Library Weekly

On 30 June 1932, Cameroonian writer Mongo Beti was born in Akométan, a small village 10 km from Mbalmayo. Beti was one of the foremost writers of Africa's independence generation. He started his career as a writer in 1953 with the publication of the short story 'Sans haine et sans amour'. His first novel 'Ville cruelle' followed a year later in 1954. Both works were published under the assumed name of Eza Boto. Two years later came 'Le pauvre Christ de Bomba' under the pseudonym Mongo Beti. Under this name he built up an impressive œuvre, culminating in 2000 with 'Branle-bas en noir et blanc'.

Mongo Beti was born as Alexandre Biyidi (or Biyidi-Awala) in 1932 in a village south of Yaounde. He left to study in France in 1951 and soon became caught up in Parisian African politics. He denounced colonization and the effects it had on traditional societies. After finishing his studies, he went back to Cameroon in 1959 where he became involved in the independence movement. He ended up in jail and returned to France to become a literature teacher in Rouen. In 1978, with his French wife Odile Tobner, also a literary teacher, he launched 'Peuples noirs, peuples africains', a bimonthly review magazine. In the early 1990s, amid the wave of democracy sweeping Africa he returned to Cameroon and started a bookshop. Beti remained deeply involved in politics for the rest of his life.

Mongo Beti died on 7 October 2001 at the age of 69.

(Source: ASCL web dossier Mongo Beti)

Selected publications

Works by Mongo Beti

Le pauvre Christ de Bomba / Mongo Beti. - Paris : Présence africaine, cop. 1976. - 281 p.  [1e éd. 1956]

Mission terminée / Mongo Beti. – Paris : Buchet/Chastel [etc.], 1957. - 255 p.

Perpétue et l'habitude du malheur : roman / Mongo Beti. - Paris : Buchet-Chastel, [1974]. - 303 p.

Remember Ruben / par Mongo Beti. - Paris : Union générale d'éditions, 1974. - 313 p. - (10/18 ; 853) (Série La Voie des autres). French text.

Trop de soleil tue l'amour / Mongo Beti. - Paris : Julliard, cop. 1999. - 239 p.

Branle-bas en noir et blanc : roman / Mongo Beti. - Paris : Julliard, 2000. - 351 p.

Works about Mongo Beti

Remember Mongo Beti / Amboise Kom. - Bayreuth : Breitinger, cop. 2003

Mongo Beti : le proscrit admirable / Oscar Pfouma. - [Paris] : Editions Menaibuc, cop. 2003

Mongo Beti: la quête de la liberté / André Djiffack. - Paris [etc.] : L'Harmattan, cop. 2000

Mongo Beti parle / Mongo Beti; Ambroise Kom. - Bayreuth : Breitinger, 2002

Critical perspectives on Mongo Beti / Stephen H. Arnold. - Boulder, Col. [etc.] : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998

For more publications see the ASCL Library Catalogue

See also the ASCL web dossier on Mongo Beti

Mongo Béti: une grande capacité d’indignation
Podcast, Les grandes voix de l'Afrique, RFI 2017

Timeline of Cameroonian novelists via Wikidata and DBpedia