The Radio & Other Stories: A prototypal story of young Cameroonians born in the Biya era

Book Release by Gil Ndi-Shang at 7:00 am (Cameroonian Time), 3rd April 2021.

This is one of the most interesting books that paint the individual and collective experiences of Cameroonian youth who gained social and political consciousness in the 1990s.

It is a prototypal story of the generation of young Cameroonians born around 1982 who grew up with dreams of rigour and moralisation as guiding principles of socio-political and economic life.

What begins as a personal narrative quickly delves into a social archaeology, inviting the reader/listener on a homegoing journey in the backdrop of Cameroon’s tottering democratic trajectory.

Modulated with poetry and music, The Radio tunes in to diasporic realities, education, religion and popular culture, mixing both humour and gravity.

Commenting on this book, the US-based Cameroonian actress and multiple award-winning writer, Prof. Joyce Ash says “The prose flows seductively and the reader is bound to return to this collection over and over again for engaging reflections.”

Describing the book as one of the few well-written texts that takes one through the full breadth of the Cameroonian educational system, Ras-I Mackinzeph, artist and Pedagogic Inspector of Philosophy, qualifies the book “a great creative piece which puts the reader at the very heart of the storyline, gluing their attention to each line from start to finish.

The perfect use of the second person singular (YOU) makes each reader a full part of the storytelling; a model of reader-centred writing.”

A section of the chapter titled “Nanga Hills”, the last of this ten-chapter book, offers insight into the political fervour triggered by SDF rallies amongst the student population at the time: “Whenever the rally fell during school hours, the school campus was speedily vacated and there was nothing the principal could do…The third round of responses always required a full sentence. ‘Power to the People and Equal Opportunities to all’.

That was when many merely hummed and rumbled along, like during the Lord’s Prayer and the National Anthem. The SDF party was better known in pidgin as “Sofa Don Finish”.

For many people who cared less about socialism, but more about the end of suffering, the second stood as the one and only meaning of the abbreviation…The voice of Ni John Fru Ndi always sought you out from the entire crowd and addressed you personally.

You stood there, Like Maanan in The Beautiful Ones Are not yet Born: Ah man, let me wet it. Let it soak itself in love. Today things have gone inside me. And they have brought out what I have hidden in me. He brought them up. He was reading me; I know he was speaking to me, to you too.”(177-178).
About the Author

Dr. Gil Ndi-Shang hails from Donga-Mantung Division, North West region of Cameroon. He studied in GBHS Nkambe and the University of Yaoundé 1 before leaving for Bayreuth (Bayern-Germany) for his graduate studies. Amongst other books, he is the author of Letter from America: Memoir of an Adopted Child (2019) and State/society: Narrating Transformations in African Novels (2017).

You can order copies of the book on the website of the publisher, Spears Books:

https://spearsmedia.com/shop/the-radio-and-other-stories/
or on amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Letter-America-Memoir-Adopted-Child/dp/1942876483/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Stay tuned to The Radio facebook page as from 7:00 AM on Saturday 03rd April 2021 for the release!