Few scholars have so seamlessly blended rigorous criticism with creative expression as Professor Nkengasong did throughout his distinguished career. His novels, plays, and poems arose from a moral urgency to give voice to the marginalized, while his critical studies on modernist intertexts, Pidgin English, and postcolonial literature set new benchmarks in African literary criticism. By tracing the fluid boundaries of identity, language, literary theory, linguistic aesthetics, and power, he insisted that literature must probe the spaces where opposites converge, and in doing so he transformed academic discourse into a dynamic encounter with lived realities.
As a teacher and mentor at a number of state universities in Cameroon, Professor Nkengasong embodied the spirit of scholarly generosity. He summoned the voices of established literary giants, but also of emerging literary figures, inviting students to make sense of texts, interrogate power structures, and unite fiction with societal realities. The countless students who passed through his courses carry his intellectual torch, their own work echoing the depth, rigour, and empathy he consistently modelled.
This volume brings together twenty-one papers that reflect the kaleidoscopic range of Nkengasong's interests and influence. Contributors include former students who reminisce over classes and seminars, colleagues who shared conference panels, and international scholars whose dialogues with his work spurred new research trajectories. Each essay, whether a close literary or linguistic analysis or a comparative study, converges on Nkengasong's cherished themes: thresholds of identity, the politics of language, the legacy of modernism, and visions of literary futures.
Professor Ernest L. Veyu
University of Yaounde 1