Alexandre Biyidi Awala (30 June 1932 – 8 October 2001), also known as Mongo Beti or Eza Boto, was a Cameroonian author and writer who discussed important issues. He was considered one of the most insightful French-African writers for his descriptions of African life.

The Guardian stated that "Beti must be counted as one of the leading African writers of the independence generation."

Beti lived most of his life in France. He studied at the Sorbonne and later became a professor at Lycée Pierre Corneille.

Life

Though he lived in exile for many decades, Beti's life shows a strong commitment to improving his home country. One critic wrote after his death: "The militant path of this essayist, chronicler, and novelist has been guided by one goal: the quest for the dignity of African people."

Alexandre Beti was born in 1932 in Akométan, a small village 10 kilometers from Mbalmayo, which is 45 kilometers from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. His parents were Oscar Awala and Régine Alomo.

From a young age, Beti was influenced by the movements of rebellion in Africa after World War II. His father died when Beti was seven, and he was raised by his mother and extended family. Beti often argued with his mother about religion and colonialism. He also heard the ideas of independence leader Ruben Um Nyobe, both in villages and at Nyobe's home. These views led him to speak out in school, and he was expelled from the missionary school in Mbalmayo for being too outspoken. In 1945, he entered lycée Leclerc in Yaoundé. He graduated in 1951 and went to France to study literature, first at Aix-en-Provence, then at the Sorbonne in Paris.

By the early 1950s, Beti began writing as a way to protest. He wrote for the journal Présence Africaine, including a review of Camara Laye’s novel The Dark Child, in which he criticized Laye for creating false images of Africa that ignored colonial injustice. Beti started his fiction career with the short story "Sans haine et sans amour" ("Without hatred or love"), published in 1953. His first novel, Ville cruelle ("Cruel City"), was published in 1954 under the name "Eza Boto."

In 1956, Beti gained wide attention with the novel Le pauvre Christ de Bomba ("The poor Christ of Bomba"), which caused controversy because of its sharp criticism of missionaries and colonialism. The colonial administrator in Cameroon banned the book in the colony. Later, he wrote Mission terminée (1957, winner of the Prix Sainte Beuve in 1958) and Le Roi miraculé (1958). He also worked for the review Preuves and taught at the lycée of Rambouillet.

In 1959, Beti became a certified professor at the lycée Henri Avril in Lamballe. He passed the Agrégation de Lettres classiques in 1966 and taught at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen until 1994. After Ruben Um Nyobe was killed by French forces in 1958, Beti stopped writing for more than a decade and remained in exile. After his death, Odile Tobner noted that exile was difficult for Beti, as he remained troubled by his concern for his homeland.

In 1972, Beti returned to writing with the book Main basse sur le Cameroun ("Cruel hand on Cameroon, autopsy of a decolonisation"), which was banned by the French government at the request of the Cameroon government. The essay argued that Cameroon and other former colonies remained under French influence and that post-independence leaders had allowed this continued control. Beti was inspired to write this after the execution of Ernest Ouandie by the Cameroonian government. In 1974, he published Perpétue and Remember Ruben, the first book in a trilogy about Nyobe. After a legal battle, the ban on Main basse was lifted in 1976.

Beti returned to writing fiction and political criticism at the same time. In 1978, he and his wife Odile Tobner started the bimonthly review Peuples Noirs. Peuples africains ("Black People. African People"), which was published until 1991. This review criticized the problems caused by neo-colonial regimes in Africa. During this time, he wrote novels such as La ruine presque cocasse d'un polichinelle (1979), Les deux mères de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama futur camionneur (1983), and La revanche de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama (1984), as well as Lettre ouverte aux Camerounais ou la deuxième mort de Ruben Um Nyobé (1984) and Dictionnaire de la négritude (1989, with Odile Tobner). Frustrated by the failure of post-independence governments to bring real freedom to Africa, Beti adopted a more radical perspective in these works.

While in exile, Beti stayed connected to the struggle in Cameroon. In the 1970s and 1980s, people in Cameroon who knew Beti or his work sometimes faced trouble. Beti used his connections in France to help some of his readers, including Ambroise Kom, who was saved from jail after Beti acted on his behalf.

In 1991, Beti returned to Cameroon after 32 years in exile. In 1993, he published La France contre l'Afrique, retour au Cameroun, which described his visits to his homeland. After retiring from teaching in 1994, he stayed in Cameroon permanently. His business ventures in Betiland failed, but he opened the Librairie des Peuples noirs (Bookstore of the Black Peoples) in Yaoundé and started agricultural projects in his village of Akometam. The bookstore aimed to promote critical reading and provide a space for important texts and authors.

During this time, Beti also supported John Fru Ndi, an anglophone opposition leader. He created groups to defend citizens and wrote many protest articles for the press. The government tried to stop his activities. When police prevented him from speaking at a conference in 1991, Beti addressed a crowd outside the locked room. In January 1996, he was attacked by police in Yaoundé. In October 1997, he was challenged at a demonstration. In response, he published novels such as L'histoire du fou (1994), Trop de soleil tue l'amour (1999), and Branle-bas en noir et blanc (2000), the first two books of a trilogy that was never finished.

Beti was hospitalized in Yaoundé on October 1, 2001, for severe liver and kidney failure. He was moved to a hospital in Douala on October 6 and died there on October 8,

Work

Beti’s writing was guided by two main ideas. In terms of style, he was a realist. In a statement from 1955, he said, “If a work is realistic, it has a good chance of being meaningful. If it is not realistic, even if it has good form, it may lack depth and connection to human experiences, which all literature needs. This means it has less chance of being good than a realistic work.” Beti’s stories stayed true to this belief. Thematically, his work focused on fighting colonialism, both obvious and hidden. Even when he criticized Cameroon’s independence government, his goal was to support African freedom and progress.

“Sans haine et sans amour” (1953) was Beti’s first important work, written before his longer books.

“Ville cruelle” (1954), like many first novels by African writers, follows a young character caught between European and African cultures. The main character, Banda, tries to marry the woman he loves. He succeeds through a series of unlikely events. The book is not widely read today. Beti wrote it under the name Eza Boto, which he later stopped using to distance himself from the work. Some critics, like David Diop, praised the book for showing the harm caused by colonialism.

“Le pauvre Christ de Bomba” (1956) was Beti’s most successful book. It is written as the journal of a young priest’s assistant, telling the story of a missionary in the 1930s. The priest slowly realizes that trying to convert Africans is pointless because they already worshipped God in their own way. Gerald Moore noted that Beti used the assistant’s simple views to highlight the mistakes of that time.

“Mission terminée” (1957) is a comedy about a young Cameroonian man with a Western education who returns home after failing an exam. He expects to be treated poorly but is instead sent to a remote village to bring back a woman fleeing an abusive husband. There, he meets friends his age and faces a series of funny challenges that help him understand his culture and himself. The English version is titled Mission to Kala.

The book was well received, winning the Prix Sainte-Beuve in 1958. Wole Soyinka praised its realism, saying that idealizing events is not true to literature. However, some critics had mixed opinions. Chinua Achebe criticized Beti for romanticizing the pre-colonial past, while Donatus Nwoga criticized Beti’s “cynicism” on the same topic.

“Le roi miraculé: chronique des Essazam” (1958) describes how a fictional African town is changed by capitalism, Christianity, and colonialism. The main character, Le Guen, was a minor figure in The Poor Christ of Bomba. This novel takes place after World War II. Le Guen uses a miraculous recovery from death to convince the local chief to adopt Christianity. The chief becomes zealous, but his rejection of his many wives causes chaos. This chaos worries the Church and colonial authorities. In the end, Le Guen is moved, and the town returns to its traditions.

“Main basse sur le Cameroun” and “Les procès du Cameroun” were published in 1972. These long essays marked Beti’s return to public writing. They were inspired by his dissatisfaction with Cameroon’s post-independence government under Ahmadou Ahidjo. This anger came from the arrest and execution of UPC activist Ernest Ouandie and Bishop Albert Ndongmo on charges of plotting against the government. The books, which opposed neocolonialism, were banned in Cameroon and France until Beti won a legal battle in 1976. He revised and reissued them in the 1980s.

“Perpétue et l’habitude du malheur” (1974) was Beti’s first novel since The Miraculous King. Some consider it part of a trilogy with Remember Ruben and Remember Ruben 2, but it is different in theme and style. The novel follows Essola as he investigates his sister’s death. He discovers his greedy parents forced her into an unhappy marriage, which led to her suffering and eventual death. The story shows postcolonial conditions in Cameroon and uses Perpetua as a symbol of the nation, with her marriage representing the incomplete freedom of the country.

Dictionnaire de la négritude (1989), edited with Odile Tobner and contributors to Peuples noirs – Peuples africains, aimed to clarify and reject the idea of négritude. Beti wanted to move the concept from racial ideas to a historical understanding. He believed négritude could help explain African experiences and the role of colonialism. The dictionary covers African experiences in Africa and worldwide, starting with an entry on Ralph Abernathy.

La France contre l’Afrique: retour au Cameroun (1993) is a journalistic account of Beti’s return to Cameroon in 1991. He describes his delayed reunions, police harassment, and his observations of how decades of independence and autocratic rule had affected his country’s people.