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France & French Collections at the Library of Congress

Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire

The Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire is awarded each year by the Association des écrivains de langue française (ADELF) whose goal is to promote the work of writers who express themselves in French. The prize is open to French-language writers from sub-Saharan Africa, or to a work concerning this geographical region. The first recipient was author Aké Loba (Côte d Ivoire) for Kocumbo, l'étudiant noir in 1961. Other recipients include: Birago Diop (Senegal), Bernard Dadie (Côte d'Ivoire), and Ahmadou Kourouma (Côte d'Ivoire). Starting in 2004, The Geneva International Book and Press Fair has awarded the Prix Ahmadou Kourouma to books on sub-Saharan Africa. Le Prix Littéraire les Afriques is another annual Swiss award for fiction written by Africans or those of African decent. These awards are intended to give greater exposure to African authors. Some authors such as Hemley Boum (Cameroon) have won multiple awards. Her novel Les Maquisards won the Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 2015, and in 2020 Les jours viennent et passent won the Prix Ahmadou-Kourouma. Senegalese writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr won two awards in 2015 for his novel Terre ceinte (Le Prix Ahmadou-Kourouma and Le Grand prix du roman métis) and in 2021 his novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes won the Prix Goncourt. French and English language editions of these prize-winning works are listed below as available.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.