Photo : Alain Jules Menye, CC BY-SA 4.0
Calixthe Beyala
A leading feminist voice in francophone literature
Born in 1961
Who are they?
A novelist born in Douala in 1961, who grew up in New-Bell, a working-class district of the city. She left Cameroon as a teenager and writes from France.
What made them famous
Her novels centre on African women facing poverty, exile and domination, in a raw style that left its mark on francophone literature. In 1996 she received the Académie française’s Grand Prix du roman for "Les Honneurs perdus".
Key facts
- In 1998 she founded Collectif Égalité, campaigning for the representation of Black people in French media and culture.
- Her work has been translated into many languages.
- Her career has been marked by plagiarism accusations: in 1996 a French court ruled that "Le Petit Prince de Belleville" partially infringed a novel by Howard Buten.