A CERTAIN MAN NAMED `JESUS`

(For Dr. Charles Ndeh Awasom, MD)

I have looked at the bible

And to tell you the truth

I`m at a loss

A total loss.

How on earth could a man

One ma, I mean, one

Have all alone dominated the world

From Genesis to Apocalypse?

BACKGROUND TO THE POEM

Dr Charles Ndeh Awasom and I were classmates at Sacred Heart College in Bamenda and later CCAST Bambili. While at Sacred Heart College, in conformity with the catholic ethos, every student took and sat for Religious Studies as a subject at the GCE. Occasionally, as our teacher for the subject, Mr. Jerome Nsom, led us into it, we would wonder at one aspect or another. 

The point in this poem is that a number of us classmates were wondering aloud how it was that when Pontius Pilate (Governor of Judea) wrote to Tiberius Caesar (the Roman Emperor) in Rome to report to him the “illegal” activities of Jesus,  he referred to him (the son of God) just as “a certain man named Jesus”.