Fabien Eboussi Boulaga

[1] Born in 1934 in Bafia, Eboussi Boulaga earned his high school diploma from the Akono Minor Seminary (South Cameroon), before joining the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1955.

He became known as a polemical figure, for example in his book Bantou problématique (1968), and in his theological stance, notably in La démission (1974), which caused an outcry in ecclesiastical circles; this latter publication called for the organised departure of missionaries.

Three years later, he published La Crise du Muntu, which tackled questions of authenticity and tradition, a particularly fashionable topic in the 1970s.

Boulaga's departure from sacerdotal and religious life was the product of a carefully matured decision; he claimed to have "lost his faith" since 1969.

A year later, he published Christianisme sans fétiche, which questions the dogmatic and metaphysical assumptions of Catholicism in a colonial context.