Elobi

elobi / the chant is born of a swallowed scream of speech diluted in beads of tears dried by masculine modesty true speech retreated to the borders of withdrawal elobi is the specifically cameroonian way of referring to the wet, swampy areas that surround riverbanks. elobi is where the slums are, and where the poor neighborhoods of yaounde are found. elobi is also the name of patrice nganang’s book-length poem, the place where its singular narrator was born and formed, the waterlogged and violent place where this poem lives.