Bate Besong

The Fall of Sesekou E. T. Egbe and The Book of his Life

By Bate Besong

SESEKOU’S entourage is distraught. When rumours circulated, in 2002, that the old man had passed on during a heart surgery in the U.S that cost the family 50 million FCFA, the Presidency, promptly, suspended the roving ambassador’s stipend. It was never reinstated until his death, in Easter, 2005.

And now this: The children are angry that their father "would not have died" but for the "combination of blunders" at the Yaounde Referral Hospital.

The Poetic Rhetoric of Mom'a Njoku a.k.a Simon Mol (Moleke Mo-Njie)

A Review By Bate Besong

  In the Second Annual World Poetry Day sponsored by UNESCO and organised by the editors of Poetry Today, Simon Mol, with a rifty drum between recitation of his poetry, celebrated the Anglophone muse on the world centre stage.  A journalist with the English language Warsaw Voice, Secretary General of Asylum seekers in Poland, now, resident in London he is author of Africa… my Africa (Polish version Moja Afryko! Verbinum Warsaw, 2002) and Goddess of Mount Africa (Polish translation Bogini Z Mount Africa, Express Poligraficzy, Lodz, 2004). 

Advocates for Critical Literature: Patrice Nganang

By Bansi Daniel Song in Bamenda

Published in The Herald No. 1618, Moday, 14-15 March 2005

Cameroonian-born US-based writer says, only writers like Bate Besong, Bole Butake whose books he said reflected the opinions of Cameroonians were worth reading.

Patrice Nganang, a literary scholar who teaches in the USA and publisher of seven books has said critical writing would fill the gap left by opposition parties that have joined the ruling party, CPDM. Speaking at the presentation of his books at Alliance Franco Cameroonaise, Bamenda on 11 March, Patrice Nganang said Cameroonian writers should emulate Bate Besong, and Bole Butake in critical writing, adding that it was the only way the opinions of Cameroonian abandoned by greedy parties like UNDP, UPC could be expressed.