BATE BESONG: THE FINAL INTERVIEW

  by Joyce Ashuntantang

A few days before his death in a ghastly accident, the feisty Anglophone Cameroon playwright and Poet, Bate Besong recorded this interview with ace CRTV Producer, Robert Ekukole. Little did both of them know that the interview would be BB's Last. Bate Besong, the celebrated champion of the masses, died in a ghastly car accident on March 8 2007 along side, Veteran producer, Thomas Kwasen Gwangwa'a, Ambe Hilarious and their driver, Awoh Franklin. Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) later broadcasted this interview posthumously.

In this prophetic interview, Bate Besong states, "Everyday I leave my house...my family knows...for the past twenty years...when I leave my house I know I will not come back home. Every play I write, Any poem I write,  I write as if it is my last poem, as if it is my last book". He died less than a day after a heavily attended launch of what has become his last  book , Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus. He was on his way to Yaounde for a visa interview at the American Embassy in order to attend the 2007 ALA conference In West Virginia.

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the passing of Dr. Bate Besong, I bring you the complete interview. This is the first broadcast of this interview outside Cameroon.  Savor once more, the self-styled OBASINJOM WARRIOR in his full element!  WE WILL NOT LET HIM DIE!!

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Che Sunday]

And so shall it be with Cameroon forever. A nation governed by mediocrity and protected by the less or ill informed. When Ahidjo ran the zoo, his modus operandi was call every idiot with a job "chief of service". That was a status symbol we all sought. Why won't Besong's mates not want him out of the way? Remember Dorothy Njuema? She warned striking university lecturers who have not attained tenure to better return to class because they had nothing to protect them and could all find themselves jobless. She kissed Ahidjo's ass by publicly declaring that Anglophone students systematically did poorly at the university of Yaounde because they were poor in the sciences. That kept her as vice minister of education. She lasted through Ahidjo in some category or another, and will outlast Biya. The more asses you kiss and play the fool with distinction, the longer you hang around.
Academics in the midst a depraved society such as ours is a marriage that can only survive with the use of coercion. The masters of this technique, have chosen as tool of delivery, deprivation. Its very effective folks. See how easily our best minds sing the praises of our, oh! Well, you know the rest.

[Viterature.blogspot.com]

if BB or Ambe dies, many living things shall follow!That will be an irreparable spurt of negligence- the kind which only our nation fails to give to matyrs of our history.

[Neba Fuh]

Doctor, THANK YOU for sharing this video.

[OnTheRoadToSuccess]

Where do great minds go when they die? Thanks for sharing this, Doc. WE WILL NOT LET HIM DIE!!!