Véronique Tadjo

Véronique Tadjo (born 1955) is a writer, poet, novelist, and artist from Côte d'Ivoire.

Véronique Tadjo during a public reading in Frankfurt/Main, 2001.

Born in Paris, Véronique Tadjo was the daughter of an Ivorian civil servant and a French painter and sculptor. Brought up in Abidjan, she travelled widely with her family.

Tadjo completed her BA degree at the University of Abidjan and her doctorate at the Sorbonne in African-American Literature and Civilization. In 1983, she went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., on a Fulbright research scholarship.

In 1979, Tadjo chose to teach English at the Lycée Moderne de Korhogo (secondary school) in the North of Côte d´Ivoire. She subsequently became a lecturer at the English department of the University of Abidjan until 1993.

In the past few years, she has facilitated workshops in writing and illustrating children´s books in Mali, Benin, Chad, Haiti, Mauritius, French Guyana, Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa.

She has lived in Paris, Lagos, Mexico City, Nairobi and London. Tadjo is currently based in Johannesburg' where since 2007 she has been head of French Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Awards

Tadjo received the Literary Prize of L'Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique in 1983 and the UNICEF Prize in 1993 for Mamy Wata and the Monster, which was also chosen as one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, one of only four children's books selected.. In 2005, Tadjo won the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire.

Works

Poetry

• Latérite (poems; Éditions Hatier "Monde noir Poche", 1984). Bi-lingual edition, Red Earth - Latérite; translation by Peter S. Thompson (Washington University Press, 2006)
• A vol d'oiseau, Éditions Harmattan; 1986); translated by Wangui wa Goro as As The Crow Flies (AWS Heinemann, 2001)
• A mi-chemin (poems; Éditions Harmattan, 2000)

Novels

• Le Royaume aveugle (novel; Éditions Harmattan, 1991); translated by Janis Mayes as The Blind Kingdom (Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2008)
• Champs de bataille et d'amour (Éditions Présence Africaine; Les Nouvelles Éditions Ivoiriennes, 1999)
• L´ombre d´Imana: Voyages jusqu'au bout du Rwanda, Actes Sud, 2000); translated as The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda (Heinemann AWS, 2002)
• Reine Pokou (Actes Sud, 2005); translated by Amy Reid as Queen Poku (Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2009)
• Loin de mon père (Actes Sud, 2010)

Children's

• La Chanson de la vie (for children; 1990)
• Lord of the Dance: An African Retelling (Le Seigneur de la Danse; Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1993; 1988)
• Grandma Nana (Grand-Mère Nanan; Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1996; for children; 2000)
• Masque, raconte-moi (Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes)
• Si j´étais roi, si j´étais reine (Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes); translated by the author as If I Were a King, If I Were a Queen (London: Milet Publishing, 2002)
• Mamy Wata et le Monstre (Mamy Wata and the Monster) (Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1993; Prix Unicef, 1993; bi-lingual edition London: Milet Publishing, 2000)
• Le Grain de Maïs Magique (Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1996)
• Le Bel Oiseau et la Pluie (Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1998)
• Nelson Mandela: "Non à L'Apartheid" (Actes Sud Junior, 2010)
• Ayanda, la petite fille qui ne voulait pas grandir (Actes Sud Junior, 2007; Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes/CEDA)

External links

• Véronique Tadjo official website
• African-writing.com interview with Véronique Tadjo