Curious, committed to her time, optimistic despite everything and with more than 30 books behind her, the Ivorian writer Veronique Tadjo (Paris, 70 years old), winner this year of the prestigious Ahmadou Kourouma literary prize for her novel Je remercie la nuit (I give thanks to the night, Mémoire d’Encrier, 2024), moves with ease between different worlds without losing his smile. From English to French, from England to the Ivory Coast, from France to the United States, from the novel to poetry, from words to illustration. Two of his great concerns, linked to each other, pierce his latest works like knives: the environmental crisis and the desires of the younger generations. “These are much more practical youth, they are based on facts, we have told them so many stories that they are fed up with politicians who make promises in elections and then ignore them,” he explains in an interview with this newspaper at the end of October in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, where he participated in the Periplo International Travel and Adventure Literature Festival.
Ask. He managed to combine literature on difficult and current topics, such as Ebola, the Rwandan genocide and the crisis in Ivory Coast, with literature for children and young people. Where does your interest in writing for young people come from?
Answer. I come from two different traditions. My mother, who was French, read me many books and stories. Above all, I remember the impact it had on my imagination. The Little Princethat moment when the fox asked for a sheep to be painted. I was seduced by that idea, by the fact of drawing. Then, in Ivory Coast, where I grew up, I was surrounded by oral literature. Until the 1980s, children’s books in Africa came from Europe. Then, a publisher proposed that I adapt oral literature for African urban youth, give it meaning, rethink it, pay homage to it and pass it on to the new generations, so that they don’t lose that connection.
Q. In his novel In the company of men (Bad Company Books, 2024) brings to light the link between the deadly 2014 Ebola epidemic and human destruction of forests. Concern for the environmental crisis is very present in his work.
R. Concern for the environment has always been in my life. I grew up in Abidjan, but I had a great connection with the countryside, with my father’s people. The management of the municipality was not up to par, there was a lot of negligence with the garbage, with the noise, with everything. Nobody is interested in taking care of coexistence, even in Africa the possibility of enjoying the countryside is dying. We all live on this planet, it is something that concerns us globally, that transcends national borders. That waste that travels around the world to end up in Africa, those old cars, the second-hand markets… Abidjan is a hellish traffic jam, with all that air pollution.
We must understand that everything is connected, conflicts, wars and the health of the planet. If you start to separate it, conflicts on one side, diseases on the other and the environment on the other, you don’t understand anything. When you understand the connection it’s scary. A holistic approach to these issues is needed.
Q. In I remember the night It focuses on young people and their desires, their ability to move forward in the midst of chaos. Today, those young people, who we call Generation Z, take to the streets in Morocco, Madagascar, Nepal, Peru, Cameroon or Tanzania to confront the authorities for a better life. Do you believe in its transformative power?
R. Obviously. It is the generation that can change things, it has a great responsibility on its shoulders, in politics, in the economy, in the environment. But we don’t give it the space it deserves. Sometimes we say they don’t read, but they do. It happens that they read and write differently, for our generation it is difficult to understand, but it is a revolution. There is influencers of literature, with thousands of followers, reading clubs.
Q. Sometimes they are also accused of disinterest in politics, but in recent years they have demonstrated the opposite.
R. Naturally they are interested in politics, understood as a way of managing society. The health, education and employment they demand are also political. I admire them very much. It doesn’t mean they will make it, the struggle is very difficult, but I admire them in their desire to have a better life.
They are much more practical young people, they rely on facts, we have told them so many stories that they are fed up with politicians who make promises at elections and then ignore them. What they are bored of is party politics, where they always hear the same thing and then there is nothing. It is happening all over the world, on US campuses and on the streets of France, not just in the Global South.
Q. Perhaps one of the reasons for the intergenerational misunderstanding is that these young people have been confronted with a world much harsher, more complex, in turmoil and conflict than that faced by the previous generation and are looking for answers and strategies of their own. What do you think?
R. I belong to a generation that has been extremely lucky. We came after the war and had a nice period of peace, but it’s actually something cyclical. We thought everything was perfect and relaxed. But I don’t completely lose hope, there are people who fight, who fight and we will not fall into a totally intolerable world. It makes me want to be pessimistic, but I don’t allow myself to.
Q. One of these fights is against climate change, led by young people. Are we in time to save the planet?
R. We have no choice. The problem is that until we figure out how to do this, many people will suffer. We need to be much more supportive of environmental refugees, for example. Environmental management is political and politicians don’t like making decisions that can create problems, they don’t want to make certain sacrifices, especially in the West where we are used to having a certain comfort. It is clear that we do not want to start living much more soberly. A politician who wants to be re-elected or a party who wants to stay in power, it is impossible for them to propose solutions that their electorate does not like.
Many immigrants have contributed positively to the economy of Western countries, such as England, France or Spain. Public health, for example, wouldn’t work without them and they pay taxes too.
Veronique Tadjo, Ivorian writer
Q. The two protagonists of I remember the night They are forced to emigrate. In Europe, however, this topic is perceived much more as an object of political discussion and is at the basis of the rise of the far right in many countries. Are you worried about this vision?
R. Migration is a very important issue, even in Africa. In Europe it is a question of management. When they need cheap labor, they are very happy to have those migrants working in industry or agriculture. Europe calls them. Now they say they are overwhelmed and can’t find a way to control it. Many immigrants have contributed positively to the economy of Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, France or Spain. Public health, for example, wouldn’t work without them and they pay taxes too. The British government will look for nurses in Ghana, Nigeria or South Africa, in places where they are needed. There is a lot of hypocrisy.
Q. They are necessary but they scare us. We talk about the Great Replacement or “invasion”, so where does this fear come from?
R. Of political interest. For populism it is positive that there is a frightened population because it will look for its savior. But it’s a manufactured fear. They hang fake news and everything mixes to generate negative reactions. It’s not an easy problem, but it can’t be managed with fear.
Q. Africa is going through a particularly turbulent period, with popular uprisings and coups that elevate the military to power promising sovereignty and pan-Africanism. However, the great powers continue to perceive the continent as their private mine from which to extract the resources they need. Do you think things have changed since the colonial period?
R. The looting continues, whether by the United States, Russia or China, even France, which appears to have been evacuated. What worries me is the quality of our leaders, we need them to negotiate for us, for our good. Will they know what to do so that Africa finally gets some of its enormous resources and those riches are redistributed? If once again some elites negotiate with these allies and do not distribute anything, we will return to the same thing.
I am concerned about the quality of our leaders, we need them to negotiate for us, for our good. Will they know what to do so that Africa finally gets some of its enormous resources and those riches are redistributed?
Veronique Tadjo, Ivorian writer
Q. And is the military, as in the case of the Sahel, the answer?
R. We are faced with the failure of the intellectual and political elites. When the democratic system collapses because people have been pushed into the mud by lack of possibilities and opportunities, what remains is the seizure of power by force. When a coup is celebrated, it is an instinctive reflex against the fall of a tyrant or a kleptomaniac elite who has plundered the country. But this is the first reaction, then the military regime, to maintain itself, becomes increasingly authoritarian. This worries me, there has been a real contagion in the region and they have new friends willing to help them. They came saying they would solve the problem of terrorism, but they didn’t succeed. The fault lies with the elites who did not want to guarantee the development of their countries.
