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The Story of the Madman
Publisher
:
Julliard
Parution date
:
1994
EAN
:
9782260010999
Description
Widely acclaimed when first published in French in 1994, Mongo Beti’s tenth novel, L’Histoire du fou, continues the author’s humorous yet fierce criticism of the colonial system in Africa and its legacy of governmental corruption.
Translated here as The Story of the Madman, the novel gives the English-speaking world Beti’s comic satire of the fictional Chief Zoaételeu and his favorite sons, Zaoéta and Narcisse. In a modern fable that Beti uses to illustrate the problems of a people disintegrating values in a postcolonial state, Chief Zoaételeu, a puppet under two dictatorial regimes, is swept into the frontline of politics, where his fortunes unravel. Along with this caustic portrayal of failed government—clearly a reflection of his native Cameroon—Beti’s realism provides an intriguing view of the struggle for balance between traditional life and imminent change in African culture.
Author
Mongo Beti : Mongo Beti was born in Cameroon in 1932 and was exiled for years in France where he taught in Rouen. In addition to writing novels and essays, he was also the founder and editor of the journal Peuples noirs, Peuples africains. He died in October, 2001.
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