The Myth of Ruben

After his anticolonial phase of the 1950s, Mongo Beti transformed himself into a crusader against neocolonialism on the threshold of the '70s. In the opinion of numerous critics, the writer traded his caustic temperament for a foul temper. More precisely, Main basse sur le Cameroun marks a fundamental turning point in Mongo Beti's literary career. Indeed, never since that pamphlet, has the writer abandoned that ideological bias, provocative gravity, or corrosive style.

Like African literary production as a whole, the break is clean between Mongo Beti's oeuvre of the colonial period and his vision of the postcolonial world. In the special issue of Présence Francophone (no. 42) devoted to him, the break can be seen from all angles. From the viewpoint of ideology, Ambroise Kom points to a resolutely revolutionary attitude among characters that is substituted for their revolt of an earlier time. Richard Bjornson corroborates this view: "None of Beti's early novels openly advocate revolutionary change" (xi). In terms of space, André Ntonfo notes the passage from regionalism to a nationalist base. As for the material for Beti's writing, Bernard Mouralis contrasts a creation based on legend with a more pronounced historical vision.

It remains, however, that the remarkable mutation is consubstantial with a renaissance and a literary renewal after a long fourteen-year period of inactivity (1958-72). Furthermore, it is evident that from colonization to the post-independence era, the thread running through Mongo Beti's art is the quasi-obsessional quest for freedom.

The novelistic trilogy born of Main basse sur le Cameroun was originally a strategy to circumvent censure by the French government. On this matter, Bjornson writes:

Because he [Beti] knew the French government would not want to make itself look foolish by confiscating works of fiction, he returned to an earlier mode of expression and transformed some of the material he had collected for Pillage of Cameroon into novels. (xv)

The material furnished by the pamphlet was recycled as novelistic fiction erected upon the myth of Ruben. This aid to inspiration denotes the heritage of Rubenism claimed by the writer: "Je suis fidèle à la pensée de Ruben Um Nyobé" 'I am faithful to the thought of Ruben Um Nyobé' (Biakolo 87), he affirms. Kom considers Rubenism to be a philosophy developed by the writer, that is, a current of thought where the man and his work come together:

A partir de Perpétue et l'habitude du malheur, Mongo Beti donne forme à une philosophie qu'on peut clairement identifier comme le rubénisme. Ruben incarne un idéal de justice et d'égalité. Il symbolise aussi le courage et la dignité. Tout en intégrant le devoir de violence précédemment analysé, le rubénisme exclut l'individualisme et engage le militant dans la lutte collective pour la libération nationale et l'instauration de la justice sociale. Le rubénisme prescrit une conception jalousement indépendante de l'Afrique et des Africains."

Beginning with Perpétue et l'habitude du malheur, Mongo Beti gives form to a philosophy that can be clearly identified as Rubenism. Ruben incarnates an ideal of justice and equality. He also symbolizes courage and dignity. While integrating the duty of violence analyzed previously, Rubenism excludes individualism and commits the militant to the collective struggle for national freedom and the institution of social justice. Rubenism prescribes a conception of Africa and Africans that is jealously independent. (18)

In light of this outlook, the emblematic figure of Ruben can be examined from the perspective of the quest for freedom that Mongo Beti assigns himself. A veritable motif under the pen of the Cameroonian writer, the functioning of Ruben within the text--in other words, setting the myth into discourse--constitutes in itself an act of commitment. The problematic can be formulated as follows: How does the literary reconstitution of the mythical figure of Ruben symbolize the conquest of freedom for black peoples?

Perpétue et l'habitude du...