Supposedly Aya, by being about the every day lives of young middle class women who are worried about family infidelity and finding love but not about where their next meal is going to come from or whether the state they live in will collapse, works against stereotypes about Africa, but if the setting is presented as an exception, thanks to 'Western' influence, then that only reinforces some of the most pernicious stereotypes 'Westerners' have about exploited countries and people: that 'Western' influence is good for exploited countries, that 'universal' means 'Western' or 'just like us ', that a story must be 'universal' to be relevant and interesting.īut, with that said, actually I really enjoyed the book. There's another section in the book about finding 'the universal' in the novel's context, which is also uncomfortable. There's even a remark along the lines of 'women were Western-influenced and emancipated'. Abidjan in the period when Aya's story is set is painted as a bright exception among African cities, and the reason given for its blossoming seems to be French influence.

Aya is the winner of the Best First Album award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the Children’s Africana Book Award, and the Glyph Award was nominated for the Quill Award, the YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels list, and the Eisner Award and was included on “best of” lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. Drawn & Quarterly will release volumes four through six of the original French series (as yet unpublished in English) in Book Two.

This reworked edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in Abouet’s Yop City, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One. It’s a wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City.Ĭlément Oubrerie’s warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet’s vibrant writing. It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted nineteen-year-old Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet’s youth in Yop City. It’s a golden time, and the nation, too-an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa-seems fueled by something wondrous.

It’s essential reading.” -Joann Sfar, cartoonist of The Rabbi’s Cat “ Aya is an irresistible comedy, a couple of love stories and a tale for becoming African.

Aya de yopougon english