Antoinette Tidjani Alou

Antoinette Tidjani Alou was born in Jamaica and her secondary education took place at Convent of Mercy Academy 'Aplaha' in Kingston.^[1] She studied at the University of the West Indies in Kingston where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. She continued her studies and was awarded a doctorate at the University Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3.^[2] She defended her thesis in 1991 on the dramatic works of Paul Claudel.^[3]

Tidjani Alou began teaching French and comparative literature at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey in 1994.^[2] She is a lecturer in Comparative Literature and in 2016 was appointed Coordinator of the Arts and Culture Department.^[4] Her research focuses on the constructions of Sahelian identity in written and oral literature, as well as the political constructions of identity.^[2] She is also an expert on depictions of the mytho-historical figure of Sarraounia.^[5][6]

In 2006, she was appointed president of the International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA), a position she held for eight years.^[7][2] She has worked on the Women Writing Africa Project and is a member of the research group Literature, Gender and Development: Nigerien Visions and Perspectives.^[8][9]

Between her childhood in Jamaica, her university education in France, and her professional life in Niger, Tidjani Alou has adapted to different cultures.^[10] She published her first novel, On m'appelle Nina in 2016 with Présence Africaine. This autofiction retraces the journey of a woman, Vilhelminma, who leaves Jamaica to settle for love in Niger.^[11] The character finds herself confronted with a society that refuses to open up to her, considers her as a foreigner - a “white black”.^[12] She also deals with the variations of pain, trauma and bereavement, as the character has to deal with the death of her 16-year-old child.^[13] It drew comparisons with the works of Maryse Conde.^[14]

The following year, she published Tina shot me between the eyes and other stories, a collection of poems and a memoir, with the Senegalese publisher Amalion.^[15] In it she explores how the self is shaped and transformed by our relationships.^[10] She is also a freelance translator and screenwriter. She collaborated with the Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Marie Teno in 2010 to write for the film Toutes voiles dehors.^[16]