When I heard Barroux, the illustrator of Alpha: Abidjan to Paris, talk at the American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Conference in July 2018, he explained why he wanted to bring the story of Alpha to life. He’d met a man who emigrated from Africa to France and was stunned by the trials, dangers, and horrors the man faced. He was also shocked by the realization that he, as a white man, had travelled the world all of his life and never once faced such hardships. Written by award-winning author Bessora and translated to English by Sarah Ardizzone, Alpha was supported by Amnesty International and Le Korsa, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving lives in Senegal. It is a heartbreaking look into the migrant crisis and an important and relevant graphic novel.
Alpha is a man trying to travel from Cote d’Ivoire to Paris to join his wife and son, who started their journey six months earlier. He believes his family is with his sister-in-law in Paris, but he hasn’t heard from them since they left and it’s a test of faith that he begins the painful processing of selling his cabinetmaking business to leave everything he knows for the unknown. Taking the legal route is not an option; the process of obtaining a visa seems like more of a technique to prevent migration than anything else. The requirements range from proof of employment or sponsorship to proof of accommodation to proof of health insurance, in addition to various administration fees that are impossible for most people, including Alpha, to pay. He comes to the conclusion that “Cote d’Ivoire loves France more than France loves Cote d’Ivoire,” and decides to try his luck through less official, and more dangerous, channels.
Thus begins Alpha’s journey north. He pays drivers to get him past various checkpoints, sometimes waiting hours in the car until bribed guards come on duty. He stays in lice-ridden camps with dirty beds. He meets other travelers along the way who hope to reunite with their families, or gain access to better health care, or turn their lives around in some way. Europe is a promise of a better life, but those who try to get there risk imprisonment, deportation, disease, and death. In a shocking comparison of different worlds, Alpha, desperate for money and stranded in Gao for eight months, becomes a people smuggler. He witnesses the contrast between his own situation and American and French tourists, “happy people touring around Africa on bicycles” who travel the world freely.
Another behind-the-scenes fact that Barroux shared was his choice of color palette. The artwork itself is very simple, with bold, rough lines and a childlike sense of impressionism. There are splashes of color here and there, but most panels are made up of grays and blacks that create a visual atmosphere to match Alpha’s bleak experience. The artist limited himself to a cheap set of markers that he bought specifically for Alpha, wanting to use the tools that a migrant with very little means would have access to.
In the same way that Fun Home, Maus, and Persepolis explore sexual oppression and religious persecution, Alpha is a tale that works to promote awareness and empathy, and to humanize an experience different from our own. While the subject matter (one character survives via prostitution) may be too complex or inappropriate for tweens and younger teens, I recommend this title to anyone wanting to diversify their adult collections or use graphic novels as an educational tool for older teens.
Alpha: Abidjan to Paris by Bessora Art by Barroux ISBN: 9781942658405 Bellevue Literary Press, 2018
This installment of Aya, by Marguerite Abouet, picks up where the last one left off. Secrets do in fact come out. The first secret that we readers are exposed to involves the fallout from Aya’s father’s mistress and secretary Jeanne having exposed the affair and left her (and Ignace’s) children at Ignace’s house. This has wide ramifications, and the first part of the book deals with the fallout of this revelation from the perspective of many of the principal characters.
Aya attempts to reason with Jeanne, and through this process hears more about how her father was duplicitous. Félicité, the young maid, reacts with fear. She supposes that with this revelation the family will split up, forcing her to move back to her village. Ignace tries to explain things to his wife, Fanta, before quickly leaving to take his and Jeanne’s children back to Jeanne. While he is gone, Aya talks with her mother and the family friends about the situation.
The second big secret unearthed is that Albert’s girlfriend is discovered. Discovered by Félicité as Innocent (Inno), the male hairstylist in town. As to be expected Félicité confides in Aya, and then Aya is largely at the center of the narrative of this story. She’s the one that everyone ultimately revolves around. Inno decides the homophobia of his home is too much and confides in Aya that he wants to move to Paris with Albert. Albert has to make a big decision, family or love?
Other than the two big secrets, this book mostly focuses on the exploits of various town peoples. It also features the Miss Yopugon pageant. This pageant brings all of the townsfolk together in short order, and serves as the unifying event of this volume of Aya’s life. If all of this sounds very soap operaish, that’s because it is! This is one of the narrative’s great attractions.
Clément Oubrerie’s art is another selling point. He excels in using character body language and posture to display the subtext of a scene. This combined with bright colors gives each character a distinct and recognizable personality. The scene when Félicité confesses to Aya that she saw Albert and Inno together is one that features this talent. Aya’s posture moves from demanding to comforting as Félicité starts at reserved until she breaks down and confesses the secret with tears and a plaintive wail. The only mark against his art is that it is likely that the red jacket that Inno wears in this volume is an anachronism. It appears to be a Michael Jackson red thriller jacket, when that video did not appear until 1983 and the story is set in 1980. That being said, the art taken as a whole is superb.
As before, this volume of Aya’s story is human centric and focuses primarily on young people. The series is set in the Ivory Coast in 1980; this is what sets it apart from most other “real life” type stories told in comic form. It deftly handles serious and humorous situations without veering into the maudlin. This makes it a worthy purchase for both Academic and public libraries. High school libraries should also consider it depending on individual circumstances.
Aya, vol. 3: The Secrets Come Out by Marguerite Abouet Art by Clement Oubrerie ISBN: 9781897299791 Drawn and Quarterly, 2009
Aya of Yop City by Marguerite Abouet is best described as a more realistic soap opera. Set in the Ivory Coast of the late 1970’s it deals with the families, loves, foibles, schemes, and eccentricities of a group of young people in Yop city (Yopougon) and its surrounding area. While place plays a role, this story is very much about the people.
The lives of all the characters in this story intersect on a regular basis. It depicts a closeness and mutuality that rings true. This interdependence is on display with what is perhaps the thrust of the first part of this volume, the quest of Adjoua’s family to find who is her baby’s father. Her father, Hyacinte, hatches a scheme to photograph all of the villagers so as to suss out who the baby’s other parent is. He succeeds when a photograph of Mamadou is brought to his attention. Watching Adjoua and Mamadou’s parents negotiate economic help (from Mamadou) for the newborn is a humorous experience (the reader feels embarrassed for Mamadou). After the father is found the baby still makes regular appearances, with Adjoua’s friends and families taking the time to help out with the child.
Aya is of course one of the main characters and, in this volume, perhaps the most virtuous. She is everywhere, helping one of her friends (Adjoua) with a new baby, giving pageant advice to her housekeeper (Félicité), and agreeing to teach her friend who is illiterate (Hervé) how to spell. She is even present for the cliffhanger at the end of the volume that makes the reader want to find out what happens next.
Through the course of the novel, all the characters interact in some way. It shows how interconnected they all are. The effect is to make Yop city feel like a real place where people are always crossing paths. Clément Oubrerie’s art adds to the effect. He uses shaky pencil-like lines with bright colors to give the characters a sense of life. His talent shines when highlighting the familial resemblance of Mamadou with Adjoua’s baby. There is no doubt in the reader’s or characters’ mind that they are related. It is not limited there, all of the characters pop and feel like people with idiosyncrasies and hopes and dreams.
Unfortunately most of the idiosyncrasies of the men involve them being disingenuous, conniving or unfaithful to others. Other than Hervé, who is portrayed as a rather simple person, all of the men are portrayed rather negatively. This doesn’t feel like it negates the “truth” of the story, though it is something to consider while evaluating it.
Given that it is a human centric story and that it focuses primarily on the lives of young people, Aya of Yop City is high school age appropriate. The story tackles very real subjects (teen pregnancy and relationships both romantic and familial) in a thoughtful and humorous way. In addition it depicts Africa and the Ivory Coast in a time and place (stability) that few stories, who make it over to the Western Hemisphere, do. This makes it an important comic and one that should be widely read.
Aya, vol. 2: Aya of Yop City by Marguerite Abouet Art by Clement Oubrerie ISBN: 9781897299418 Drawn and Quarterly, 2008
When I heard Barroux, the illustrator of Alpha: Abidjan to Paris, talk at the American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Conference in July 2018, he explained why he wanted to bring the story of Alpha to life. He’d met a man who emigrated from Africa to France and was stunned by the trials, dangers, and horrors the man faced. He was also shocked by the realization that he, as a white man, had travelled the world all of his life and never once faced such hardships. Written by award-winning author Bessora and translated to English by Sarah Ardizzone, Alpha was supported by Amnesty International and Le Korsa, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving lives in Senegal. It is a heartbreaking look into the migrant crisis and an important and relevant graphic novel.
