La Relation entre Mission Terminée et Afrique Noire, Littérature Rose

Abstract

In my essay I explore the relationship between Mongo Beti's polemical essay Afrique Noire, Littérature Rose and his book Mission Terminée. In the essay Beti assumes a strictly anticolonial stance and insists, perhaps paradoxically, that African authors must be unequivocally anticolonial in their books but also must be published and widely read by a metropolitan French audience. I use the criteria he establishes for good, authentic African literature in his essay and apply it to his novel to see if the book can be classified as anticolonial. I conclude that the novel is a polemical text like the essay, but it is far more nuanced and accessible to a wide variety of audiences.