By Nsah Mala
The death of Cameroonian novelist Nsanda Eba, renowned author of The Good Foot, was announced on Monday 30 June 2025 by his family. According to his daughter, Magdalene Eba, he rested peacefully at home in Bambili. And she added: “with gratitude to God for a life well spent, I announce the passing unto glory of my dad.”
Peter Nsanda Eba was a versatile mathematician and prolific man of letters, having authored The Good Foot (1977, Oxford University Press), one of the earliest classical novels in Anglophone Cameroon literature. This widely-read novel depicts colonial Cameroon while drawing on the indigenous belief and metaphor of luck and ill-luck depending on whether one hits their good or bad foot when going on a mission. Writing for the online magazine Literary Hub in 2022, literary critic and translator Nchanji Njamnsi succinctly describes The Good Foot as follows:
“Tucked away in the annals of early post-colonial Cameroonian anglophone literature is this 149-page gem by Nsanda Eba. This 1977 novel recounts — with touching humanity — the ordeals of a plantation laborer’s family as they reach for social advancement through back-breaking work, unrelenting hope, and an undying belief in the power of education, laying bare in the process the exploitative nature of plantation agriculture and its role in shaping population dynamics as well as xenophobia-tinged politics in modern-day Cameroonian towns like Mutengene and Tiko. Discovering Mbamu, the novel’s teenage character, his childhood and his relationship with his father struck a human chord with me as it mirrored my own relationship with my dad, often strained by his almost-obsessive insistence on the ultimate importance of education.”
In addition to this classical novel, according to Cameroon Concord News, Nsanda Eba’s other publications include essays that span roughly five decades, primarily documenting the transformation of Cameroon – from a colonial subject to a ruthless dictatorship.
Meanwhile, Nsanda Eba was principally a seasoned mathematician and teacher who taught several generations of students in CCAST Bambili and ENS Bambili.
Although he was born in the Anglophone South West Region of Cameroon, Nsanda Eba became an “adopted” son of the soil of Bambili Fondom (Kingdom) in the Anglophone North West Region. He lived among them for 60 plus years and rose to become a Quarter Head in Three-Corners Bambili. And this is a rare honour in the North West Region of Cameroon.
Going by the central metaphor of his novel, The Good Foot, it is possible to conclude that, after a long and fulfilling life, Nsanda Eba has hit his bad foot – thus a metaphor for his death. But his literary and educational legacies will live on.
NOTE: First published in The Ijim Times No. 002
