Critical Perspectives on Mongo Beti

Mongo Beti is the most prolific and widely read author from Cameroon, and his writings have called world attention to political corruption in his native country. These essays cover the three distinct periods of Beti’s greatest activity as a writer—the first, which ran from 1953 to 1958; the re-emergence that began in 1974; and the third phase, which Arnold traces to Beti’s brief return from exile in 1991. Referring to the writer as a contemporary Voltaire, as his region’s most effective “gadfly” and commentator, Arnold begins the book with a discussion of Beti’s place in politics and literature.