René Philombe’s Acceptance of the Fonlon-Nichols Prize (1992)
[This acceptance speech appeared originally in French in African Literature Association Bulletin 18, 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 27-32. It has been translated by Ahmed Sheikh Bangura of the University of Alberta- ED.]
We are gathered here today to relive throbbing, painful and warm moments, and to pay a new homage to the memory of the man whom all Cameroonians should rightly consider to be a monument of culture. As I said, these moments are at once throbbing, painful and warm because we are celebrating the memory of a great man whom we will never see again in flesh and blood, but whose memory teaches us so many lessons. Bernard Fonlon is, therefore not dead. He is alive and will always be in our midst.
I would like to thank her Excellency, the Ambassador of Canada, who kindly accepted to grace this intimate and simple award ceremony with her presence. I also want to thank Professor Victor Anomah Ngu, the president of the Fonlon Foundation of which I am a humble member. Professor Victor Anomah Ngu has with remarkable brilliance been able to preserve the endearing image of Fonlon. My thanks also go to Professor Richard Bjornson, who was kind enough to travel all the way from the USA, defying the exhaustion of this journey, in order to personally hand over this important cultural prize.
What an honour for me! What pride and what excitement as well! It is very difficult for me to adequately express these three feelings, which I am going through right now. Allow me. Ladies and gentlemen, as I accept the prize bearing the illustrious name of Bernard Fonlon, to relive a very special memory I have of him.
It was in 1963 that I had the opportunity of meeting Fonlon-Nsokika Bernard. At the time, he belonged to that pleiad of Cameroonian intellectuals who, after completing solid studies abroad, courageously accepted to return to the mother-country to dip their industrious hands into the Cameroonian (African) “potopoto” in order to contribute to the building of the nation. This was a courageous act at the time because, back then, Africa was shaken by violent jolts and unending turbulence: military coups, civil wars, political assassinations, denial of the most basic freedoms and the perversion of justice in all its forms…. All this forced so many worthy intellectuals to flee and led to the horrendous suppression of literature and culture.
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