Stories from Las almas de Brandon by César Brandon Ndjocu Davies

Abstract

César Brandon Ndjocu Davies (Equatorial Guinea, 1993), writer and poet, is the author of Las almas de Brandon [Brandon’s Souls] (2017), Toda la felicidad del universo [All the Happiness in the World] (2018), Akeva: una historia intrascendente por si no vuelves a saber de mí [Akeva: A Trivial Story in Case You Never Hear From Me Again] (2019), and Nosotros [Us] (2020). At the age of seventeen he arrived in Spain on a scholarship and graduated a few years later with a degree in Social Education from the University of Granada. Since his childhood, his passion had always been literature, writing, and storytelling. In pursuit of his calling as a writer, he decided to participate in the television show Got Talent Spain in 2018; he won the contest, becoming known nationally as “the poet who moved Spain in three minutes” (my translation)1 for reciting his work out loud. He is now well-recognized as an artist of the spoken word. The author defines himself as someone “with a quite complex common sense, who at the same time questions everything that common sense is” (my translation).2 This idea is reflected in his four books, whose poems and short stories are journeys through the senses that captivate readers and give them a sense of wonder. In Las almas de Brandon [Brandon’s Souls],3 from which I have translated the following texts, the author offers us, through 102 chapters called Almas [Souls] (including an “Alma” that appears in the back cover), universal and individual stories that transcend time and space, evidencing Muriel Rukeyser’s lines: “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”4 Every “soul” is like a door, and as we pass through each one of them, we enter a world of narratives that talk about love in a wide variety of ways. All these “souls” enter into a dialogue that shows us the complexity of feelings, delving into encounters and disagreements between truth and fiction, love and heartbreak, youth and old age, memory and oblivion, loneliness and community, life and death. But the author makes sure to go beyond simple dichotomies, drawing opposite poles together through the intertwined narratives of these “souls.” The different speakers in Las almas de Brandon create a choral narrative that calls for the book to be read aloud, to be shared and felt by many. In Las almas de Brandon, César Brandon Ndjocu Davies treats us to a profound and genuine urban storytelling that manages to make universal experiences unique, while at the same time encouraging us to wonder about other possibilities. As he concluded one of his numerous interviews: “I am in love with the universe of creation. The world for me is a maybe” (my translation).5 1 Galafate, Cristina. “César Brandon: ‘Después de ganar Got Talent con un poema a mi madre entré en una depresión.’” Elmundo.es, 8 December 2018. Available at (last accessed 8 January 2024): https://www.elmundo.es/vida-sana/bienestar/2018/12/08/5c0a3e2efc6c8363718b45c9.html. 2 From an interview with César Brandon Ndjocu Davies for the Huffington Post, February 19 2019. Available at (last accessed 4 January 2024): https://www.huffingtonpost.es/entry/las-101-almas-de-cesarbrandon_es_5c8a8303e4b0f489d2b38baa.html. 3 Ndjocu, César Brandon. Las almas de Brandon. Barcelona: Espasa, 2018. 4 Rukeyser, Muriel. “The Speed of Darkness.” In The Collected Poems. McGraw-Hill: New York; St. Louis, 1978: 486. 5 From Martí, Joan Carles. “César Brandon Ndjocu: ‘La gente se está identificando con la poesía.’” Diario de Mallorca, 21 April 2018. Available at (last accessed 8 January 2024): https://www.diariodemallorca.es/sociedad/2018/04/21/cesar-brandon-ndjocu-gente-identificando3227369.html.