Initiated by JC Lattès, RFI and the Cité internationale des arts, "Voix d'Afriques" is a literary prize designed to bring out young French-speaking authors from the African continent. It supports and highlights new African literary voices, novels that reflect the situation of a country.
This year, the prize was awarded to Fann Attiki from the Republic of Congo for his book Cave 72. Since September 1st, 2021, he is at Cité internationale des arts for a two-month residency. A big event of reading with the recipient Fann Attiki is organised at the Maison de la Poésie in Paris on September 22nd, 2021.
Three young friends, Verdass, Ferdinand and Didi, meet every day at the Cave 72, a bar, an ideal refuge where they forget their daily lives governed by the absurd: administrative hassles, political decisions, laws, the reasons for wars, love and divorces, the apparent passivity of men in the face of dictatorship... They discuss, drink, recite poems and return home without having hurt anyone. They are innocent of everything. And that is why a man, secretary of the National Security Council, will make them the designated culprits of a plot against the State and the President, the providential guide of the nation. They become heroes in spite of themselves, forced to defend themselves, to oppose the injustice of their conviction, the heroes of their own lives and the heroes of a people who have become accustomed to tolerating oppression and who suddenly rise up, defy the army, demand the release of the three young people and the reopening of the Cave 72, which has become the emblem of the resistance.
Fann Attiki (Republic of Congo) is the recipient of the second edition of the "Voix d'Afriques" prize initiated by Editions Lattès, RFI and the Cité internationale des arts.