Lekeufack Kamaha Lorena Nolwen was crowned Miss Littérature Afrique 2025 at a ceremony in Cotonou, Benin, on Saturday, July 26, 2025.
Miss Littérature Afrique was created to address the declining level of French language proficiency among young people by journalist, author, and editor Carmen Todonou in 2016. The competition features young African women aged 18 to 24 from French-speaking countries and takes place in two stages over a period of two years. The first phase, organized on a national scale, allows one winner to be selected from each participating country. The second phase, the continental final, brings these winners together for a competition highlighting their intellectual and literary skills. The winner is chosen based on several criteria, including intelligence, literary culture, charisma, expressive skills, and commitment to reading and literature. Previous winners have been Soro Yélé Aïcha (Côte d’Ivoire), the first winner in Cotonou in 2019, followed by Bitibaly Zerbo Rose (Burkina Faso), who was awarded in 2021 in Cotonou, and Caroline Fousséna Sagui (Benin), who won it in 2023 in Abidjan.
The 2025 edition had eight finalists in Akomian Kimou Marie Laurette (Côte d’Ivoire), Issongui Destinée-Uelle-Joséla (Congo Brazzaville), Lekeufack Kamaha Lorena Nolwen (Cameroon), Mamy Kolié (Guinée Conakry), Sokhna Aminata Fall (Senegal), Kohougbla Houénafa Salomé (Benin), Akakpo Cynthia (Togo), Kaboré Dayang Ne Wend Lydia Clémence (Burkina Faso), and Sing-Nonemé Berzaka Zippora (Chad).
The winner, Cameroonian Lekeufack Kamaha Lorena Nolwen, was selected at a competition in four different challenges: a brief oral biography, an essay, a quiz, and a presentation on a novel manuscript in Cotonou, Benin, on Saturday. The first-year journalism student at the University Institute of the Gulf of Guinea in Douala was elected Miss Littérature Cameroon on April 5th in Yaoundé. At just 19 years old, the music and cinema enthusiast particularly appreciates Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as well as the Cameroonians Léonora Miano and Djaïli Amadou Amal. She was particularly impressed by Miano’s L’autre langue des femmes, published by Grasset in 2023.
She receives a publishing contract worth two million CFA francs.
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