Mongo Béti: a great capacity for indignation
Author Ambroise Kom's book, Mongo Beti Speaks: Testament of a Rebel Spirit.
Interviews with Ambroise Kom, Publisher Homnisphères, Paris.
Black Latitudes Collection.
© Forum.potomitan.info/Ed.
Homnispheres
By: Sayouba Traoré
1 min
Cameroonian writer, Alexandre Biyidi Awala, is better known under the name Mongo Béti.
He is also the writer Eza Boto.
Mongo Béti was born on June 30, 1932 in Akométam, a small village located 10 km from Mbalmayo, a town 45 km from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
And he passed away on October 7, 2001, at the age of 69, in Douala.
Teacher, journalist, bookseller, Mongo Béti has always been seen as a dissenting and uncompromising writer.
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Mongo Béti's writing career began in the fifties and with three first titles, he made his mark in the African literary world.
Without hatred and without love
, in 1953;
Cruel City
(published under the pseudonym Eza Boto), in 1954; and
The poor Christ of Bomba
, in 1956. The third title,
The poor Christ of Bomba
, is a fierce denunciation of French colonial society. Denunciation which caused a scandal. Decolonization did not exhaust Mongo Béti's capacity for indignation. The proof,
Hand on Cameroon: autopsy of a decolonization
, published in 1972. This book was censored on its publication by an order of the French Minister of the Interior.
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Literature
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Culture Africa
On the same subject
African classical literature
"The Poor Christ of Bomba", by Mongo Beti