Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry wins Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire 2022.

Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry’s Il n’y a pas d’arc-en-ciel au Paradis was declared the winner of Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire 2022 in Paris, France on Saturday, March 18, 2022.

Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire is a literary prize presented every year by the Association of French Language Writers (ADELF) for a French original text from Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the winners of the prize first won by Aké Loba in 1961 have been Bernard Dadié, Ahmadou Kourouma, Lamine Diakhate, Aminata Sow Fall, Mariama Bâ, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Alain Mabanckou, Patrice Nganang, Sami Tchak, Léonora Miano, Hemley Boum, Jean Pliya, Sory Camara, and Véronique Tadjo.

For 2022, the jury for the award was chaired by Doctor Pierre Bau alongside publisher Esckil Agbo, writer Khalil Diallo, bookstore owner Sarah Gastel, and journalist Gladys Marivat. Their finalists from the two regions were;

Works published in Africa

• La couleur de l’écrivain, Sami Tchak (Éditions Continents)
• Le sandwich de Britney Spears, Kangni Alem Écrivain (Éditions Continents)
• Le chien de ta mère, Pierre Amrouche (Éditions Continents)

Works published in Europe

• Il n’y a pas d’arc-en-ciel au paradis, Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry (Éditions Hélice Hélas)
• Cocoaïans, Armand Gauz (Éditions de L’Arche)
• Ainsi pleurent nos hommes, Dominique Celis (Éditions Philippe Rey)
• Consolée, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse (Editions Autrement)
• La dissociation, Nadia Yala Kisukidi (Editions du Seuil)

The award went to Il n’y a pas d’arc-en-ciel au paradis, Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry (Éditions Hélice Hélas) at a ceremony at the Salon Africain de Paris on Saturday. In Il n’y a pas d’arc-en-ciel au paradis (There’s No Rainbow in Heaven) Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry confronts us with the horrors of the eastern slave trade whose survivors still regularly burst the news. He paints a picture of nearly two centuries of deprivation of liberty and human exploitation in the region of present-day Chad.

This is not the first win for the book with the Prix Hors Concours 2022 going to the Chad-born Swiss-based writer.