Nelson Chiabi Nchindo

The Dark Mirror Nelson Chiabi Nchindo

Nchindo Nelson Chiabi's poetry reads like the aftermath of a Tsunami in which the poet, (survivor) in the blur of the stupor tries to give credence to an emerging present. Since he can reconstruct the present with only the debris of the past, he is confronted with the inadequacies of conventional language techniques to express the present. As such, he delves into unconventionalities in poetic form, punctuation, rhyme, and rhythm and most importantly, word formation. This breach with convention needs not worry the reader. They simply need to distinguish the root of the apparently strange word from inflectional and derivational morphemes and the meaning of the word unfolds; e.g. mes = me + s = plural of me. This adventurism in language use and usage is a distinguishing characteristic of other 21st century Art forms - dancing, dressing, singing and so on. It is the boundary stone between the old and the new. Nchindo's poetry is therefore poetry of the new era and must be appreciated as such. Prof. Alobwede d'Epie Charles Novelist, Poet and Critic Catholic University of Cameroon