Photo : Stollama, CC BY-SA 4.0
Mongo Beti
The writer who never stopped dissenting
Born in 1932 · Died in 2001
Who are they?
A novelist and essayist born in 1932 in Akométam, near Mbalmayo, whose real name was Alexandre Biyidi Awala. He taught classics at the Lycée Corneille in Rouen from 1966 to 1994, during thirty-two years of exile in France.
What made them famous
"Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba" (1956) caused a scandal with its satire of the missionary and colonial worlds, and stands among the founding works of francophone African literature. His essay "Main basse sur le Cameroun" (1972) was banned on publication in France; the ban was lifted in 1976.
Key facts
- "Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba" is studied in universities worldwide.
- After returning to Cameroon in 1991, he opened the Librairie des Peuples Noirs in Yaoundé.
- He continued his critical writing in the independent press until his death in Douala in 2001.