Queen Pokou

Veronique Tadjo

Véronique Tadjo (born in 1955) is an acclaimed Ivorian-French writer, poet, academic, painter, and illustrator whose work explores African history, cultural identity, memory, and social justice. Born in Paris to an Ivorian father and a French mother, she grew up in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where she developed a lasting connection to African storytelling traditions and cultural heritage. Tadjo studied English at the University of Abidjan before earning a doctorate in African American literature and civilization at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1983, she received a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She subsequently taught English in Côte d’Ivoire and lectured at the University of Abidjan until 1993, when she devoted herself to writing full-time. She later lived and worked in several countries, including Nigeria, Mexico, Kenya, and South Africa, where she headed the French and Francophone Studies department at the University of the Witwatersrand from 2007 to 2015. She now divides her time between London and Abidjan. Her literary career spans poetry, novels, children’s literature, and illustrated books. She is particularly interested in preserving African oral traditions and reinterpreting myths and legends for contemporary readers. Her notable works include The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda, a reflection on the Rwandan genocide, and Queen Pokou, a reimagining of an important Akan legend. Her novel In the Company of Men, which explores the 2014 Ebola epidemic through interconnected human and natural perspectives, won the 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Tadjo has also received numerous literary honours, including the Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noire for Queen Pokou.

Published

2009

Author

Veronique Tadjo