Born in 1965 in Cameroon, Goddy Leye lived and worked in Douala, district of Bonendal, where in 2003 he founded the development center for contemporary experimental creation, ArtBakery. Goddy was also a founding member of the Prim’Art and Dreamers collectives. From 1987 to 1992, after obtaining his Master of Arts at the University of Yaounde, he undertook private artistic training from artist and art historian Pascal Kenfack. He became an independent artist in 1992.

Strongly influenced by history and memory, his work was based primarily on stories, myths and mythologies. Similarly, because they contain ideas, emotions and sensibilities, signs and symbols occupy an important place for Leye. He envisions memory as base on which you can express subjectivity. In this sense, he never sees it as a unique and absolute truth, since in his view "…History in its entirety is written from a particular viewpoint, which cannot be universal".

His experience allows him to advance the idea that the desire to re-write history has always existed, and that this desire will continue. "If my work has often been critical of the dominant systems, it was always about a quest for salvation. ‘Art is made visible’ said Paul Klee, and Serge Poliakoff went further by asking to go beyond the cortex. The quest for beauty that goes beyond appearances (and is sometimes the watermark of violent denunciations and without concessions) has always guided my research. Revealing the ugly (evil, negative, false ...) for a glimpse of the beautiful (goodness and truth, what is possible) ...”

Goddy Leye died on February 19, 2011 at the age of 46 at the District Hospital in Douala Bonassama, following a short illness.