© 2019 TEACHING NOTES ON MISSION TO KALA - COMPILED BY MRS. MUBANGA, A. M.

(CSS)

MONGO BETI’S

MISSION TO KALA
Mission to Kala (Mission terminée) is a powerful comic novel set in late
colonial Cameroon. It describes the visit of a young Yaounde-educated man
to a village in the interior. Jean-Marie Medza, the narrator, has just failed
his Baccalauréat exam, and returns home expecting humiliation. Instead,
he finds that as a scholar his prestige is immense, and he is charged with
the duty of travelling to Kala, a remote village, to secure the return of a
young woman who has fled her lazy, demanding husband. In Kala, while
awaiting the return of the woman to the village, Medza stays with his uncle,
who exploits the young man's celebrity status to have him showered with
gifts, most of which his uncle keeps. Medza is the focus of a series of
amusing incidents, becomes unexpectedly married, and eventually
completes his mission - but then has to return home to deal with the anger
of his ambitious father.

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 © 2019 TEACHING NOTES ON MISSION TO KALA - COMPILED BY MRS. MUBANGA, A. M. (CSS)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE: ............................................................................................................................................... 3
WRITER / NOVELIST: ................................................................................................................... 3
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: ............................................................................................................ 3
GENRE: ............................................................................................................................................. 3
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 3
LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN THE TEXT ................................................................................... 3
SETTING ........................................................................................................................................... 4
PROTAGONIST ............................................................................................................................... 4
CHARACTERISATION .................................................................................................................. 4
THE PLOT ........................................................................................................................................ 5
THEMES ......................................................................................................................................... 10
REVISION QUESTIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION ............................................................ 11
ESSAY QUESTIONS ..................................................................................................................... 11

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 © 2019 TEACHING NOTES ON MISSION TO KALA - COMPILED BY MRS. MUBANGA, A. M. (CSS)

TITLE:
MISSION TO KALA
WRITER / NOVELIST:
MONGO BETI
YEAR OF PUBLICATION:
1957 (French), 1958 (English)
GENRE:
COMIC NOVEL
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Mongo Bet was born Alexandre Biyidi in 1932. As a child, Beti was expelled
from a Catholic school for questioning religious doctrine. Thenceforth, he was
educated in public schools, eventually earning a university degree in France. Beti
is a prolific writer. He has published essays, criticism and novels. His career
began in the early 1950s when he wrote a series of four satiric novels that
questioned the right of Europeans to colonize Africa. During this period, most of
Cameroon was still under French rule. His novels tackled serious political and
social themes with an irony and lightness that reveal a profound comic
understanding of human nature.
Beti left Cameroon shortly after independence, and has lived in France ever since,
teaching classical literature. However, he has continued to comment on the
political situation in Cameroon; his book critiquing his country’s post-
independence relationship with France was banned in both countries in 1972. Beti
stopped writing novels in the 1960s and 70s, devoting his attention to criticism
and theory. In the late 1970s, he returned to fiction, producing a series of novels
that address problems of neo-colonialism that Cameroon encountered after
independence. These later novels, however, are generally regarded as less
important and less successful.
Books: Mission to Kala, Poor Christ of Bomba, Cruel City: A Novel, The story
of the madman
Died: October 8, 2001, Douala, Cameroon

LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN THE TEXT

Mission to Kala draws on several classic traditions: the coming-of-age story, the
fish-out-of-water story, and the story of mistaken identities. Its hero, Jean Medza,
is at the centre of all these elements—at times, “victim” seems to be a better word
than “centre.” It is written in the first person. The novel creates a voice of subtle,
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slightly self-mocking irony for its protagonist. But underneath the humour and
gentle satire, Beti shapes a compelling critique of the harm that Western
education can do to an African mind, and the novel ends pessimistically, as
Medza exiles himself from his family and the culture that is so attractive, but so
alien, to him.
SETTING
The set-up of the novel is in the village. The resident of Kala appears to be Bantu,
a family of loosely affiliated ethnic groups that dominate the lowlands of Central
and Southern Africa. It is generally agreed that Bantu people spread and begun
to move to most parts of Africa from here.
In these areas, traditional culture thrived in a way it did not in the large cities.
Polygamy was still practised, kinship and age-group were still predominant
determiners of one’s friends, peers and social status.
PROTAGONIST
Jean Marie Medza
CHARACTERISATION
1. Medza – is the main protagonist of the novel. He leaves school and returns to
his village in disgrace and gets caught up in his cousin’s plan of taking his
wife back from her home village of Kala. The cousin convinces him to help
by playing on his pride, telling him that the white man’s education will ensure
their success.
2. Amou – Medza’s aunt. She welcomes him in Vimili, a town near his home
village. It is Amou who tells him about the story of Niam’s wife, a story that
impels him to go on a mission to Kala.
3. Niam – an untrustworthy person without any scruple who sends a young boy
hardly out of his cradle on a dangerous expedition into unknown and possibly
hostile territory. He is a lazy man who thinks women are for his pleasure only.
He fails to realise that his wife is also a human being and accuses her of being
barren.
4. Niam’s wife – the runaway wife who goes to her home village in Kala. Now,
Medza has to go to Kala to secure her return.
5. Bikokolo – the elder of the clan. He is the one that convinces Medza to go on
a mission to Kala.
6. Zambo- Medza’s cousin and turned out, his best friend. He welcomes him
into their village, Kala, and treats him with respect. Zambo has a great many
personality traits that are greatly admired by Medza who is far too proud to
admit it. Though not educated formally, has an innate ability to understand
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 © 2019 TEACHING NOTES ON MISSION TO KALA - COMPILED BY MRS. MUBANGA, A. M. (CSS)

people and what motivates them. This in turn, earns him a lot of success on
many levels. He is loyal and helps Medza in many circumstances. For
instance, when Medza exiles himself from his home village, it is Zambo that
willing offers to go with him. While in the city, Zambo stays by his side even
through difficult situations.
7. Boneless wonder, Duckfoot Jonny and Son-of-God- Medza’s new friends
in Kala. They are depicted as lazy, careless and wayward. They love wine and
sleeping with girls.
8. Mama –Zambo’s father and Medza’s uncle. It is at his house where Medza
resides while in Kala. He also who exploits culture to hoodwink Medza into
ceding part of his loot (gifts given to him by villagers) on the premise of
kinship.
9. Village chief – a chief of Kala and Edima’s father. He is a traditionist,
manipulative and a polygamist who just married wife number seven.
10. Edima – the village chief’s daughter who marries Medza in Kala
11.Edima’s mother – She is the one who publicly secures her daughter’s ties
with Medza. She does so by causing a public scene.
12.Medza’s father – He is a serious man who goes to great length to ensure his
sons get educated. He is temperamental, intolerant but hardworking.
13.Medza’s mother- She is a quite woman and fond of his sons, especially
Medza. She helps Medza with his luggage after he abandons home.
14.Medza‘s older brother – He fails to succeed in school which forces his father
to turn his focus and hope on Medza. It is him who marries Edima after Medza
fails to return home.

THE PLOT
 The novel opens as Medza returns to his hometown.
 School has just finished for the year, and Medza has just failed the all-
important baccalaureate examination. He is confused, uncertain about his
future and worse still, he is terrified: he expects his demanding father to be
furious.

A. MEDZA IN VIMILI
 When he arrives in the town of Vimili, near his home village, he meets his
Aunt Amou, who gives him news of a development that will allow him to
avoid meeting his father. (Mission to Kala, p.5)
 Amou tells him of a man named Niam, who is in fact his cousin.

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 © 2019 TEACHING NOTES ON MISSION TO KALA - COMPILED BY MRS. MUBANGA, A. M. (CSS)

Niam married a woman from another clan and then began treating her badly:
he forced her to work too hard, while doing nothing himself, and insulted her
because she did not bear him any children. Niam’s wife began an adulterous
affair (p.7). (In itself, this did not attract disapproval: adultery was common,
and people did not take it very seriously).
However, Niam’s wife made the unpardonable error of choosing as her lover
a man from a clan that is not her husband’s: “For a woman to grant her
favours to a man from a neighbouring tribe is bad enough; if she goes with
some rootless stranger she is, in all intents and purposes, deliberately giving
the most deadly insult possible to her own kin” (Mission to Kala, p. 8). Finally,
Niam’s wife flees, and returns to the forest village, Kala, in which she was
born.
 It makes little difference that Niam does not like his wife, or even that she
does not want to be with him. She must be brought back: his honour and the
honour of his clan demand it.
 All their attempts at negotiation have failed, and now, desperate, they see
Medza’s arrival as the perfect solution. Almost at once, they request that he
travel to Kala to secure the return of Niam’s wife.
 Medza is confused: he does not understand how he, a teenage boy, can succeed
where others have failed. He debates this point with Niam and the other
villagers. Finally, an elder named Bikokolo tells him the truth: He reminds
him of his scholarly accomplishments and how he can use education to his
advantage.
“Shall I tell you what your special thunder is? Your certificates, your
learning….Have you any idea what these upcountry bushmen will seriously
believe about you? That you only have to write a letter in French, or speak
French to the nearest District Officer, to have anyone you like imprisoned, or
get any personal favour you like” (p. 15).
 Convinced, and more than willing to avoid having to tell his father of his
failure, Medza sets out on a bicycle to Kala.

B. MEDZA IN KALA
 When Medza arrives in Kala, the villagers are engaged in a game against the
neighboring village.
 As soon as he arrives at Mama’s house (his uncle), a meeting imposes a
strange outlook on things. Zambo (his cousin and Mama’s son) introduces
Medza to his girlfriend, who lives with him quite openly in the house of his
father. Medza is shocked, even scandalized. He knew that the sexual morals
of his people were more permissive than those of the French colonizers; but
he was not prepared for the actual experience of this looseness. He hides his
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surprise, but the central irony of the novel is established (a mission of self-
discovery and exploration).
 The people of Kala are fascinated by Medza, seeing him as a sophisticated,
French-educated cosmopolite (city boy).
 So dazzled are they by his scholastic accomplishments that they cannot see his
perpetual amazement at their manners and firm grasp of life. He struggles to
project an air of unsurprised acceptance, while attempting also to understand
their ways.

 On the second day, he and his uncle—a taciturn carpenter—visit the father of
Niam’s wife in a fruitless attempt at negotiation.
 After this single attempt, Medza proceeds to party.
 Medza’s stay in Kala is prolonged as a result and it falls into a pattern that has
very little to do with his mission….to hold meetings with the family of Niam’s
wife, convince them and return with her.
MEDZA’S ACTIVITIES IN KALA
 Medza’s life in the village settles into a customary pattern; he spends time
with young people during the day, and is feasted by the older people of the
village at night who enjoy his city tales. During such times he is flashed with
a lot of gifts from the villagers.

 At the same time, Zambo is attempting to organise a gift of his own for Medza:
he is trying to find Medza a woman. Zambo is convinced that if a country boy
like him is sexually experienced, a city boy like his cousin must be
unbelievably sophisticated. Little does he realize that Medza is not only a
virgin but also terrified at the prospect of sex.
 Zambo’s first choice for Medza is a girl from the city who has refused every
other man in Kala. One morning, Medza awakens from his uneasy, drunken
slumber to find Zambo and this girl sitting on his bed. Zambo leaves, smiling,
but Medza ignores the girl’s obvious advances. Later, the girl leaves, baffled.
Medza explains to Zambo that he suspected the girl had venereal disease, and
Zambo is satisfied. But he does not give up the chase.

 Instead, Zambo turns his attention to the daughter of the village chief by the
name of Edima.
Late one night, he awakens Medza and leads him through the dark to a house
where this girl, Edima, is waiting. Medza and the girl fumble at each other in
the dark, but she leaves before having sex.

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 © 2019 TEACHING NOTES ON MISSION TO KALA - COMPILED BY MRS. MUBANGA, A. M. (CSS)

Medza is lovestruck. From this point on, he devotes all his attention to
spending time with Edima, who, for her part, is more than willing to be chased.
 The affair with Edima is consummated, ironically, during the wedding feast
of her father, who has just married his seventh wife.
 During these celebrations, no one is paying attention to Edima or Medza.
Hence, the two take advantage of the opportunity to sneak away to Mama’s
house. (P.138)
 Their pleasure is interrupted by the unwelcome arrival of Edima’s mother. She
bursts into Medza’s room, screaming. She drags her daughter out of the house,
naked, hitting and scolding her violently. Medza is terrified; he assumes he
must face dire consequences and cannot imagine what will happen to his
young lover.
 But when Edima has been dragged off, Zambo bursts out laughing. He
explains, “That old bag simply wanted to be able to tell the whole village that
it was her daughter you’d honoured with your—h’m—attention…. Did you
see how she was beating the kid?

NIAM’S WIFE REAPPEARS

 At this dramatic point, when she has been all but forgotten, Niam’s wife
reappears. It turns out that she has been living with a man of ill repute in a
house outside her village; her open return with him creates a scandal.
 Though adultery is tolerated, shamelessness is not. Medza is convinced that
he should leave Niam’s wife to her own abandonment, but Mama and Zambo
convince him otherwise. The wife may be an immoral slut, but she is,
nevertheless, a wife: she is necessary to Niam as a cook, field worker, and
(potentially) mother of his children.
 Accordingly, the family goes to the chief, and the matter is quickly decided:
Niam’s wife cannot afford to repay the dowry, so she will return to her
husband.
MEDZA’S SURPRISE WEDDING
 Just after settling the affair of Niam’s wife, the chief invites Medza, Mama
and Zambo to his house for dinner; they decline, but the chief insists.
 As they eat, they are entertained by dancers, drummers, and processions that
grow steadily more elaborate, reminding Medza of the chiefs wedding
celebration.

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 At this point, Edima paces in, accompanied by handmaids and dressed as a

bride. To his shock (although he certainly does not object) he has been tricked
into a wedding.
 The chief marries the young couple.
 Now Medza has done about all he can do in Kala, and he has little choice but
to leave.

C. MEDZA’S HOME VILLAGE

1. At home, Medza finds his father in a mood of indifference. The father utterly
ignores the boy. Medza attempts to provoke a confrontation by whistling and
being insolent, but his father is imperturbably icy.
2. Only when Edima arrives is there a confrontation.
3. His father attempts to beat Medza, who alternately fights back and runs away.
Zambo comes to his cousin’s aid, tackling a man who tries to capture Medza.
This prompts Mama to begin chasing Zambo, with the whole town watching.
4. Finally, Medza’s father gives up and goes huffing into the house. Medza
watches him for a moment, feeling genuine pity, but then he decides the only
recourse left is to leave. He walks along the dusty path out of town, followed
by Zambo.

D. THE EPILOGUE (MEDZA IN THE CITY - YEARS LATER)

Epilogue is the final or concluding section at the end of the story that serves
to reveal the fate of characters. It wraps up all the loose ends of a story.

In Mission to Kala, a brief epilogue informs the reader that;

1. The two runaway boys do not return home; Medza does not ever return to his
home village or Zambo to Kala. It has been many years since the Kala mission,
the dual are now grown-ups, but are still together as best friends. Medza and
Zambo have wandered together, adventuring unspecified ways.
1. Edima eventually married Medza’s older brother and that the two have three
children. She perhaps got tired of waiting for Medza’s father decided to marry
the two.
2. Medza laments the of western education to an indigenous African man; He
left the village for the city to be educated, however, his real education about
the fabrics of life occurs in the most unexpected ways – during his mission to
Kala. Perhaps the most amusing example of Medza’s confusion occurs when
his uncle asks him if he knows what “blood” is. Medza replies, “Blood is a red
liquid circulating through our veins and—.” Of course, Mama means blood
relations (Mission to Kala, p. 87).
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3. The plight of the “colonized African,” has been stolen since he has been
separated from the ancestral wisdom of his people and not given a new way
of understanding life: “The tragedy which our nation is now suffering is that
of a man left to his own devices in a world which does not belong to him,
which he has not made and does not understand” (Mission to Kala, p. 181).
4. At the end, Medza informs the reader that, he is haunted by “his first, perhaps
his only love: the absurdity of life” (p. 183).

THEMES
1. Culture and African Tradition
In the novel, the aspects of culture include; African communism, African
marriages, parent to child relationship, polygamy, dating and courting.
Communism is brought out in Medza’s village Vimili where the people work as
one. Marriages are greatly encouraged where the man is the decision maker and
women are silent and inferior. Also, according to culture, a child is supposed to
be disciplined by a rod.
2. Colonial education
Medza is taking himself to be a black Frenchman due to his educative ideas from
the French people. The colonial education deprives him of an identity. He is born
African but because of colonial education he has become a concoction of different
cultures, African and European.
3. Identity
This comes in as a result of Medza not having a soluble identity. He failed his
baccalaureate examinations thus he has failed to cope with the white man’s way
of life. On the other hand, the people at Kala say,” for us you are the white man.”
This shows that he could not qualify to be called a black man, therefore, did not
have a tangible identity.
4. Self-realisation
Upon failing to attain a tangible identity, Medza goes to Kala “Mission to Kala”
to discover himself. That is why he goes through a lot of questioning by the so
called “bushman” of Kala.

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REVISION QUESTIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION

1. What is the significance of the title Mission to Kala?

2. How is mission to Kala a satire of colonial education?
3. Who is Medza supposed to find?
4. Illustrate Medza’s movements in Mission to Kala. In what way does each
place influence him?
5. Compare and contrast Vimili and Kala in Mission to Kala by Mongo Beti.
6. Why is Medza disgraced?
7. Why is the local chief in Kala not popular among his people?
8. Critically comment on the father-son relationship displayed by Medza and
old Medza.
9. Compare and contrast the parenthood between Medza’s father and
Zambo’s father.
10.Compare the characters of Zambo and Medza, what aspects or concerns
are highlighted by these characters.
11.Discuss Mongo Beti‘s view of religion in Mission to Kala.
12. Zambo is a Medza‘s loyal companion. Discuss this statement by citing as
many eamples from the text as possible.

ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Medza’s father appears to be more concerned with Medza’s education than
with full development as a person. Discuss.

2. Basing your answer on the events described in the novel, show how the
chief, his wife and children of Kala benefit from Medza’s visit.

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