Recently updated on October 24th, 2022 at 02:37 pm
“Reste Avec Moi” by Ayobami Adebayo has been awarded the Prix Les Afriques 2020.
The winning novel was first published in English under the title “Stay With Me” before being translated into French by Josette Chicheportiche and published by Charleston Editions in 2019.
Prix Les Afriques is awarded annually to an African or writer of African descent who has written fiction highlighting a human, societal, ideological, political, cultural, economic, or historical issue related to Africa or its diaspora. The award, founded by literary advocacy organisation La Cene Littéraire in 2015, aims at giving greater exposure to African authors and authors of African descent. It has been won previously by Elnathan John (2019), Kei Miller (2018), Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (2017), and Hemley Boum (2016).
The Prix Les Afriques 2020 edition had a longlist of 28 books and the shortlist had 5 books; Ayobami Adebayo’s Reste Avec Moi was announced the winner on November 27, 2020. The work plunges readers into the intimate universe of the two main characters, Akin and Yedidje. The story takes place in the eighties in Nigeria, a double political and social violence will put love in this relationship under severe test.
The Lagos-based writer was feted at an award ceremony hosted on Zoom and streamed on YouTube. The evening ceremony anchored by James Murua (English) and Estelle Baroung Hughes (French) included speeches from the team at La Cene Littéraire led by their president and founder Flore Agnès Nda Zoa as well as Fatou Ndiaye, Christelle Ngoulou, and Djimeli Raoul.
The jury president Ambroise Kom explained the rationale behind them choosing the book, which included the fact that they were looking for the best book before them disregarding the original language it was written in or the location of the writer.
The winner of the award Ayobami Adebayo also gave some remarks commenting on how excited that she was when she saw the first translation version and her delight at this first win in translation.
