Passion or Profession: Writer

Period: 1932–2001

Born in a village south of Yaoundé, Beti is regarded as one of Cameroon's greatest novelists. He spent most of his adult life in France, were he studied, taught and wrote. Beti's works are critical of the legacy of colonialism on modern Africa, and he explores the conflict between modernization and tradition in the life of the average African. As political reforms took place in his homeland in the early 1990s, Beti returned to Cameroon.