Biography
Bate Besong was born in 1954 in Mamfe (Manyu Division), Cameroon. Among his collections of poetry are The Grains of Bobe Ngom Jua (1986), Obasinjom Warrior with Poems after Detention (1991) and Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus and Emanya-nkpe (2007). He went to the University of Calabar in Nigeria for his Masters and later received his PhD in Literary Studies from the same university. As a playwright and poet, he is widely known for his stance on art as a political fighting tool and his writings as a way to indict and criticize corrupt governance. He faced persecution as a result of his militant activism and was kidnapped and released in 1992. In 1992, he won the Association of Nigerian Authors' Prize for his Cameroonian drama, Requiem for the Last Kaiser. He was a lecturer at the University of Buea from 1999 until his death in 2007.
Sources
“Bate Besong.” Bate Besong: Freedom Inked, https://www.batebesong.com/. Accessed 25 March 2022 “Bate Besong.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 June 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bate_Besong. Accessed 25 March 2022 “Bate Besong.” Bakwa Books, https://bakwabooks.com/book-author/bate-besong/. Accessed 25 March 2022 Fandio, Pierre. “Anglophone Cameroon Literature at Crossroads: An Interview with Bate Besong.” Bakwa Magazine, 17 July 2021, https://bakwamagazine.com/featured-content/anglophone-cameroon-literature-at-crossroads-an-interview-with-bate-besong/. Accessed 25 March 2022
