This collection consists of 49 insightful essays by leading Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande, which originally appeared on his award-winning blog Scribbles from the Den. These essays tackle some of the most pressing and complex issues facing Cameroon today such as the stalled democratization process, the perennial Anglophone problem, the crisis of higher education, the absence of the rule of law, the lack of leadership renewal, a stifled collective memory, and a continued inability to harness technology for purposes of national development, among others. Scribbles from the Den goes beyond the news headlines to dispassionately analyze and unravel the complexities of Cameroonian politics and society.

No Turning Back relives the tumultuous beginnings of Africa's democratization experiment in the early 1990s. The main theme of the collection is an investment in hope and in the resilience of Africans. The poems are loud and clear in their castigation of dictatorship and its miseries. They celebrate the mass resolve and thirst for democracy by Africans for whom there is 'No turning back ' 'A lucid and truly memorable collection of poems. Dibussi forces us to turn back and look at the pivotal volcanic moments in Cameroon's history between 1990- 1993... As a student activist and budding journalist during this historic period, Dibussi captures cadences of this struggle eloquently.' Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D., Department of English, University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford, USA. 'This collection is an important document chronicling, through verse, the events of an era in a given space with unmitigated passion.' Kangsen Wakai, poet, Houston, Texas, USA '. a subtle yet unapologetic critique of Cameroon's chequered history of predatory governance. The poems provide succor to a people besieged first by the unrealised dreams of a political (mis)marriage and then a false promissory note on which their democratic development is written.' George Ngwane, Chair, National Book Development Council - Cameroon

Bate Besong was Cameroon's most vocal and controversial poet, playwright and scholar, who died in March 2007. The poems in this collection are a tribute to the man and his work, and provide a snapshot of the mood that prevailed after his death. Bate Besong ushered in a new kind of nationalist "fighting" literature in Cameroon, unapologetic in its defense of Cameroon's Anglophone minority and scathing in its denunciation of postcolonial African dictators and their foreign collaborators. These poems defy Bate Besong's death by affirming that his impact as a writer lives on. 34 poems are included from 30 poets. "Moving and tellingly generous, these tributes attest to the value of Bate Besong as humanist, artist, and patriot; the 'Inextinguishable Flame' of his inspiration; the triumph of his life over the pain of his departure. Here is a resonant celebration not only of the brief but boisterously bright fire of one of our bravest writers, but also of the unbreakable chord of our common humanity. The refrains in these elegies are anthems of hope. The ink in their lines will for ever stay aglow." Niyi Osundare, Nigerian writer & former teacher of Bate Besong "These poems put into perspective the essence of that Anglophone Cameroon literary icon, the fearless "Obasinjom Warrior" with the bemused smile, who once upon a time, was called Bate Besong." Ba'bila Mutia, Professor of Literature, ENS, University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon. Author of Coils of Mortal Flesh