Mongo Beti – författare

Under the pseudonym Eza Boto, Mongo Beti wrote Ville cruelle (Cruel City) in 1954 before he came to the world's attention with the publication of Le pauvre Christ de Bomba (The Poor Christ of Bomba). Cruel City tells the story of a young man's attempt to cope with capitalism and the rapid urbanization of his country. Banda, the protagonist, sets off to sell the year's cocoa harvest to earn the bride price for the woman he has chosen to wed. Due to a series of misfortunes, Banda loses both his crop and his bride to be. Making his way to the city, Banda is witness to a changing Africa, and as his journey progresses, the novel mirrors these changes in its style and language. Published here with the author's essay "Romancing Africa," the novel signifies a pivotal moment in African literature, a deliberate challenge to colonialism, and a new kind of African writing.

Widely acclaimed when first published in French in 1994, Mongo Beti's tenth novel, L'histoire du fou, continues the author's humorous yet fierce criticism of the colonial system in Africa and its legacy of governmental corruption. Translated here as The Story of the Madman, the novel gives the English-speaking world Beti's comic satire of the fictional Chief Zoaeteleu and his favorite sons Zoaetoa and Narcisse. In a modern fable that Beti uses to illustrate the problems of a people's distintegrating values in a postcolonial state, Chief Zoaeteleu, a puppet under two dictatorial regimes, is swept into the frontline of politics, where his fortunes unravel. Along with his caustic portrayal of failed government - clearly a reflection of his native Cameroon - Beti's realism provides an intriguing view of the struggle for balance between traditional life and imminent change in African culture.

A captivating mystery novel that captures the turbulent times of Cameroon in the 1990sOne day, the political journalist Zamakwe finds his beloved collection of jazz albums has been stolen. The next day, he discovers a dead body in his closet. As events continue to spiral rapidly out of control, Zam must solve not only the murder mystery but a larger conspiracy that is suddenly enveloping his life.Love Killed Off by Too Much Sun is a wonderfully complex mystery and a gem of a novel by the celebrated Cameroonian author Mongo Beti. The first volume of an unfinished trilogy exploring the corruption, insecurity, state violence, and social injustice of 1990s Cameroon under dictatorship, it has not lost any of its verve and authenticity with time. Thrilling, farcical, and moving in equal measure, Beti's novel draws in its readers up to the last page. It is, however, much more than a hard-boiled detective novel—it is a vivid and unforgettable depiction of life in a seething African city by one of Cameroon's greatest authors.

A captivating mystery novel that captures the turbulent times of Cameroon in the 1990sOne day, the political journalist Zamakwe finds his beloved collection of jazz albums has been stolen. The next day, he discovers a dead body in his closet. As events continue to spiral rapidly out of control, Zam must solve not only the murder mystery but a larger conspiracy that is suddenly enveloping his life.Love Killed Off by Too Much Sun is a wonderfully complex mystery and a gem of a novel by the celebrated Cameroonian author Mongo Beti. The first volume of an unfinished trilogy exploring the corruption, insecurity, state violence, and social injustice of 1990s Cameroon under dictatorship, it has not lost any of its verve and authenticity with time. Thrilling, farcical, and moving in equal measure, Beti's novel draws in its readers up to the last page. It is, however, much more than a hard-boiled detective novel—it is a vivid and unforgettable depiction of life in a seething African city by one of Cameroon's greatest authors.

Award-winning author Mongo Beti presents The Poor Christ of Bomba, a cutting satirical critique on the role of Catholic missionaries and French colonialism in 1930s Cameroon. A revolutionary novel in its time.In the small village of Bomba, a French missionary priest is instructed to build a parish for its residents. Father Drumont has one important task; to save the village from heresy by preparing its girls for Christian marriage.A servant in Father Drumont's house, a young boy named Denis is reliant on the priest's generosity after the death of his mother. In the eyes of the Catholic church, Denis is the perfect example of the African heathen saved by Christianity – but the reality of what happens behind closed doors in much more sinister.'One of the foremost African writers of the independence generation.' Guardian