‘Meet the Writer: Léonora Miano’

Léonora Miano is the central literary guest at the Afropolitan Festival, where this year’s theme is Afrofuturism. She is considered one of the leading literary voices and has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. Miano was born and raised in Cameroon, lived in France for more than 20 years, and now lives in Togo. She writes from her dual perspective of racialisation and gender, challenging the certainties of Western, feminist thinking. 

Her books address extremely pressing themes. The novel Rouge impératrice (2019), which is set in 2124  is confrontational. Europe has been devastated by ecological disasters and the African continent is home to the last hated heirs of the colonies. In Stardust (2022), she describes how, as a 23-year-old mother, she was forced to stay in a reintegration centre when she arrived in France.

Safia Kessas engages with this keen writer on the versatility and pertinent importance of her oeuvre.