Library Weekly

On 15 November 1999, Ivorian writer, screenwriter, filmmaker and  teacher, Jean-Marie Adé Adiaffi died at the age of 58 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.  In 1981 he was awarded the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire for his novel  "La carte d'identité" (The identity card, 1980).

Jean-Marie Adiaffi was born on 1 January 1941 at Bettie in the region of Abengourou.  Having lost his parents at an early age he was raised by his maternal uncle. He completed his primary education at the village, his secondary school in Bingerville, then emigrated to France where he graduated. Adiaffi enrolled at  the IDHEC (the "Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies) and then did an internship at the Ocora (Office de Coopération Radiophonique). 

He then returned to Abidjan to work for RTI, the state broadcaster of the Ivory Coast. Disillusioned about his work, he returned to France in 1966 to prepare a Master of Philosophy at the Sorbonne. Having obtained his diploma (CAPES), he moved to the Ivory Coast to teach philosophy in various schools and colleges including the Lycée classique d'Abidjan.

Adiaffi began his literary career in 1969 with the publication of Yale Sonan, a poetry collection. After more than a decade of silence, he resumed his literary production in 1980 by publishing "D’éclairs et de foudres" (lightning and thunder), yet another collection of poems. His oeuvre further conists of several novels and an essay. 

Jean-Marie Adiaffi is co-founder of the "Association des écrivains de Côte d’Ivoire" (the  Ivorian Writers' Association).

(Source: Wikipedia, accessed on 2 November 2023)

Selected publications

L'esthétique littéraire de Jean-Marie Adiaffi : essai / Lamoussa Tiaho. - Ouagadougou : Presses Universitaires, [2020]

L'imaginaire dans l'esthétique romanesque de Jean-Marie Adiaffi : une lecture de La carte d'identité / Amadou Ouédraogo. - Paris : L'Harmattan, cop. 2015

Les naufragés de l'intelligence : je vous ferai don de mon cercueil à Ébrô, pays des morts : roman n'zassa / Jean-Marie Adé Adiaffi. - Abidjan : CEDA, cop. 2000

Silence, on développe : roman : la piste de la libération Assanou Atin : axe Roman II / Jean-Marie Adé Adiaffi. - Cotonou [etc.] : Les Éditions du Flamboyant [etc.], cop. 1992

Jean-Marie Adiaffi : romancier et poète ivoirien / Madeleine Borgomano.
In: Québec français, no. 64 (1986), pages 20–22.
https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/qf/1986-n64-qf1219131/45383ac.pdf

D'eclairs et de foudres : chant de braise pour une liberté en flammes / Jean-Marie Adé Adiaffi. - Abidjan : CEDA, 1980

La carte d'identité : roman / Jean-Marie Adé Adiaffi. - [Abidjan] : CEDA, 1980

La carte d'identité / The identity card by Jean-Marie Adiaffi