14 Books in Translation From Western Africa
Book Riot | Leah Rachel von Essen | June 28, 2022
Aya: Life in Yop City included in Book Riot’s roundup of West African books
I’ll scream it to my final day: we need to translate more fiction from around the world into English, particularly fiction from authors of color, queer authors, and otherwise marginalized authors. Every time I make one of these lists I’m stunned and annoyed by the number of “classics” that were never translated or are out of print.
For this list, I used the definition of Western Africa that includes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. I tried to include at least one book from every country, where I could.
Aya: Life in Yop City by Marguerite Abouet, translated from French by Helge Dascher, illustrated by Clément Oubrerie (Côte D'Ivoire)
In this first half of a vivid, award-winning series by Abouet, we follow three young women — the hard-working, practical Aya, and her pleasure-seeking, easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou — through their lives in their busy, gossip-filled neighborhood in 1978 Côte d’Ivoire. We get to see the twists and turns of relationship drama, secrets revealed, unexpected pregnancy, betrayal, hearts broken, and more, all in the vivid colors and expressive artwork of Oubrerie. Behind the fun and chaotic drama of the neighborhood lie young people dealing with issues of structural patriarchy, parental and cultural expectations, and misogyny. I can’t wait to read volume two!
Content warnings for domestic violence, sex shaming, misogyny, sexual harassment, homophobia.
The rest of the list can be found here.
For this list, I used the definition of Western Africa that includes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. I tried to include at least one book from every country, where I could.
Aya: Life in Yop City by Marguerite Abouet, translated from French by Helge Dascher, illustrated by Clément Oubrerie (Côte D'Ivoire)
In this first half of a vivid, award-winning series by Abouet, we follow three young women — the hard-working, practical Aya, and her pleasure-seeking, easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou — through their lives in their busy, gossip-filled neighborhood in 1978 Côte d’Ivoire. We get to see the twists and turns of relationship drama, secrets revealed, unexpected pregnancy, betrayal, hearts broken, and more, all in the vivid colors and expressive artwork of Oubrerie. Behind the fun and chaotic drama of the neighborhood lie young people dealing with issues of structural patriarchy, parental and cultural expectations, and misogyny. I can’t wait to read volume two!
Content warnings for domestic violence, sex shaming, misogyny, sexual harassment, homophobia.
The rest of the list can be found here.