GWELER ISOD AM Y GYMRAEG
Eric Ngalle Charles
‘I have always felt the need to use literature and creative writing as a means of overcoming trauma. It has worked for me, I highly recommend it.’
Eric Ngalle Charles was born in Buea, Cameroon and he is a poet, dramatist, novelist and member of Wales PEN Cymru. He fled Cameroon and spent years as an illegal immigrant in Russia. He arrived in Cardiff in 1999 and was able to claim asylum.
Eric is currently a part of Wales PEN Cymru’s Telling the Story project, an initiative which aims to support refugee writers in Wales by helping them to integrate in the Welsh literary scene and develop a literary career in Wales. It also aims to raise public awareness of the challenges that face refugees, asylum seekers or otherwise displaced people in the UK, and specifically in Wales today, and help to mitigate the rise of xenophobia by organising events which focus on the stories of refugees and by working in schools with refugee writers. Eric gives performances of his work, which is based on his experiences, and also leads creative writing classes.
In 2016 he published Asylum, a documentary drama about what it means to be a refugee, caught between two worlds, destitute and unable to move forward with one’s life. It features people Ngalle met through the creative writing classes he ran at the Welsh Refugee Centre, where he has helped more recent refugees arriving in Cardiff to use writing to overcome the trauma of being displaced.
Eric currently runs creative writing classes at the Grange Town Hub (Mondays, Thursdays 10-12:30) and at Oasis Fridays, 1.30), and there are also women’s only group sessions at Grange Town Hub. As part of a broader remit, local artists are encouraged to meet with artists from the refugee communities to facilitate engagement and integration.
He has edited several anthologies of poetry by refugees, migrants and indigenous artists with Dr Tom Cheesman, including, Mountain and a Sea; Soft Touch, Nobody’s Perfect; and Festival of Wolves His first play, My Mouth Brought Me Here, showcased at Encampment, Southbank, London in August 2016. Based around Ngalle’s poetry and an Old West African proverb, it explores the themes of migration, language, freedom of expression and dictatorship.
In 2017 Parthian Books will publish his Memoirs.
“I spent two years and two months exactly in Russia, survived by doing striptease, mimicking 2Pac, meeting the Bony Ms, buying and selling fake dollars, learned how to become a scammer using fake dollars, learned the tricks of human trafficking, Rejected by the Cameroonian embassy for thinking I was an Ibo Nigerian, rejected by the Nigerian Embassy for being a Cameroonian. Not being able to be repatriated by the United Nations as I had not lived in Russia long enough…….. ” (Excerpt from Memoirs)
Hear his poem ‘Between a Mountain and a Sea’ set to ‘Barcelona Winter Dub’ here.
Eric Ngalle Charles
‘Rydw i eisoes wedi teimlo’r angen i ddefnyddio llenyddiaeth ac ysgrifennu creadigol er mwyn goresgyn Trawma, mae hyn wedi gweithio i mi. Byddwn i’n ei argymell yn fawr.’
Cafodd Eric Ngalle Charles ei eni yn Buea, Cameroon, ac mae’n fardd, dramodydd, nofelydd ac aelod o Wales PEN Cymru. Dihangodd o Cameroon a threuliodd flynyddoedd fel mewnfudwr anghyfreithlon yn Rwsia. Cyrhaeddodd Gaerdydd yn 1999 a llwyddodd i hawlio lloches.
Ar hyn o bryd, mae Eric yn rhan o brosiect Adrodd y Stori sy’n cael ei gynnal gan Wales PEN Cymru. Mae hyn yn gynllun sy’n bwriadu cefnogi llenorion sy’n ffoaduriaid yng Nghymru gan helpu iddynt integreiddio ym myd llenyddol Cymru a datblygu gyrfa llenyddol yng Nghymru. Mae’r prosiect hefyd yn ceisio codi ymwybyddiaeth y cyhoedd am yr heriau sy’n cael eu hwynebu gan ffoaduriaid, ceiswyr lloches a phobl sydd wedi’u dadleoli yn y DU, ac yn benodol, yng Nghymru heddiw, a helpu i liniaru’r cynnyd mewn senoffobia gan drefnu digwyddiadau sy’n ffocysu ar hanesion ffoaduriaid a gan weithio mewn ysgolion gyda llenorion sy’n ffoaduriaid. Mae Eric yn perfformio’i waith, sy’n seiliedig ar ei brofiadau, ac yn arwain gwersi ysgrifennu creadigol.
Yn 2016, cyhoeddodd ef Asylum, drama ddogfennol am yr hyn y mae’n ei olygu i fod yn ffoadur, rhwng dau fyd, yn anghenus a methu symud ymlaen gyda bywyd. Mae’n nodweddu pobl y wnaeth Ngalle gwrdd â nhw trwy’r gwersi ysgrifennu creadigol y mae ef yn eu cynnal yng Nghanolfan Ffoaduriaid Cymraeg. Yma, mae ef wedi bod o gymorth i ragor o ffoaduriaid sy’n cyrraedd yng Nghaerdydd i ddefnyddio ysgrifen i oresgyn trawma o ddadleoli.
Mae ef wedi golygu nifer o antholegau o gerddi gan ffoaduriaid, ymfudwyr ac artistiaid cynhenid gyda Dr Tom Cheesman, gan gynnwys, Mountain and a Sea; Soft Touch, Nobody’s Perfect; and Festival of Wolves. Arddangoswyd ei ddrama gynaf, My Mouth Brought Me Here, yn Encampment, Southbank, Llundain ym mis Awst 2016. Wedi seilio ar farddoniaeth Ngalle a hen ddihareb o Orllewin Affrica, mae’r ddrama yn archwilio themâu ymfudo, iaith, rhyddid mynegiant ac unbennaeth.
Yn 2017, bydd Parthian Books yn cyhoeddi ei Gofiannau.
Gellir clywed ei gerdd Between a Mountain and a Sea wedi’i gosod i Barcelona Winter Dub yma.