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 master’s degree 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 for using writing 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 he died in 2007.
