About
Mongo Beti, real name Alexandre Biyidi-Awala, was a Cameroonian novelist and essayist writing in French. Born in 1932, he studied at the Sorbonne and lived in exile in France for 32 years. His novel The Poor Christ of Bomba (1956) denounces colonial mission. He founded the journal Peuples Noirs / Peuples Africains and criticized neocolonialism. He returned to Cameroon in the 1990s and opened a bookstore in Yaoundé. He died in 2001.
* 1932-06-28 — † 2001-10-07
Major works
- Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (1956)novel
- Mission terminée (1957)novel
- Le Roi miraculé (1958)novel
- Main basse sur le Cameroun (1972)essay
- Perpétue et l'habitude du malheur (1974)novel
Key milestones
- 1951Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris on a scholarship.
- 1978Founds and edits the journal Peuples Noirs / Peuples Africains.
- 1992Receives the Fonlon-Nichols Award from the African Literature Association.
Themes
Critique of colonialismNeocolonialismAfrican identitySocial injusticePolitical resistance
Sources: britannica.com · id.loc.gov · africanlit.org