Bate Besong

The Ghost of Um Nyobe (Musings from the Other Side of the Bridge)

By Dibussi Tande

They say you died in enemy territory
They say you died on the wrong side of THE BRIDGE
But what better place to die
- On the other side of the bridge -
Than in the Sanaga Maritime -
The sacred land of the Ngog Lituba
The springboard of Cameroun nationalism
The heartland of the Cameroun resistance;
Purified with the blood of thousands of patriots
Who said NO! to the imperialists and neo-colonialists?

Bate Besong: A Tribute on Canvas

A Portrait by Abidemi Olowonira

BB was introduced to me by a very good friend mine, Kangsen Feka Wakai, also from Cameroon. He told me about BB's influence on the Cameroonian and African literary world. I had read few of his poems and essays and was looking forward to meeting him one day.

Unfortunately this will not happen on this sorry earth... perhaps in AFTER-AFRICA.

BB will forever be missed in the realm of the young African pioneers and his legacy will forever remain with us. Su' n re o baba (sleep well baba).

The Mountain Weeps

By Ilongo Fritz Ngale (Originally published on IlongoSphere)

The mourning seems to have no end
As the morning star of joy seems to have fled,
For the mountain bleeds
Its flanks red with blood
Which copiously flows through the pores of its kids,
Poor souls taken off into tragedy lane
Slain before their times

Farewell BB

F. Akemfua (Bonanjo, Douala Cameroon)

You knew too well the face of this day
These seasons that fed us with hunger and pain
You wailed out loud
As the cloak of darkness fell
As the chanting of the anthem fell out of rhythm
To the resonating sounds of the drums
You saw the scar- faced land, your land
And the knife sharp and stained with blood
You saw the desecration of the alter of Dreams

Flowing like a stream (In memory of Bate Besong)

By Ekpe Inyang

Materials
as building blocks
to make
the message crystal-clear
and safe for public consumption
must flow like a stream

Bad Boy

By Ekpe Inyang

Obasinjom warrior
Alias BB
Brave Boy
Bad Boy!?!
Tireless warrior

You intoned the tune
Of reformist chants
And charted the course
Of bad boys’ march

Bate Besong: The Family Remembers

BB's Wife and Children Interviewed by Elvis Tah (Culled from The Post)

Happier Times: Bate Besong and Family

African Writers Mourn Prolific Poet, Besong

From The Guardian (Nigeria), March 26, 2007

Click here to print or download complete article in PDF format

Remembering Bate Besong (Frontpage of the Special Edition of The Post Newspaper)

Tribute to Bate Besong

Paddy Ezeala - Lagos, Nigeria

I am a Nigerian friend of Bate Besong. I met him in early 1990s at the University of Calabar in the house of Ada Ugah, a Nigerian literary scholar and prolific bilingual writer. Professor Ugah, my former teacher, himself died in a similar circumstance two years ago. Besong had returned to complete his Ph.D while I was rounding up my Masters programme.