Bate Besong

Memory Lane - Anglophone Cameroon Literature at Crossroads: An Interview with Dr. Bate Besong

Interviewed by Dr. Pierre Fandio (Groupe de Recherche sur l’Imaginaire de l’Afrique et de la Diaspora, GRIAD - University of Buea, Cameroon)

Anglophone Cameroon Literature is there to awaken us from our usual torpor. It testifies to the undiminished intellectual life of the homeland. Every homeland – as you’ll recall – always needs a voice in writing and print; and Anglophone literature, created, in the service of Humanity, shuns, the concerns of the fragmentary, neo-colonial elite and deals with the experiences of the marginalized in Cameroonian society ; workers, the urban and rural masses - Bate Besong.

The author of ten plays and five collection of poems, Bate Besong is, without doubt, one of the most representative and regular writers of what might be referred to as the second generation of the emergent Cameroonian literature in English. He was born in Nigeria of Cameroonian parents and did his Secondary and University education in Wole Soyinka’s country where several anthologies and literary works, as well as distinguished literary and academic bodies readily regard him as a Nigerian. He has been a Lecturer in the English Department of the University of Buea since the mid-nineties, and is well known for his uncompromising stance and incisive statements, which have earned him both friends and foes.

« La littérature anglophone camerounaise à la croisée des chemins », entrevue avec Bate Besong

Par Pierre Fandio (Groupe de Recherche sur l’Imaginaire de l’Afrique et de la Diaspora, GRIAD Université de Buea, Cameroun) Originally published in Africultures no. 60 of 09/09/2004

Auteur d’une dizaine de pièces de théâtre et d’une demi-dizaine de recueils de poésies, Bate Besong est incontestablement l’une des plumes les plus constantes et les plus représentatives de ce qu’on pourrait appeler la deuxième génération de l’émergente littérature camerounaise d’expression anglaise. Né au Nigeria de parents camerounais, il fait ses études secondaires et supérieures au pays de Wole Soyinka dont nombre d’anthologies de littérature et d’instances de consécration n’hésitent pas à reconnaître comme l’un des leurs.   

Kuchah Henry Kuchah (Poet):I’m inspired by Bole Butake and Bate Besong

Published in The Herald, Friday 21-23 April 2006

Scattered Thoughts and Emotions is a collection of poems published and launched recently. Kuchah Henry Kuchah, the author of the work, sheds light on it and on other aspects of his writing, in this chat with Ndien Eric. Amongst other things, he says two Cameroonian writers who inspire him are Bole Butake and Bate Besong. Kuchah begins by presenting the book to the reader.

Hilarious Ambe: “We want to bring back theatre culture in Cameroon”

(First published in the Herald newspaper Wednesday 8-9 March 2006)                     

The University of Buea is planning a series of theatrical performances in Buea and Yaoundé. The brain behind the performances, Hilarious N Ambe, who lectures theatre, drama and criticism at the University of Buea, talks on the upcoming activity and on the theatre in Cameroon, in this chat with Douglas Achigale. Excerpts: