Aya: Life in Yop City

Aya #1-3

by Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie (Illustrator)

“Aya is an irresistible comedy, a couple of love stories and a tale for becoming African. It’s essential reading.” —Joann Sfar, cartoonist of The Rabbi’s Cat


Ivory Coast, 1978. It’s a golden time, and the nation, too—an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa—seems fueled by something wondrous. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet’s youth in Yop City. It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted nineteen-year-old Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It’s a wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City.

Clément Oubrerie’s warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet’s vibrant writing. This reworked edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in Abouet’s Yop City, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One. Drawn & Quarterly will release volumes four through six of the original French series (as yet unpublished in English) in Book Two. Aya is the winner of the Best First Album award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the Children’s Africana Book Award, and the Glyph Award; was nominated for the Quill Award, the YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels list, and the Eisner Award; and was included on “best of” lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Africa, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Ivory Coast, Graphic Novels Comics

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Marguerite Abouet was born in 1971 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in Western Africa. She grew up during a time of great prosperity in the Ivory Coast. At the age of twelve, she and her old brother went to stay with a great-uncle in Paris, where they further pursued their education. Years later, after becoming a novelist for young adults, Abouet was drawn to telling the story of the world she remembered from her youth. The result was the graphic novel Aya de Yopougon, published in North America as Aya, illustrated by Clemént Oubrerie, that recalls Abouet's Ivory Coast childhood in the 1970s, and tells the humorous, engaging stories of her friends and family as they navigate a happy and prosperous time in that country's history.

Reviews

[Zanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the introduction uncomfortably. Abidjan in the period when Aya's story is set is painted as a bright exception among African cities, and the reason given for its blossoming seems to be French influence. There's even a remark along the lines of "women were Western-influenced and emancipated". There's another section in the book about finding "the universal" in the novel's context, which is also uncomfortable. Supposedly Aya, by being about the every day lives of young middle class women who are worried about family infidelity and finding love but not about where their next meal is going to come from or whether the state they live in will collapse, works against stereotypes about Africa, but if the setting is presented as an exception, thanks to "Western" influence, then that only reinforces some of the most pernicious stereotypes "Westerners" have about exploited countries and people: that "Western" influence is good for exploited countries, that "universal" means "Western" or "just like us [Westerners]", that a story must be "universal" to be relevant and interesting...

But, with that said, actually I really enjoyed the book. While the supplementary material at the back of the book suggested it had been written for non-Ivoirians, and the interview with Marguerite Abouet suggests that it represents a world seen through nostalgia (both because she is writing about her childhood and because she is writing about a time remembered as a "golden age" (although it was unsustainable from the start, based on a quick cash-out rather than real development (if I can use such a loaded word), it certainly seems real and interesting, if you like soap opera, or, I guess, Nollywood (my experience of which is limited), or, well, gossip. I certainly had to keep turning the pages to see what was going to happen, sometimes feeling a little bit unsure as to whether the part of myself being nourished might be one, as DFW wrote, better left unfed.

But most of the time, the personal was excitingly political, the drawings were fun, and "Western influence" presented itself mainly in the form of a lousy liar pretending he was from Paris to get women to sleep with him... The book exudes love and respect for the place and people it is about, and certainly not for any discernable Western-ness about them. At least, that's how it seemed to me...

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aya can pretty much be summed up with the two-page interview with the author from the afterword. In it, the interviewer (who acknowledges their bias, after the fact) is insistent that Abouet admit that there's a political undercurrent to her work. It goes pretty much like this:

INTERVIEWER: Okay, so this is a cute book or whatever. But it's also AFRICA! So it's all about poverty and racism and oppression, right?

ABOUET: Well I dunno. I think it's mostly just a story.

I: Okay, but all the men cheat on all the women! So, gender inequality! Also probably AIDS! Because AFRICA!

A: Eh, maybe? But like, all the women win in the end. So not really.

I: Yeah, but like this is from a golden moment in Ivory Coast's past. So it's also about impending horror! AFRICA!

A: I kinda think that's racist. I actually think it's still a nice place to live.

I: Um ok.

And I get Abouet's point, but I also kind of think she's trying to have her cake and eat it too. Because Aya TOTALLY dangles a bunch of heavy shit in front of the audience -- violence, class struggle, gay rights, gender roles, capitalism, despotism, and domestic abuse -- and then plays the whole thing off like a sitcom. It is either A) an intentional mindfuck or B) borderline sociopathic.

And there's a section at the end that I think of as the "You Just Don't Get Us" section, where the Ivory Coast characters speak to audience directly about how the stuff that we Westerners think is fucked up is just not fucked up for them, because they have different values and oh, here's some recipes for chicken. (Seriously that is what it says.) ARE YOU JOKING ME, ABOUET?

I mean, on some level Abouet has to be basically aware of the audience that she's writing for, and that this book is going to fuck with us, so that when we ask her "Whuh-huh?" she can say "What? I just wanted to tell a story of my childhood and make it into a soap opera. In the middle of an impoverished Ivory Coast community in the 1970's. Is that something I should have cleared with you first?"

And like, I guess not, right? I'm trying to be open-minded, Abouet, but that doesn't mean I totally believe you either. And by the same token, I'm not going to act like I have any ground to stand on if I attempt to call bullshit.

The whole thing makes me tired and stressed out. So y'know, this:

Aya is an adorably-told soap opera about people in a small community in Ivory Coast in the 1970's. It also might be a totally fucked-up story about a lot of bigger, heavier things, but for some reason it just sort of chooses to make light of all of them because it knows better than me. This book is all about saying "Don't Judge" even as it goes about doing a hundred million things daring you to judge it.

I feel like it's fucking with me, kind of, or it's not. Either way, it's pretty and all, but I think I would rather play outside.

[Negativni · Rating 1 out of 5]

"To sam htjela pokazati u Ayi: Afriku bez ratova i gladi, Afriku koja istrajava usprkos svemu jer, kako mi kažemo, život ide dalje." - Marguerite Abouet

Ovaj citat krasi početak opisa ovog stripa, a na samim koricama je pisalo i nešto u stilu da ćemo u stripu upoznati Afriku kakvu nismo vidjeli do sada. To me je zainteresiralo.

Ipak, strip je samo obična teen sapunica sa papirnatim likovima, prepuna klišeja i sa pričom koja se mogla odigravati bilo gdje. Mislio sam da će Marguerite Abouet pružiti nekakav uvid i pokazati pravu Afriku iznutra jer je rođena u Abidjanu, u zapadnoj Africi. No, kako vidim u njezinoj biografiji, ona se već sa 12 godina odselila u Pariz i tek je mnogo godina kasnije dobila ideju za pisanje Aye, prema pričama svoje obitelji i sjećanjima iz djetinjstva. Nažalost tako strip i izgleda, kao prepričani tračevi o par djevojaka koje su odrastale u malom mjestu. Aya mi se nije svidjela ni kao laka teen komedija, jer mi za to nije bilo dovoljno humora - ili sam nešto propustio?

Uglavnom pročitao sam prvi dio i nisam mogao dalje. A ovo bi ocijenio kao "it was ok", ali [I]"did not like it".

Dakle, meni je to jedinica, no ovo je ok, lagano štivo, nepretenciozno i može se čitati, ja jednostavno nisam imao strpljenja za takvo što.

[Shankar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent graphic novel. 384 pages rendered painstakingly. The story by itself is long winded about the lives of a few families in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). The visuals bring to life the country beautifully and in a very ‘realistic ‘way.

It’s really a work of art. And a long read.

Recommended if you are into such genres. I got hold of it quite by chance.

[Skye Kilaen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite young adult soap opera comics. Girls sneaking out of the house to go dancing, boys drinking a little more than they should, parents at their wits’ end, so much drama! And poor Aya, all she wants to do is study and become a doctor, not get dragged into her friends’ misadventures. Abouet's childhood memories of the Ivory Coast in the 1970s were the inspiration, but she’s a strong storyteller who's built a fully realized community and characters out of those memories. Oubriere makes each of them just as distinctive as their personalities. I read both volumes of this series from the library, but then had to pick them up for our home collection.

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Totally not what I typically read - but it grew on me. At the end of the day, it was a delightfully fun read.

[Stacia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel a bit conflicted about this book. Loved the artwork. The storylines jump around a bit, focusing on a few families, especially the teens doing things like checking out someone cute, going out or sneaking out, dating, etc. It also showed heavier issues such as the pervasive misogyny, catcalling, teen pregnancy, adultery (& children from those relationships + marital strife), boys being preferred to girls, illiteracy, homophobia, & more. So while the book was supposed to be a "fun" look at a time/place/group based on the author's childhood, some of the actual context doesn't come across as so rosy in hindsight, imo; I think there's even a gap of what that opinion would have been in 2007 when the book was originally published vs. now in 2021. There is a glossary, as well as some additional text that gives some historical context, social & cultural information, recipes, fabrics, etc.

While a graphic novel mostly centered on teens would not be my normal reading, I found this to be both educational & worthwhile.

P.S. In the section of additional info in the back of the book, there is a section about mental health &, essentially, it feels like the cultural norm was to shun anything like therapy, psy-anything, & might even be offensive in the manner in which it is explained, imo. Kind of like how that old boomer philosophy of pull yourselves up by the bootstraps & hide your emotions/"man up"/etc. chafes a bit in today's world. Fyi.

[Bine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich liebe die Geschichte. Leichtfüßig, realistisch, witzig. Toll!

[Aneesa S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 stars for the art, but man, this was an upsetting volume. The sitcom-style storytelling gives the reader very clear points where the characters have done or said something worthy of a laugh track—which is a style I can appreciate for its drama and kitsch, except...none of those points are funny. The butt of the joke is misogyny, again and again and again. Almost every single male character in Aya’s world is a walking, catcall-spewing, lie-living, actual trash can. And many of the female characters shrug the men’s vile behavior off because that’s just how it is, that’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it will always be. Abouet even writes about how the people of the Ivory Coast deal with the moral depravity and emotional turmoil around them (caused by the men, let’s be frank):

“As far as kids go, well, they simply deal with it. With so many neighbors and family members going through similar situations, they get used to these soap operas. It’s all part of daily life.
...
In Africa, children are the ones who are most resilient in these situations.”

Yes, I’m sure every single one of those children turned out just fine with a very healthy understanding of a supportive adult relationship.

Look, I get that this takes place in 1970s Ivory Coast. The world was not exactly kind to women at the time, and it is not a writing flaw to show reality. And I get that this is supposed to reflect Abouet’s memories of childhood mischief, so I will allow some views through rose-tinted glasses. But I am seriously rubbed the wrong way by the extremely lighthearted tone used to share a not-so-lighthearted depiction of her home country, with only a handful of panels in a 350-page volume suggesting even a modicum of the seriousness or gravity that many of the situations portrayed call for.

On top of all of this: much like a bad sitcom, I found the stories to be choppy, distracted, and altogether pretty uninteresting, with the exception of a couple subplots I was genuinely invested in. Needless to say, I will not be reading the second volume of Aya’s story.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hillarious, but also heavily focused on infidelity.

[Stef · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is like soap opera with dramatic conflic from adultery and family problem. But it is fun to follow. I love the girls friendship, like how they supporting each others even their purpose in life very different. And from this story i knew some new information about ivory coast and how the working class ppl life in Africa.

[Nađa Pavlica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mogu li subalterni da govore, evo možda ovako da <3

[John Pistelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This French series of graphic novels by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie is a nostalgic and pleasant reflection on the problems of youth and age during the middle-class boom of the 1970s in the writer's native country, Côte d’Ivoire. While the bookish and ambitious nineteen-year-old Aya is our title character and narrator—and likely the bookish and ambitious Abouet's surrogate—the story is an ensemble piece, wending its way deftly through a number of believably realized characters, from the alienated rich-kid Moussa and the sweet teen mother Adjoua to the men and women of the older generation.

Abouet, a French citizen since the age of 12, has stated her intention to display a side of African life the Western media rarely portrays: middle-class modernity. Aya largely celebrates this modernity, which it identifies with the emancipation of women and sexual minorities; the graphic novel's tone, while consistently light-hearted and comic, addresses serious social issues, such as divorce, bigamy, homophobia, and domestic violence, even as it portrays the difficulty of the older generation's adjustment to their children's new freedoms under an urban and bourgeois regime. Abouet is not merely dismissive of the traditional culture of the Ivory Coast, but she tends to relegate it to the aesthetic realm—e.g., this book concludes with pages of recipes and guides to Ivoirian traditional clothing and childcare. As a book apparently intended for younger Western readers, it communicates its cosmopolitan message very well, though an older reader might wish to see a greater acknowledgement of modernity's price.

As for Oubrerie's art, it is beautiful and immersive: his characters are more gestural or cartoonish even as they move through richly detailed backgrounds that make one feel the atmosphere of Abidjan quite persuasively; the coloring is especially exquisite, its palette going from bright yellows and pinks to the blue-black of night. The visual storytelling uses an understated six-panel grid, punctuated with tone- and scene-setting splashes and a few formalist flourishes. The lettering, however, might have been neater, given the book's overall production quality. Also, I respect Oubrerie's stylistic decision not to rule the panel borders, but some of them are so sloppy as to be an eyesore.

Overall, a wonderful graphic novel—even if I am not quite its target audience!

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

161116: i wanted to read this graphic from an entirely different source: Côte d'Ivoire. though in fact it is also set in France, is translated from French, is illustrated for French readers. and the truth is, it is very French! that is: slice of life, ordinary people, ordinary world, recognizable familial and romantic travails. no superheroes, no fantastic, no existential weirdness, no horror. soap opera in some sense. but it addresses certain events from an African perspective...

should one really expect different stories? Africans are as complex, human, conflicted, good and bad, as anyone anywhere. this is something to remember. i read a lot of translations, a lot of other cultures, but i fear some people do not- so have a tendency to stereotypical, racist, ethnocentric, characterizations of place and peoples. there is some difference, are some culture clashes, but also great satire and great comedy...

i have not read this series before, but characters are immediately clear, illustration simple and representative. it is set in a recent time when this country was wealthy, was becoming modernized, but still socially organized as before. there are students, professionals, mothers, lovers, villages in everything, usual homophobia, gigolo behaviour. there are headmen, elders, witchcraft, corruption, and evangelicals- but also the kindness and family expectations when a French character's mother is ill, that reflects kinship duty, seems entirely required by an African character...

i know an Ethiopian man who tells me it was crushing when Michael Jackson died- how he was such a big deal in his youth for all Africans, but it still took a few pages to realize the character Innocente was wearing that broad-shouldered red leather jacket, that forehead curl of hair, of the singer in that era... but this is only one way to be aware of international culture... i did enjoy this in storytelling more than art, but it is in exactly the right medium, easy to read, easy to follow, easy to identify with Aya and her friends...

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the setting for this one-Ivory Coast in the 70s. I enjoy reading about other countries and cultures, and this was a neat format for it.

The art was good, but the story was a little too much of a soap opera for me, with not very many characters I liked. I'm undecided if I'll read the next volume.

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entre la comedia de costumbres y la de enredo, Abouet y Oubrerie cuentan historias de varias familias alrededor de Aya, una joven que desea estudiar medicina. El despertar sexual y los roles de género son los principales motores de unas historias llenas de color con un ligero toque humorístico que atenúa lo dramático de ciertas vivencias dominadas por el engaño y la manipulación.

[Aine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun graphic novel following the lives and loves of three young women in Cote D'Ivoire. Loved this soap-opera-like look at family life in 1980s Africa. Aya, in particular, is a great character and could read more and more about her life...

[alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

you think you don't like graphic novels. You don't read comic books.
Put down that issue of New Yorker and pick up this.
you're welcome.

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked this graphic novel! the stories were entertaining and i loved the art style.

content warnings: abuse (physical, verbal), harassment (cat calling)

[Jihelah Greenwald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read following the life of teen girls in the neighborhood they call Yop City. Set in the 80s during economic growth and cultural shift in the Ivory Coast, the girls navigate family expectations, men, becoming women and their own ambition. The bright illustrations bring to life the drama in their lives.

[Kiara Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The drama. The drawing. Spectacular

[Brown Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

très chouette. Hâte de lire les suivants.

[Nore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read Love in Yop City before (I never reviewed it, so I'll be re-reading it for that) and my thoughts haven't really changed - as interesting as I find it, as much as I enjoy reading about other cultures and appreciate the communal spirit evident in Abouet's book, Yop City in the late 1970s is not somewhere I'd want to live as a woman.

Controlling, abusive husbands who run around on their wives, verbal abuse everywhere, physical abuse between friends, homophobia - alright, I'm white. I understand that. I also understand that Abouet was writing this as a sort of soap opera based on her experiences. But dang, these are not experiences I would ever want to have myself firsthand! There's plenty of humor to be found in these pages, but plenty I personally find upsetting.

Still... This series is cute, in a way. I enjoy the art, and it's refreshing to read stories about Africa that don't focus on horrible tragedies.

[Colona Public Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kinda a soap opera type book, they dangle some issues in front of you that are just issues and characters just seem to deal with them and not make a big fuss, which I felt was annoying. The artwork I originally thought was sloppy but as I continued the story started to find it charming. Definitely read the beginning pages because they have some important information about the place/time period and a handy family tree for characters that I found referencing a lot. I didn't like any characters besides Aya, who is intelligent and strong female character in this male dominated society.
I love the ending for all the characters, especially seeing Aya at the university studying to become a doctor. ~Ashley

[Joël · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr schöne Graphic Novel, die das Leben von Jugendlichen in Yop-City (Elfenbeinküste) in den späten 1970ern erzählt. Ich könnte jetzt viel darüber erzählen, was das Buch alles (zum Glück!) nicht macht, aber viel wichtiger ist eigentlich, dass es eine gute Geschichte mit schönen Bildern und vielschichtigen Charakteren erzählt. (Das bessere Review: hier.)

[freckledbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a stiff dose of feminism, Aya will definitely give it to you. You may even pick up an extra dosage of wisdom as she does not hold back from serving it up to those who surround her.

The author entertains the reader in this graphic novel series by giving them a glance into the Ivory Coast culture.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was nice. I've never read anything before that takes place in the Ivory Coast. (Or just "in Ivory Coast?")

The art is messy but I really really liked it. I wonder why I like this, but not, say, the art in The Dark Knight Returns. Maybe because this was more colorful?

[Martha Grover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great artwork and wonderful characters. Plus, plot twists galore and lots of colloquial language.

[Loz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. Drama galore. Temporal and locational specificity with amazing universalization. Even queer! Great art and damn did I Identify with Aya!

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The art style paired with a slice of life narrative didn't work for me.