Mongo Beti

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Mongo Beti.

Alexandre Biyidi Awala (June 30, 1932 - October 8, 2001), known as Mongo Beti, was a Cameroonian writer.

[edit] Life

The son of Oscar Awala and Régine Alomo, Alexandre was born in 1932 at Akométan, a small village 10 km from Mbalmayo, itself 45 km away from Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon. (The village's name comes from Akom 'rock' and Etam 'source': in old maps of the region, the name is written in two parts).

After completing his primary school studies at the missionary school in Mbalmayo, in 1945 he entered the lycée Leclerc in Yaoundé. Graduating in 1951, he came to France to continue his higher education in literature, first at Aix-en-Provence, then at the Sorbonne in Paris.

He began his literary career with the short story Sans haine et sans amour ('Without hatred or love'), published in the periodical Présence Africaine, edited by Alioune Diop, in 1953. His first novel Ville cruelle ('Cruel City'), under the pseudonym Eza Boto, followed in 1954, published in several editions of Présence Africaine.

It was, however, in 1956 that the publication of the novel Le pauvre Christ de Bomba ('The poor Christ of Bomba') created a scandal with its satirical and biting description of the missionary and colonial world. This was followed by Mission terminée, 1957 (winner of the Prix Sainte Beuve 1958) et Le Roi miraculé, 1958. He also worked during this time for the review Preuves, for which he reported from Africa. He worked also as a substitute teacher at the lycée of Rambouillet.

In 1959, he was named certified professor at the lycée Henri Avril in Lamballe. He took the Agrégation de Lettres classiques in 1966 and taught at the lycée Corneille in Rouen from this date until 1994.

In 1972 he re-entered the world of literature with a bang. His book Main basse sur le Cameroun, autopsie d'une décolonisation ('Cruel hand on Cameroon, autopsy of a decolonization') was forbidden upon its publication by the French Ministry of the Interior Raymond Marcellin on the request, brought forward by Jacques Foccart, of the Cameroon government, represented in Paris by the ambassador Ferdinand Oyono. In 1974 he published Perpétue and Remember Ruben. After a long judicial procedure, Mongo Beti and his editor François Maspéro in 1976 finally obtained, in 1976, the cancellation of the ban on the publication of Main basse.

In 1978 he launched, with his wife Odile Tobner, the bimonthly review Peuples Noirs. Peuples africains ('Black People. African People'), which was published until 1991. This review chronicled and denounced tirelessly the evils brought to Africa by neo-colonial regimes. During this period were published the novels La ruine presque cocasse d'un polichinelle (1979), Les deux mères de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama futur camionneur (1983), La revanche de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama (1984), also Lettre ouverte aux Camerounais ou la deuxième mort de Ruben Um Nyobé (1984) and Dictionnaire de la négritude (1989, with Odile Tobner).

In 1991 Mongo Beti returned to Cameroon, after 32 years of living elsewhere. He published in 1993 La France contre l'Afrique, retour au Cameroun. In 1994 he retired as professor. He opened then in Yaoundé the Librairie des Peuples noirs (Library of the Black Peoples) and organized agricultural activities in his village of Akometam. He created associations for the defence of citizens and gave to the press numerous articles of protest. He was subjected in January 1996, in the streets of Yaoundé, to police aggression. He was challenged at a demonstration in October 1997. In response he published several novels: L'histoire du fou in 1994 then the two initial volumes Trop de soleil tue l'amour (1999) et Branle-bas en noir et blanc (2000), of a trilogy which would remain unfinished. He was hospitalized in Yaoundé on October 1, 2001 for acute hepatic and kidney failure which remained untreated for lack of dialysis. Transported to the hospital at Douala on October 6, he died there on October 8, 2001.

[edit] Bibliography

Sans haine et sans amour, 1953.
Ville cruelle, 1954
Mission terminée, 1957.
Le roi miraculé : chronique des Essazam, 1958.
Main basse sur le Cameroun : autopsie d'une décolonisation, 1972.
Les procès du Cameroun : autopsie d'une décolonisation, 1972.
Le pauvre Christ de Bomba, 1976.
Perpétue et l'habitude du malheur, 1974.
Remember Ruben, 1974.
Peuples noirs, peuples africains, 1978.
La ruïne presque cocasse d'un polichinelle : Remember Ruben 2, 1979.
Les langues africaines et le néo-colonialisme en Afrique francophone, 1982.
Les deux mères de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama, futur camionneur, 1983.
La revanche de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama, 1984.
Lettre ouverte aux Camerounais, or, La deuxième mort de Ruben Um Nyobé, 1986.
Dictionnaire de la négritude with Odile Tobner and contributors to the review Peuples noirs - Peuples africains, 1989.
La France contre l'Afrique: retour au Cameroun, 1993.
L'histoire du fou, 1994.
Trop de soleil tue l'amour, 1999.
Branle-bas en noir et blanc, 2000.