Bate Besong

Literature in the Season of the Diaspora: Notes to the Anglophone Cameroonian Writer

Bate Besong

Published in Nalova Lyonga, Eckhard Breitinger, Bole Butake (eds). Anglophone Cameroon Writing. Bayreuth, Germany: Bayreuth African Studies 30/Weka No 1. 1993. 205 pages

Of Pariahs and Masons
Many of the leading cultural figures of their time, in all climates, have maintained the artist’s traditional responsibility in addressing the question of meaning in endeavouring of synthesize, in seeking to weld disparate fragments into a coherent reality. And, in times like these…

Can President Biya Still Redeem his Tenure?

By Bate Besong
Publishedin EDEN Newspaper, Limbe, Number 59, March 2006

PROLOGUE
The system has always remained consistent with CNU traditional beliefs and Machiavellian political practices, authoritarian decision-making and refusal to delegate power and entertain dissident voices. The odium, persecution, and other forms of primordial prejudice of the last twenty-three years should not find a bazaar ground on the nation’s open sore. We have to quickly resolve all our domestic contradictions in order to concentrate our energy on coping with the challenges ahead. Whether we like it or not our choice of leadership must not be based on who is acceptable to our deviant mode of sexual conduct; in our fraternal polyandry or sorority; in our tribe; or who can preserve our privileges.

New Fiction from the Cameroonian Necropolis

By Bate Besong

Alobwed' Epie. The Death Certificate. Yaounde: Editions CLE, 2004. 308p [ISBN 9956090050]

Writing is very much a political activity. Any kind of writing, any novel, especially in our situation, becomes very much a political action. And I do not buy the idea that there is a separation between politics, public life, public themes, public concerns, and an individual’s artistic concern. I do not see the difference.
CHINUA ACHEBE (Africa Notes, September/October 2005)