Véronique Tadjo

Véronique Tadjo was born in Paris and grew up in Abidjan. She did most of her studies in Côte d’Ivoire before earning a doctorate degree in African American Literature and Civilization from the Sorbonne, Paris IV. In 1983 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Howard University to continue her research. She returned to lecture at Abidjan University for several years. She has lived in Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg, where she was the chair of French and Francophone Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand until 2015. Tadjo’s work includes two collections of poems and an unpublished one, as well as novels and books for young people. Her titles have been translated into English and several other languages, namely: The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda (2021); Queen Pokou (2005), which was awarded Le Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire; Far from my Father (2014); and In the Company of Men (2021).

Photo by Odile Motelet.