Academic, Writer and poet Patrice Nganang remains incarcerated days after being arrested by Cameroon security forces at the Douala airport on Thursday December 7.
Patrice Nganang, an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Stony Brook University, was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon and educated in Cameroon and Germany. His books include La Promesse des fleurs (1997), Temps de chien (1999) English translation Dog Days (2006), La Joie de vivre (2003) , Dernières nouvelles du colonialisme (2006), L’Invention du beau regard (2005), Mont Plaisant (2011) Trans 2016, Mount Pleasant: a novel and La Saison des prunes (2013.) His 1999 novel Temps de chien was awarded the Prix Littéraire Marguerite Yourcenar in 2001 and the Grand prix littéraire d’Afrique noire in 2002.
On December 7, 2017, shortly after publishing an article on the website Jeune Afrique critical of the Biya government’s approach to ongoing instability in Anglophone regions of Cameroon, Nganang was reported missing at Douala airport in Cameroon. He was to take a Kenya Airways flight to Harare, Zimbabwe to visit his wife.
Cameroon has been a very painful place for the majority of the population in recent past as President Paul Biya became more autocratic as he struggles to retain power in the Central African country. This especially applies to English speaking part of the country where residents feel like they are not a part of the greater Cameroon project.
Family have been looking for the author and The Star in Kenya reported that his lawyer Emmanuel Simh said: “He is accused of insulting the president of the republic, and after the hearings we will be able to give further information.”
“His detention was extended (Monday) for 48 hours by the state prosecutor,” lawyer Emmanuel Simh told AFP, adding that Nganang would “in principle” appear before the prosecutor after its expiry.
We here at JamesMurua.com would like to add our voice to the many around the world to demand that government of Cameroon release the author, academic and poet to his family. The government must be forever reminded that #ActivismIsNotACrime.
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