Bold, original and stimulating in its inspirational insights, A Basket of Kola Nuts explores Cameroonís cultures as remarkable pivots of moral rectitude and such sickening vicious-circles as bribery and corruption. Ethnically grass-rooted and globalizing rather than alarmingly exotic and exclusive, this poetic diction of form-content aims at revitalizing its material contents to sever it from extinction and revamp cultural values that break the patience of silence to question deviation rather than the concrete interface of cultural identities and differences. Uprightly appealing, this poetry gathers kola seeds that fall apart in crisis to invite readers world-wide to taste its kolaly aroma.

An African folktale in which the son of the chief must make his way in the world with only a sackful of kola nuts and the help of some creatures that he has treated with kindness.

'If the form of my poetry is thoroughly European, its content is thoroughly African.' Thus the author introduces this collection of some eighty of his poems written between the late 1950s and the present: from the settler period through the civil war, to independence and neo- colonialism. The poems explore the contradictions and creative possibilities of an identity that is at once native and white, European and African. The voice is varyingly satirical, confessional, outraged and affectionate. "These poems have nothing to do with white nostalgia for the colonial period. On the contrary, they circle round [the author's] attempt both to embrace a past and wean himself from it."

This reference grammar is the first ever description of West Africa’s Edoid language Emai. It incorporates narrative, lexical and grammatical field results over the last three decades. Treated are morphology, syntax and argument structure after an introductory phonology and orthographic overview highlighting grammatical and lexical tone. Individual chapters delineate noun and verb phrase structure as well as clause shape in discourse and clause combination. Noun inflection and derivation are detailed as is verb inflection in the context of tense, aspect and modality. Noun phrase character encompasses remnant noun classes, nominal modification types and pronoun forms followed by conjunction. Verb phrase features include complex predicates, both verbs in series and verb plus postverbal particle, functionally distinct copulas, double objects, and sentence complement types constrained by matrix verb. Also analyzed are preverbal and postverbal adverbials relative to information question types. Multi-clause constructions are profiled as to coding varieties across dependent clauses as well as precedence relations. A concluding chapter presents a sample narrative in orthographic form, interlinear gloss and English free translation.

A Synopsis of the Short Stories Kola nuts have been talking and settling land disputes, uniting the people for so many years until a war veteran, Japri came back from the Great War from the white man’s land, started seizing land and raffia bushes that do not belong to him, and rejects the judgment passed by the “talking kola nuts”. This ushers in an endless tug of war between the farmers and the cattle rearers. The mainstream Chua Chua is getting dry, and drinking water is scarce. Dogo, an ex-prisoner cum environmentalist, comes with a radical, insane slogan, “No Chua Chua, No Nkambe; No Nile, No Egypt,” clashes with Wanda and his traditional hunters. The administration is battling to solve these problems when Lake Nyos in a neighboring tribe explodes with devastating consequences on humans, cattle, and the environment. The administration, modernists, and traditionalists are at crossroads. Scary faces appear at night; rumors of a ghost emerging in vengeance on the people because of a New Market constructed on its shrines. Unprecedented drought is looming in the harsh harmattan. Pagans instill fear amongst the Christians who have heard that Christmas will be postponed from an undisclosed source rumored to be a chief gossiper (Mami Kongossa), the rumormonger the women have vowed to arrest and send to jail. Her vile mouth is behind all conflicts in the village. She says young girls (ngwangu barah) want ready-made husbands and young boys are lazy (Big 7), want white-collar jobs. A silent war is waged (the ugly vs. the beautiful). One of the young men (Akambou) hits a jackpot in a game of chance but squanders all and goes insane. On the hills nearby an American veterinarian is given the highest traditional title by Nfuh, a war lodge, a general (nformi) for revamping cattle rearing. A few weeks later, good news is heard that the first president of the country is visiting Nkambe, the divisional headquarters. More than two hundred villages are set to give him a memorable reception with pomp, joy, and dance with great hopes for a bright future but little changes after the visit.

Igbo Idioms are the ornaments and the jewelry that beautify the Igbo language and make the listeners pay great attention to any talker that uses them. Such a person is held to a high esteem. They are words of wisdom part of which intelligence is measured in Igbo land. Wat butter is to bread, Igbo Idiom is to language and a speech in Igbo that has no idiom is like soup without salt. The Igbos are known to be smart go ahead people, figuring out the meaning of idioms from infancy plays definitely a role in that.

Okello Oculi is one of East Africa's foremost and pioneering writers. Born in Uganda, his poetry belongs to the same school as that of Okot p'Bitek and Joseph Brunga. It is a school that seeks to re-assert African cultural heritage with a critique of foreign influences. His voice is both evocative of a receding Africa and a declamatory dialogue with the new Africa. There are three main themes running through this new collection: the ecology of humans, animals and the natural world; Africa's ideological ancestory; and the interaction of political theory and literary enterprise.