Cruel City

by Mongo Beti, Pim Higginson (Translator)

Overview

Under the pseudonym Eza Boto, Mongo Beti wrote Ville cruelle (Cruel City) in 1954 before he came to the world's attention with the publication of Le pauvre Christ de Bomba (The Poor Christ of Bomba). Cruel City tells the story of a young man's attempt to cope with capitalism and the rapid urbanization of his country. Banda, the protagonist, sets off to sell the year's cocoa harvest to earn the bride price for the woman he has chosen to wed. Due to a series of misfortunes, Banda loses both his crop and his bride to be. Making his way to the city, Banda is witness to a changing Africa, and as his journey progresses, the novel mirrors these changes in its style and language. Published here with the author's essay "Romancing Africa," the novel signifies a pivotal moment in African literature, a deliberate challenge to colonialism, and a new kind of African writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253008237
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2013
Series:	Global African Voices Series
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mongo Beti (1932-2001), born in Cameroon, is considered one of the foremost African writers of the independence generation. His novels available in English include King Lazarus, Mission to Kala, and The Poor Christ of Bomba (named one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century).

Pim Higginson is Associate Professor of French at Bryn Mawr College.

Editorial Reviews

A new translation of Beti’s 1954 work, this novel chronicles a young African man’s coming of age in a country barreling toward capitalism. Banda is young and headstrong, with dreams of making his fortune in the large city of Fort Negré, Haiti. Before taking this leap though, he is committed to his ailing mother’s final wish of seeing her son married off. To marry the one woman his mother doesn’t expressly disapprove of, Banda must hand over a princely sum to her father—a dowry that depends on his ability to sell his crop of cacao beans. But after the crop is rejected by white officials in nearby Tanga, Banda, running out of time, must find another way to come up with the money. The latter half of the novel follows Banda’s desperate attempts to thrive in an environment over which he has no control. Beti’s prose is rendered through Banda’s manic consciousness—a stoic yet emotive interior monologue that betrays the conflicted nature of Banda’s character and environment. The book includes Beti’s essay on Francophile African literature and offers a unique insight into the colonial African experience and its literature. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"In [this] anti-colonial novel, the principle character is an ordinary young man who tries to achieve success on his own terms in a society in which the old represent a disintegrated traditional Africa and the young acquire useless knowledge in French school for travels that lead nowhere."—The Companion to African Literatures

"A persuasive, even gripping study of a spiteful, naïve character."—Kirkus Reviews

"With every new translation in its Global African Voices series, Indiana University Press, USA, moves a step fruther towards the realisation of its goal of overcoming the fragmentariness of modern African literature by intergrating originally French-language literary works into the English-language stream."—Saturday Nation

From the Publisher

In [this] anti-colonial novel, the principle character is an ordinary young man who tries to achieve success on his own terms in a society in which the old represent a disintegrated traditional Africa and the young acquire useless knowledge in French school for travels that lead nowhere.

The Companion to African Literatures

With every new translation in its Global African Voices series, Indiana UniversityPress, USA, moves a step fruther towards the realisation of its goal of overcoming the fragmentariness of modern African literature by intergrating originally French-language literary works into the English-language stream.

Saturday Nation

A persuasive, even gripping study of a spiteful, naïve character, from Cameroonian writer Beti (1932-2001). Though written in the third person, we spend an uncomfortable length of time listening to the grinding logic of protagonist Banda's grudges. Banda (no last name) is from the village of Bamila. His father is dead, his mother dying. Banda travels to the nearby city of Tanga to sell a year's worth of cacao to the Greeks. Set in the 1930s, it appears as if Greeks control the colonial economy. While this may be the case, we see the world from Banda's perspective and receive Banda's version of events. Coming from a part of the country that requires he pay a future father-in-law for his daughter, he cannot marry without money, and he cannot bear to disappoint his mother, to fail yet again. When the sale does not go as expected, Banda begins to ruminate, to plot. Banda meets Odilia, a young woman from another part of the country, at a bar. Odilia needs help; her brother Koumé is in serious trouble with the colonials. Whether Banda's decision to help Odilia and Koumé reflects his better judgment is debatable. The book's conclusion is unexpected and amounts to a failure of Beti's--not Banda's--nerve. The book includes "Romancing Africa," one of Beti's many essays, and a useful introduction by translator Higginson; while recognizing the book's historical importance, he equivocates about its quality. "A strange destiny: to always suffer." This book explores that truism from a singular, compelling perspective.

Kirkus Reviews