Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe – rhymes and rhythm

Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe, called Captain Alexander, was born in Cameroon and now lives in France. He is a founding member of the group “On A Slamé Sur La Lune”. He has published four books: ADN (Afriques Diasporas Négritude), Le Chant des possibles (awarded by the Fetkann Poetry Prize and the Paul Verlaine Poetry Prize of the French Academy in 2015), Résidents de la République (Editions La Cheminante, essay written in "state of emergency" in 2016) and De terre, de mer, d’amour et de feu (Mémoire d'Encrier, 2017). All of his writing are poetic words carried by rhythm and sound and therefore very close to music and slam poetry. His writings open up imaginaries of possible worlds, of humanity and solidarity transgressing all borders.

In his first novel, Diên Biên Phù (2018) he interweaves the destiny of three persons who meet during the Vietnam war in 1954 and the friendship that arouses from this encounter in spite of the violence. The novel is a recital that is built on a series of poems.

Find more about the artist here.

The following poem is an example taken from his novel "Diên Biên Phu"

Excerpt of  Diên Biên Phu (2018: 36)

Épinglés au silence de la nuit

Nous errons dans la ville

Mélancoliques de nous-même

Nous rêvons d’autres vies

D’autres vies que les nôtres

Nous rêvons, nous autres

De sel et de l’antidote à l’ennui

Pinned to the silence of the night

We wander around the city

Melancholic of ourselves

We dream of other lives

Lives other than ours

We dream, the rest of us

Of salt and antidote to boredom

”Diên Biên Phu is a book on the Indochina War that captures the atrocities of the war in persistent snap shots that are part of the shared memories across three continents. Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe succeeds in creating a utopian vision of friendship that creates the vision of a larger family across generations and all borders in a lyrical language.”

Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler, Vice Dean of Internationalisation and Public Engagement and Member of the Research Section “Arts & Aesthetics” at the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence