working on now?
NSN: The writing project which I am currently working on now is Drama. I have engaged a mammoth project to write plays stretching from the present date to the medieval epoch. So, help me Lord.

Nkwetatang Sampson Nguekie is an incarnation of the eighteenth century and nineteenth century romantic poets. He has a mammoth project to be the greatest creative writer of all time in the nearest future. Born in Mmuock-Leteh, Lebialem Division in the South West Region of Cameroon in 1972, he attended Presbyterian School Fotang, Government Bilingual High School Bamenda and the University of Yaounde I, where he read English Modern Letters and French Civilisations, Literary Interpretation and Criticism, Commonwealth and Comparative Literature.

He has published two novels: From Village to Town (2011) and Hard Way to Fortune (2013). He is the inventor of a new literary genre in the same rank with Poetry, Drama and Prose called “Repsy” which he backed for twelve years (1996-2008) with six uplifting publications on sanctified subjects; namely, Dedication to Mankind Volume 1, Initiation of the Genteel Volume 1, Incantations of the Guiltless Volume 1, Dispute of the Tender-Hearted Volume 1, Counsel of the Meek Volume 1, and Tribute to Beloved Volume 1. Lamentations of the Lamb (2020) is his seventh publication on “Repsy”.

One of his books titled Discourses, won the Nonfiction Category of the 2013 Eko Prize for the Furtherance of Literature, University of Iowa, USA. The Prologue (2018) and Countryside Poetry Legacy Volume 1 (2020) are his narrative poems in free verse set in The Writers Retreat Countryside in Bamenda, Cameroon. Some of his poems have been published in the following anthologies: 1. Songs for Tomorrow, 2. The Ngoh Kuoh Review, 3. Bearing Witness and 4. The Continental Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry, and in The Journal of Emerging Cameroonian Scholars. He took the 2022 Lantern Prize for Literature.

He is a creative writer, an editor in the Humanities, a book publisher, a project designer, a project writer, a project manager, a speech writer and letter writer, a versatile executive, a latent talent developer, a motivational speaker, a public speaker, a mentor in the Humanities, an erudite scholar, a multi-task facilitator and a civil society consultant.

He is the President of the Association of Cameroonian Patriots (ACAP), the President of the Association of Emerging Cameroonian Scholars (ASECAS), the President of the Association of Givers to Humanity (AGH), the President of the Cameroonian & Nigerian Writers League (CNWL) and a Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency, Oyo State, Nigeria. Contacts: Telephone/WhatsApp: +237 677 26 19 86; Email: repsampson@yahoo.com; Facebook: Nkwetatang Sampson Nguekie