OBIA`S QUESTION ABOUT MY BOOK OF POEMS

Obia asked me the question during our interaction on Facebook

Hi Obia, I saw your question. Unfortunately, you were already offline.

The answer is that I thought of how I could contribute to the ongoing fight against HIV AIDS, considering its ravaging nature and the ultimate impact on society. I decided to write a book and since I had already published poetry books before, I decided that this book would be another poetry book. I also decided that I would write some of the poems in English as I am English-speaking and some in French as I am a teacher of French (and Spanish) and also because we are a bilingual country.
When I approached the then Permanent Secretary in charge of the National AIDS Control Committee (NACC) and the then Minister of Public Health, they liked the idea and gave me some financial support which enabled me to publish the first five hundred copies of the book. Among the poems in the collection were two I did in French and another two I did in English on the work of First Lady Chantal Biya in the HIV AIDS battle, notably through her NGOs, the Chantal Biya Foundation and African Synergies. When the book came out, I wrote to her and enclosed a copy. She promptly reacted by asking me to translate the two poems in English into French and the two in French into English. I did and she ordered and paid for a hundred copies which I understand she distributed for use to the nursery and primary schools that fall within the Presidency of the Republic on the national territory.

This year, I used my own means and produced more copies. I also proposed the book to the National Book Commission for Secondary Schools. As you know, they took it for Forms 1,2,3, 5 and the Lower 6th as well as the Francophone 6eme, 5eme, 2nde AB and 2nde C.

Now, friends and compatriots like you can obtain copies for personal reading and distribution to close relations, notably the young, for sensitization against this dreaded pandemic.


Copyright 2010