Véronique TADJO An author from the Ivory Coast writing in French [Return to French — Page originale en français]

Véronique Tadjo was born in 1955 in Paris, but was brought up in Abidjan. During her childhood, she often travelled with her parents and her brother. Her father, who comes from the Ivory Coast, was a high ranking Civil Servant until his retirement and her French mother was a painter and sculptor. Véronique Tadjo has a doctorate in African American Studies. She has travelled extensively in West Africa, Europe, the United States as well as in Latin America. She taught at the University of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast for several years. She has conducted workshops on writing, illustrating books for children and other topics in many countries. Her novel Reine Pokou [Queen Pokou] was awarded the prestigious literary Prize "Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire" in 2005. She spent a few years in Kenya and in England, and now lives in South Africa (2010).

Publications

* Red Earth: Laté//rite/. Spokane: Eastern Washington University Press, 2006. (194p.). ISBN 1-59766-009-4. Poetry (Translation by Peter S. Thompson).

* A vol d'oiseau [As the crow flies]. Paris: Nathan, 1986. (96p.). ISBN 209 169020 1. Novel. (L'Harmattan published a new edition in 1992).

Twenty-one chapters, 92 small tableaux (or 'vignettes' as the author calls them) whose female narrator comments: "Well yes, I too would have liked to wrie a nice story with a beginning and an end. But you know very well it does not happen like that. Lives interwine, people become close and then move apart, destinies fade away ..."

* As the Crow Flies. Oxford: Heinemann, 2001. (106p.). ISBN 0-435-91203-8. (Translation by Wangui wa Goro)

If you want to love Do so To the ends of the earth With no short cuts Do so As the crow flies. Indeed I too would have loved to write one of those serene stories with a beginning and an end. As you know only too well, it is never like that, though. Lives mingle, people tame one another and part. Destinies are lost.

* Le Royaume aveugle [The Blind Kingdom]. (143p.). Paris: L'Harmattan, 1991. ISBN 2 7384 08893. Novel.

The country is invaded by blind people who build a fortress but its dictator ignores the misery surrounding him. His only daughter, unlike her tyrannical father, seeks to find out what is really happening and lets herself be seduced by the man who is trying to save her country from tyranny.

* Champs de bataille et d'amour [Battlefields and Love]. Paris/Abidjan: Présence Africaine/NEI, 1999. (176p.). ISBN 2 911725 75 1 ou 2 7087 0685 3. Novel.

*Talking Drums. London: A & C Black, 2000. (176p.). ISBN 0 7136 5815 0. A seletion of poems from Africa edited and illustrated by Tadjo.

Poems by : Agostinho Neto, Irene Assiba d'Almeida, Francis bebey, Paul Dakeyo, Claude-Joseph M'bafou-Zetebeg, Bernad Dadié, N.X. Ebony, Veronique Tadjo, Zadi Zaourou, Abdourahman A. Waberi, Abena P. A. Busia, Ahmed Tidjani Cissé Williams Sassine, Cecilia Muhoho, Chinue Achebe, Okinba Launko, Flora Napa, Femi Ojo-Ade, Ben Okri, Dennis Chukude Osadebay, Nyi Osundare, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Mabel Segun, Wole Soyinka, Hamidou Dia, Birago Diop, David Diop, Annette Mbaye d'Erneville, Léopold Sé Senghor, Fatou Ndiaye Sow, Dennis Brutus, Mafika Pascal Gwala, Pitika Ntuli, Mongane Wally Serote, Okot p'Bitek, May Opitz.

* The Shadow of Imana. Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Oxford: Heinemann, 2002. African Writers Series(106p.). ISBN 0-435-91015-9. Translation by Véronique Wakerley

* Reine Pokou. Arles: Actes Sud, 2005. (96p.). ISBN 0 7427 5397 4. Legende.

* Loin de mon père Arles: Actes Sud, 2010. (190p.). ISBN: 978-2-7427-9127-9. Novel.

* "The Betrayal" in Vera, Yvonne (ed.) Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women's Writing Oxford: Heinemann, 1999. (186pp.). ISBN 0-435-91010-8. Short story.

* "The legend of Abla Pokou, Queen of the Baoulé People", in King, Adèle, (ed.) From Africa - New francophone stories. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2004, pp.8-15. Short story.

* "La femme que j'aurais voulu être". In Ananda Devi, (ed.) Les Balançoires. Yaoundé: Editions Tropiques, 2006, pp. 72-86.

* Grand-mère Nanan. Abidjan: Nouvelles Éditions Ivoiriennes, 1996. (24p.). ISBN 2 910190 85 6. Tale. Illustrated by the author. Children's book.

* La Chanson de la vie [The Song of Life]. Paris: CEDA, 1989. (126p.). ISBN 2 218 02312 1. Short stories. Children's book.

* Mamy Wata et le Monstre [Mamy Wata and the Monster]. Abidjan: Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1993. (24p.)p. ISBN 2 910190 19 6. Tale. Illustrated by the author. Children's book.

* Le Seigneur de la Danse [Lord of the dance]. Abidjan: Nouvelles Éditions Ivoiriennes, 1993. (24p.). ISBN 2 910190 18 8. Tale. Illustrated by the author. Children's book.

Where I think Africa could be in 2015 by Véronique Tadjo. Article (2005?). [Pdf file] [Sighted 1 March 2009].

Book reviews

Jean-Marie Volet. As the crow flies. May 2009.

Editor ([email protected])
The University of Western Australia/French
Created : 25 December 1995
Modified: 05 December 2010
Archived: 27 November 2013
https://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/TadjoVeroniqueEng.html