Prix Littéraire Fetkann! Maryse Condé 2024 winners announced

Prix littéraire Fetkann! Maryse Condé 2024 winners were announced on Saturday, November 30, 2024.

The Prix littéraire Fetkann Maryse Condé rewards the works, collections, research works or essays that promote the work of memory of the countries of the global South and all that goes in the direction of the promotion of human dignity in general. It is a creation of the French organisation CIFORDOM. The prize is open to all regardless of their origin, age, and nationality and awards Memory, poetry, research, and fiction. Some previous winners have been Christiane Taubira, Marie-Andrée Ciprut, Gary Vitor, Faye Gaël, Achille Mbembe, Maryse Condé, Faïza Guène, Malcom Ferdinand, Nassuf Djailani, Ilyasah Shabazz, AG Ford, and Pap Ndiaye. Emmelie Prophete, Lussunzi Vita Mbala, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Jean D’Amerique, Elizabeth Colomba and Aurélie Levy won in 2021.

The 2024 shortlist was revealed on October 28 before the winners were made public on November 30. The following writers of African descent are among the winners;

Memoir

• Le convoi, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, Flammarion 2024 (Paris)

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse is a French-Rwandan writer. She has published the fictions Consolée and Tous tes enfants disparus. With Le transporteur, she tells her story, that of a teenager who escaped the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994 by leaving Rwanda thanks to a humanitarian convoy. Culbuter le malheur, a collection of poetry, is her latest work.

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse said, “particularly touched to receive Prix littéraire Fetkann! Maryse Condé in this year when the great Lady left us. I began writing Le convoi weighted with the first sentences of La vie sans fard, like a warning from an elder, this is what must be avoided, avoided, thwarted: “Why must every attempt to tell one’s story end in a jumble of half-truths? Why must autobiographies or memoirs too often become fantasy edifices from which the expression of the simple truth fades, then disappears?” Thanks to the members of the jury.”

Research Prize

• La vie des esclaves en prison, Bruno Maillard, Plon 2024 (Paris)

Bruno Maillard teaches at the University of Paris-Est Créteil and Paris Diderot, and is a member of the scientific council of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery. He is also an associate researcher at the Research Center on Indian Ocean Societies of the University – CRSOl of La Réunion and a member of the scientific committee of the Grand Séminaire d’Histoire des Outre-Mer – GSHOM. His research focuses on the modes of coercive supervision and the judicial, domestic and public treatment of slaves and indentured workers as well as on the changes in “plantation” structures.

Poetry

• Exodus, Journal de bord d’une atypique, Laëtitia Juraver, Nèg Mawon 2024 (Guadeloupe)

Laëtitia Juraver is originally from Martinico-Guadeloupe and is a communicator by profession. Inveterate curious; she has been passionate about reading and writing since she was very young. Through this first collection of poetry, with a surprising narrative style, she reveals a rich and authentic pen, full of emotion. Guaranteed escape.

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