Prix Voix d’Afriques 2022 finalists announced

The finalists for Prix Voix d’Afriques 2022 were announced on Friday, April 15, 2022.

Prix Voix d’Afriques is a literary award aimed at bringing young French-language authors and authors from the African continent first hosted in 2020. It is aimed at highlighting new African literary voices, novels reflecting the situation of a country, political, economic, or social news, or more intimate texts. It is an initiative of publisher Editions JC Lattès and RFI, in partnership with the Cité internationale des arts de Paris. The first winner of the initiative was Yaya Diomandé for his book Abobo Marley followed by Fann Attiki in 2021.

The 2022 edition just like in the past year is chaired by author Abdourahman Waberi alongside Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint, journaliste RFI; Bénédicte Alliot, directrice de la Cité Internationale des arts; Véronique Cardi, présidente des éditions JC Lattès; Anne-Sophie Stefanini, directrice littéraire des éditions JC Lattès; Josué Guébo, poète et professeur à l’université en Côte d’Ivoire;  Grégoire Leménager, directeur adjoint de la rédaction de L’Obs; Béata Umubyeyi Mairesse, poète, nouvelliste, romancière, auteure de Tous tes enfants dispersés (Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie, 2020); Stéphanie Hanet, de la Librairie Coiffard à Nantes; and Bios Diallo, écrivain, journaliste et directeur d’un festival en Mauritanie.

French-speaking Africa answered the call for entries for anyone under the age of 30 to submit with 146 sending in their texts. From these, the following four finalists were announced;

• La Légende, De La Dette, Ousmane Macodou (Senegal)
• Le Roi muet, Audrey Yangan (Cameroon)
• Comme une reine, Lontsi Clémence (Cameroon)
• Des Cygnes Et Des Caméléons, Ahmed Al-Bouchiki (Morocco)

The winner of the award will be known in September 21. 2022.