Women Writers in Ivory Coast

Although the French language has been present in Ivory Coast as far back as the 1880s, the first real piece of French literature by an Ivorian writer was not published until 1936.

For nearly forty years, the literary scene was dominated by male writers. The year 1975 marked the introduction of women’s writing in the country, with the publication of La marche des femmes sur Grand Bassam by Henriette Diabaté.

By the 1980s, other women in Ivory Coast were beginning to publish novels, short stories, poetry, and autobiographies, with a total of 15 books by women writers being published between 1975 and 1985. The number of books increased by the mid-1990s, with 22 books being published by women writers in Ivory Coast between 1986 and 1995 (according to a report by Assamala Amoi, an Ivory Coast author and former Vice President of the Writers‘ Association of Ivory Coast).

Today, women writers still constitute the minority; although the exact number of female authors is unknown, only about 44% of the population of Ivory Coast is literate (according to a survey taken by the Ministry of Education in 1996), and only about 32% of those individuals are women. This means that only about 13% of the entire Ivory Coast population are literate women, and even fewer are published writers.

For the ones who have been fortunate enough to be published and have their voices heard, they face the challenge of balancing a professional writing life with raising a family at home. They are not giving up though. Assamala believes that “we can smile at the future of Ivory Coast’s women writers,” and that all they need is “great inspiration and hard work” to accomplish their goals. She encourages those women who wish to have their work known to “take advantage of every appropriate opportunity to meet the public, contribute to the visibility of their work and collaborate with the publishing houses.”

To read a short description of the history of French literature in Ivory Coast, or to view a list of women writers from Ivory Coast, visit http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/CountryCoteDIvoireEN.html.

In French, see also the Association des Ecrivains de Côte D’Ivoire at http://ae-ci.org/.

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Victoria Shockley is the Assistant Editor for Women Writers, Women Books, as well as a freelance writer and editor. She’s currently in her sophomore year at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and is majoring in English with a concentration in language and writing.

Visit Victoria’s website at http://victoriashockleywrites.wordpress.com/.

Follow Victoria on Twitter: @Victoria_Writes.

Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn or visit her Women Writers, Women Books author page.

 

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Category: Being a Writer, Contemporary Women Writers, French-African Women Writers, Multicultural Writers, Multinational Women Writers, On Writing, Women Writers, Women Writers Across Cultures, Women Writing Fiction, Women Writing Non-Fiction